MT. RAINIER trial by fire

AT 6000 FT THIS IS WHAT MT. RAINIER looked like on Saturday. In an attempt to get ready for our Summit trip at the end of this month, we decided to try and climb the first part of the mountain to Camp Muir which stands at 10,080 ft. The weather was beautiful and there were many hikers climbing to Camp Muir as well. We met some really nice people along the way.

SARA all geared up and ready to put some good training to use.

MIKE all ready to climb one of his favorite mountains.

WE ARE HALF WAY at this point and are very happy to stop and rest and snack a bit. The weather did fluctuate a bit, but for the most part, we were warm enough in our running tights and light undershirt. During rests we ended up pulling on a warm fleece. We really couldn't have asked for better weather to climb during this time of the year.

WE MADE IT TO CAMP MUIR. Even at 10,080 ft we are still smiling. We were happy to finally stop and eat lunch, even though it was almost 3:00pm. It got a little cold and so we had to pull out our warmer gear. It's a good thing we packed warmer clothes.

MIKE glasading down the mountain

THIS IS WHERE OUR STORY GETS RATHER INTERESTING. The first 30 minutes of heading down the mountain were a blast. The sun was shining and we were able to slide down parts of the snowfields. It's called glasading and it is so much fun. Just when we thought going down the mountain was going to be filled with lots of glasading, giving our feet a rest, we walked right into the cloud cover. Our visibility was about 15 ft and the red flags that marked the trail going up were nowhere to be found. The trail was marked pretty well, but there was a section that lacked these red flags of comfort and guidance. Luckily for us, we brought a GPS and used that as our guide to find our way down the mountain. It really does pay to be prepared. We finally did make it down the mountain and after 10 hours of hiking, we were ready to go home and hug our kids. We were so thankful to have grandparents watch our kids.

Click here to see some more PICTURES from our adventure.