MT. RAINIER summit

Mabye its the fact that we see it everyday (or that we finally went crazy), but for some reason, on Memorial Day Weekend, we decided to climb Mt. Rainier. We met up with a group of six like minded souls in Seattle and roped up for a three day early season climb. The weather was perfect and the mountain was still completely covered in snow. On our first day, we hiked 4.5 miles and almost 5,ooo vertical feet from Paradise to Camp Muir. With the sun reflecting off the snow, it made for one hot day. However, the views of Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood were excellent. On day 2, we had a crash course in climbing, how to use an ice ax, and why its important not to fall. At the end of our lesson, we packed up our tents and gear (Sara's pack was about 60 pounds) and climbed across the Cowlitz Glacier up to the Ingraham Ice flats at 11,200 feets. After checking for crevasses and securing a safe spot on the glacier, we spent the rest of the day digging in our high camp and preparing our gear for what would be a long, long day.

At 0200, with bright stars shimmering down, we roped up, turned on our Avalanche beacons, and started up the Ingraham direct route toward the crater rim. As we started up the glacier, it became clear to us that this was no day hike in the mountains. With sincerely steep grades and an endless maze of crevasses, we made sure that with every step our crampons stuck in the ice and our ice axes had a good grip. With every step up, it seemed to get colder, windier, and the air a little thinner. After six hours of up, we came over the lip of the crater and into the caldera. Nothing can describe how truly tired we were. After crossing the crater to sign the summit log, Mike sat down on a steam vent and took a little nap. With the summit firmly under our feet, we could begin the hard part of our journey: 9 miles straight down the mountain. As we walked out of the snow into the parking lot, Andrew, Peter, and Emma were there to meet us. Nothing was better than having our little family safely together again.