Mt. Rainier, despite it all....

I can’t believe I made it!

One day of training (being hurled down a slope hoping to god I paid
attention when they were giving the self arrest instructions) and 3 days
on the mountain.

We encountered 90 degree heat while hoofing it up to base camp with our 50 pound packs, followed by freezing temperatures and then a huge thunder storm, with lightning of course….step away from the gear honey!

Spent the first night with my 2 partners stuffed into supposedly a 3-man tent (would have liked to have seen an actual demo of that) with the howling winds causing the tent sides to slap me across the face all night. Night one, no sleep.

The morning brought a big snowstorm, followed by hail and finally just a simple old-fashioned downpour. Spent the day acclimatizing, eating gummy bears and trying to avoid lightning.

For the second night, I moved into the hut, rubbing my lucky rabbit’s foot that there was one spot left for me. Me, 11 others and a herd of furry little grey critters with twitching noses, enough said. Night two, no sleep.

Add to that the horror of dehydrated food and half frozen pop tarts, the lost toe nail, the blue bags, the sitting on my camelback spout and getting my butt soaked at 2 am on summit day. Hmmm, think that's it...oh except for the fact that I had to pp in front of the entire all-guys
team (headlamps down!..and I mean it!) ...ok, think that about covers it.

Oh, almost forgot. Add to it the near death experience of one of my tent-mates when he sheepishly informed me that he “may have accidentally” eaten my last peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We were all given two (2) sandwiches…when you were eating the third (3rd)...didn’t you do the math! I’m still mad about that, haven’t been able to let that one go yet.

This sandwich tragedy set-off drooling fantasies about scarfing down the all-day omelette special followed by dessert in a bowl, at Denny’s. Oh gawd.

So anyway, in summary, it was a fantastic trip!! Would do it all over again in a
heartbeat, minus the sandwich incident obviously. The summit was spectacular and this is what life is all about.

Now, back to work where everything seems so boring in comparison, although, having water magically come out of a tap instead of hauling it on my back, not eating my dinner out of a bag and having a toilet to sit on are not to be underestimated.

Images

View Mt. Rainier, despite it all.... Image Gallery - 1 Images