Mount Rainier summit attempt (Jun 2010)

After a long wait, the day is finally here. Our date with Beautiful Rainier is here. We left on Thursday (06/10) afternoon to Ashford, the town in the foot hills of Mt. Rainier. This is the town where the IMG (International Mountain Guides) facility is as well. They have their office, camp sites and showers for the climbers to use both before and after the climb. We reached Ashford for a gear check and last minute logistics questions and clarifications with Jenny.

That went on until 6 PM. Jenny was really cool and she explained and helped with getting rid of some unwanted weight. She also gave a good demonstration on how to use bluebag. We then went for dinner at Copper creek Inn restaurant had dinner and hit the bed. The next morning we had breakfast at RMI’s café. It was so delicious that I helped myself with two dishes. Then we all went to IMG office to meet our guides. I was excited to meet the lead guide Phil Ershler. I have read few mountaineering books that had mentioned about him but never thought that my first big climb will be with him. He has bagged the top points of all 7 continents and has over 400+ successful climbs to Mt. Rainier. So I knew that we were in safe hands

We then put our gear in the bus and drove towards Paradise parking lot. We geared up, put on our game face and were ready to hit the trail from paradise parking lot (Elevation: 5,400 ft). The weather was far from great – cloudy and we could not even see the mountain.

As we started hiking up, the haze and the clouds cleared up opening up the panoramic view of the Mount Rainier. We had to make a quick stop to remove few layers as the weather really warmed up. As we walked up, we started see the great views of Tatooish range behind us and glimpses of other popular peaks – Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams in the faraway skies between the low clouds. The first biggest elevation gain came when we walked up the hill leading to the Panoramic point. Now we were totally on top of the clouds and there was nothing between us and the skies except for the big orange ball.

We stopped once every hour, ate snacks, took pictures, practiced rest steps, got to know each other in the group and slowly and steadily pushed our way towards “Camp Muir”. The last 1 hour leading to Camp Muir was as painful as I ever remember.

The fact that you can see the huts in the camp ahead of time but have to work your tail off to reach the place makes it harder. We finally reached Camp Muir in the early Afternoon.

The guides prepared dinner - pork burritos and hot tea @ 10,200 feet.

Tasted yummy! And Phil and other guides were sharing some of their mountain experiences and stories. After a great dinner, we were treated with amazing views of the scenery and the magical Sunset!

The snow beneath our feet was already crisp and the night was getting chillier. We got some great pictures and went to sleep in the hut. I got sick later that night – not sure if it was the altitude or over eating or a combination of both. I did not sleep for a long time. I took some tablets and drank lot of water, put a hard candy in my mouth and went back into my sleeping bag. I am not sure when I slipped into sleep. “Plenty of water” that I drank woke me up around 3ish and I stepped out to attend the nature’s call. I have not seen a night like that in looooooooooong time - Perfect black night with plenty of glittering stars big and small. I admired that for a while forgetting about the cold night and I even saw “Milky Way” – maybe I hallucinated that And then I went back to sleep. The next morning, we woke up early and went and practice some crampon techniques and gathered for breakfast. The guides prepared Bacon, pan cakes and coffee. It was divine. Phil educated of us of a fun way to finish of the excess food – It is called “yum- yum” and everybody gets some portion of the excess food. We then practiced self-arrest and rope techniques and finally were ready to move on higher.

We roped into teams of three and started walking in the unseen and more dangerous terrain of the mountain. We could see larger crevasses and fallen rock debris as we moved forward. When we turned around the Big “Cathedral rock”, the views expanded and got much interesting – huger crevasses, seracs and rock walls. We reached Ingram flats (11,200 ft) and camped there.

From Ingram flats, we could see the upper mountain, Disappointment cleaver route, Ingram direct route where the mishap happened the previous week and a portion of Emmons glacier route. Little Tahoma was right in front of us with its red volcanic head facing us. My English vocabulary is falling short to describe the Beauty, exquisiteness and magnificence of the scenery there.

We practiced some crevasse rescue skills before we settled in for another round of yummy dinner and talk about the inevitable – that we will not be making the Summit push that night and have return back from Ingram flats next morning. Phil and the other guides studied the conditions and decided that it was dangerous to make a summit push. No teams have gone up to the summit since the avalanche last week that buried one and triggered a huge rescue operation.

The freeze thaw cycles have not happened enough and the slabs were too weak to walk on. So we all hit the bags with a disappointment (Ah!, Is that why this is called a disappointment cleaver route – naaaaah…) even though we expected this coming all along. The next day I woke up to a nice Sunrise, used a blue bag. Jenny’s demonstration came in handy. We had breakfast and roped up and started our way back down. We decided to skip crampons because of the snow conditions. It was scary in many parts for if we missteped, we will be tumbling down. I was holding my breath in many occasions(actually breathing heavily) and was relieved only when reached Camp Muir. After a brief break, we proceeded down to the parking lot. On the way we heard huge roars of Avalanche and some the smoke of falling snow. We also saw an young lady who climbed Mt. Rainier 10 years back when she was 78 going up to Camp Muir. It was inspiring to see her energy and enthusiasm.

Finally we reached the parking lot and drove off to IMG office. We bid good byes to theides, headed our way. The climb was a success from the perspective that we came back safely. The mountain did not want us to have the honor of reaching its summit(14,410 ft) this time. But we already started talking about the next attempt in the very near future. Mt. Rainier, Here we come again – until then Cya!!! Thanks to my Climbing partners for the pictures :)