Summit of Mt. Rainier

Heading to the summit of Mt. Rainier

It was going to be a beautiful weekend and it started off on Friday May 21, 2010 having a BBQ at Britt's House in Moses Lake, WA,. We had all the essentials and gear ready for the quest of reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier. As we were loading the truck with gear, my best friend who was packed and ready for the climb, turned to me and Britt and said he was having a bad feeling about this one. With no pressure to put on our good buddy, we advised him that the Mt. will always be there and if he didn't feel right about it, it would be best if he stays behind (He reached the summit the summer before and this would have been his second time)... This kind of freaked me out because I was expecting one of my best friends to be there for me incase anything happened to me and vise versa. We trusted eachother like brothers, so this put a real damper on the journey. It was going to be my first time climbing Rainier, so there was nothing going to stop me because I put in the time and effort to train, although... The only experience I had previous to Rainier was Mt. Adams,... So for me this was a real test (I trained on Mt. Spokane several times and ran the LA Marathon previous to prepare me for this Mt.

With the experienced group of teamrussback I felt confident that this personal feat would get checked of my bucket list. The Trail leader Britt and I drove from Moses Lake to Camp Paradise. We met three other teamrussback members along the way in Tacoma, Wa... (Brooks, Tyler, and Tyler). When we finally got to paradise, it was snowing like crazy and were wondering if the weather was going to cooperate with us. We ended up sleeping in the parking lot (in the Truck) near the ranger station, where in the morning we registered and headed for Camp Muir...

May 22, 2010
From Paradise to Camp Muir was pretty easy, there were a couple of steep climbs but, nonetheless... We all were carring somewhat large packs. It ended up being a good workout which took about 3 1/2 hours... Once we got to Camp Muir, we where refreshed by the sun peeking its head in and out of the higher clouds once in a while. We were above the main cloud coverage so we have some great pics of a sea of clouds........The five of us met some pretty cool peeps hanging out and training for a summit climb from some kind of church group, there was probably 15 of them... Once they left, the Cabins seemed to open up... we laid out and changed our wet gear into dry and melted snow for water. We went to bed around 6pm to get some rest for a midnight run at the summit.

Mt. Rainier Is The Real Deal...

On May 23, 2010 we set off for the summit of Mt. Rainier... We awoke around midnight, got our ropes tied together and started our ascent at approxamately 1am. We could see people in the distance as we decided to take the Ingraham glacier route. The head lamps in front of us illuminated the trail in the distanced ahead of us. As we treked, (one group of two, one group of three) we passed several groups along the way... Around 4:45am I witnessed the most spectacular view of all. I seen the sun rise above the clouds and dissapear as if it was trying to hide from us... Once it started to get light outside, Two members of the group decided they had enough and could not handle the elements of the Mountain. They took precaution and decided to head back to Camp Muir...

This left us with a group of three... One of the three members of the new group was not feeling well because of flu like symptoms before the ascent... (one of the most stubborn sum of a bict* ive ever met) we pushed through, taking 40 yds at a time before resting. We were questioned by the weather and the elements of the Mountain that day. When Asked " Do you still Want to Continue", there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to give up... My fingers were numb but that was it... We were nearly climbing up for about 8 1/2 hours straight and we're only 400 ft away from the false summit... there was NO way I was going to give up now!

We reached the False summit and rested... Had something to eat and drink, then continued to trek the 400ft or so to the true summit... The journey was unlike anything I've experienced... Such a peace and calm on that Mt. and everyone treated it with such respect! We were greeted with a group of people who just climbed Mt. Hood in Oregon the week before and shared with us with a cup of champagne. The three of us were at the summit for about 45 min. before we made our descent. The sun came out and shined its light on us (awesome)... The Descent was a little hard on the knees but I was so happy to reach camp Muir and meet the other two who went back earlier in the day... I was glad they made it back safe because there were some crazy corevases??? we crossed.

From the summit of Rainier to the truck parked at Paradise took about 5 +hours... There was no better feeling than feeling the accomplishmet of taking down one of the highest peaks in the lower 48 states....

Let alone.... Two weeks later, ... the mountain claims one life and 10 people saved from an avalanche, from the same route we took... and today I hear about a climber who uncliped his rope nearly 600 ft. from the summit...

This Mt. is the real deal... BE PREPARED! Cause it's about 18 hrs. of getting your ass kicked! but.... Worth every Minute of it..........

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