Mt Rainier 2014

[toejam]

Let me attempt to quickly report on one of the great trips of my life this summer - my 4th attempt to climb Mt. Rainier. The first climb was all about fulfilling a childhood dream of summitting this impressive mountain. The next climbs have been more about inspiring myself to stay strong and spending time on the mountain enjoying it. I made the 2014 plan with an old friend, Pryor, who also dreamed of climbing Rainier when I was still dreaming about it. Since then he climbed it 5 times, and also climbed Denali and everything in CO I ever wanted to climb. He's also 20 years my junior and lives at 10,000', so I was inspired to get in shape.

We started the trip by flying into Portland and were up early the first morning to climb Eagle Peak in the southwest corner of the park for this view:

Then it was yak burgers in Ashford and meeting our Little Tahoma group at International Mountain Guides. We did the intros & gear shake-down, then to Whittakers Hotel for the night. Had some stronger-than-expected beers and decided we each needed to buy a pizza and pack it up Little T.

The next morning we headed up Little T with our guided group. Found a spot in the snow to set up a camp and do glacier skills training.

Steve & Pryor at Summerland

The next day was on to our high camp at the foot of Little Tahoma for 3 nights. More training and enjoying the views.

En route to Whitman Glacier

View from our camp on Whitman Glacier. The weather couldn't have been better.

Training

Then, after staring at the route for two days, we headed up Little T.

Looking down the route from high on Little T.

Steve & Pryor on top. It is an exhilarating, vertigo-inducing, crag.

After coming down, a Nepalese food celebration, hanging out with climbers in Ashford, meeting Lou Whittaker, being park tourists, and loading up on carbs for a couple of days, Pryor and I were ready to climb the big mountain on our own with no guides to slow us down.

Featured image for home page:

 

[TannerT]

That is phenomenal. I had plans to climb this year and then had to bail. My shoulder gave out. Your TR has me ready to attempt again, hopefully next year. Thanks for sharing.

 

[toejam]

We got a non-alpine start up Rainier, but still beat the tourists.

Headed up the sidewalk and soon saw the rest of our route.

From this view we could see that lots of snow had melted in the last week of hot weather. The Nisqually Glacier was more torn up than the other times I've crossed it, but there was a good boot pack up the chute in the wall below the Wilson Glacier. We roped up on my light 30m x 8mm rope with crevasse lip-catching butterflies tied.

We got to "The Castle" below the Turtle snowfield by mid afternoon. This was an easier climb on my guided trips with the guides slowing us down. The climb to camp was about the same time and effort as climbing to the top of Mt. Shasta from the parking lot, but we were less than half way up this beast! We took off shirts, filled bottles from the creek, and kicked back to enjoy one of the best camp sites in the world.

There were some other guys up there on their way up the Kautz Route - nobody but us headed for Fuhrers Finger. We left the tent in the pack and woke early for our only alpine start of the trip. We were roped and on the glacier picking our way between crevasses by 4:00 am. We were able to turn off the lights when we started climbing the Finger.

There were a few pebbles falling. It got worse the higher we got. At the top of the chute the rock fall was getting scary, but we moved past the worst section to find a way through some crevasses.

I was kinda freaking out here wondering if I was in over my head, but Pryor calmly picked his way to the ridge.

From here I knew the route would be no problem. Looking back on the steep, scary part:

Pryor contempating the Nisqually Ice Fall. The sound of rockfall from across the Nisqually was pretty much continuous here. The toughest part about the rest of the climb was post-holing. The week of hot weather and bright sun had really softened things up. We could see the rocks on the crater rim, but it took a long time to get there struggling through the soft snow.

We pushed too hard and didn't take enough breaks, so it sure felt great to get the the crater at about 2:30 pm.

Pryor looking spent at Mt's Rainier summit crater. After resting we pitched our tent in a hole someone else had dug for that purpose. When we moseyed on over to the high point we discovered a view obscured by forest fire smoke. Mt. Adams should be prominent in the picture below.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Sounds like a great time. I'm just a simple hiker so I just hope to one day do the Wonderland trail. You guys are hardcore.


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[toejam]

The summit crater was astonishingly quiet. So the voices of early morning climbers woke us easily. I love crawling out of bed and getting breakfast with these people staring at us who've been climbing since midnight.

We wanted to head down ahead of any slow parties, so breakfast was quick. We got moving about 6:30 and made really good time. The route was well-packed and uncrowded. Most of the smoke had cleared and the view was great.

This was the most fun crevasse crossing.

Little Tahoma from Ingraham Flats.

Approaching Camp Muir. We ran into George Dunn, IMG co-owner, at Muir on his record 511th climb. He said IMG had cancelled their Fuhrer Finger climb that week because of reports of rockfall. I felt like a real climber for the first time in my life, not just a wannabe client.

The trip down Muir Snowfield can be the worst part of a Rainier climb - you are spent and just want it to be over. But we'd had a good night at the top and were strong. We were at the car just after noon and took our smelly selves to the Paradise Inn to demand burgers and beers.

We had no plans after that, so headed to Morton for a comfortable room, Mexican food & margaritas. We went to Walupt Lake in the Goat Rocks the next day for some leisurely car camping, swimming, and hiking in shorts without backpacks. After that I was out of vacation and sadly went back home.

 

[toejam]

Sounds like a great time. I'm just a simple hiker so I just hope to one day do the Wonderland trail. You guys are hardcore.

I think I know what you mean. I'm a backpacker who does some climbing, not the other way around. This was a natural evolution of bagging 14ers in CO on my early backpacking trips. I've got a few big peaks left in me - I'd like to climb all the California 14ers and I want to climb Rainier again. I have an old friend who was on the Wonderland Trail while I was up there. But the mountain is haunting him and I hope we can climb it together soon.

 

[Tye Dye Twins]

Thats badass!! Excellent report!

 

[Nick]

Wow! Fantastic report and those pictures are just breathtaking. Thanks for posting!

 

[Laura]

Awesome! I think the TR's I love the most are of things I know I'll never do. That lead picture is stunning! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Curt]

Very Impressive. I enjoyed visiting the peak vicariously.

 

[John Goering]

Fantastic trip/report. Congrats!!! It's been a long time since I was roped up on anything. Something about AARP and the senior center----