Mt. Rainier
- This topic has 13 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated Aug 18, 2012 at 10:45 pm by
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OK, so I know this is not fishing related but I did promise Zach I would post about this….
I spent the better part of last week with two friends on Mount Rainier. Having done a little mountaineering in the past i thought I knew what to expect but Rainier is seriously large.
I wish I could say I will let the pics do the talking but at the end of the day, no pics do that mountain justice (especially with my photog skills). So without further delay, i will get to it.
On a clear day, you can see the mountain from most of Seattle but this was the first good look at her up close.
We spent the first night at Muir Base Camp getting acclimated and then pushed on to the Ingraham Flats the following day. Our summit push would be made from here the following evening.
Arriving at Ingraham Flats
The tools of the trade…
Advanced base camp at Ingraham Flats. The key to a comfortable base camp is a place to cook and melt snow for water. For this we dug snow benches which proved more than adequate.
The higher temps in summer mean that rock and ice come loose on the steep slopes in the mid day heat. For this reason, a night start is critical to ensure that you are out of the danger zones once things warm up and start to melt. Our summit push started at 2 am on Sunday morning. As a bonus, we were treated to a prolific meteor shower as we melted snow for water and consumed an early breakfast. Below is a crappy handheld slow exposure of the rope teams that beat us out of camp.
Temps during the night were in the teens but as the sun came up it brought a welcome warmth.
A rope team catches up to us as we take a break at sun rise.
After what seemed like an infinite slog up 60-70 degree slopes of ice, snow and rock, we reached the summit crater at 8:30 am.
From there it was a brief (sans pack!) hike to the summit proper, Columbia Crest elevation 14,411.
The climb back down was physically easier but mentally taxing as all of the sketchy stuff we climbed at night was now visible.
From a mountaineering perspective, Rainier is as challenging as anything you will find in the lower 48. I am still sore as I sit typing but I am already excited for the next trip.
I would love to put that on the bucket list, but unfortunately, I am way beyond that.
Congratulations!
That is so awesome. I am headed to Seattle then Vancouver in two weeks and I may be looking at the Mountain thinking I want to climb! Although there is not way I could do it! Congrats.
Since Andrew is not willing to go into this kind of detail, I will tell you, he has been through an extremely intensive training program for really about the last year.
As a follow up to Zach’s post, I have to say that while the training was extensive, it did not consume a full year. We hatched the plan for this climb in January and started training at that time but then really ramped it up over the last twelve weeks. If anyone is interested, I based my plan on the program that can be found at the site below:
http://www.fitclimb.com/page/mount-rainier-training-plan
I tried to follow this plan fairly closely with the main modification being that I substituted a lot of the runs with stairs at the gym. I heard a lot of stories beforehand about marathoners thinking that their typical training plans would work for this climb and then failing miserably, so I wanted to make sure that running wasn’t my only cardio. It is critical to train the muscles you will use and the stairs work well for this. By the end of the training, I was averaging 5-6 cardio workouts a week between 60 and 120 minutes.
I think the biggest difference between a guided and unguided trip in terms of difficulty is the weight of the pack. With the guide outfits, a significant (and heavy) portion of the gear and food is already on the mountain waiting for you. Seeing those teams come up the mountain, I estimated their packs to be about 15lbs lighter on average which is substantial. That being said, a little overtraining is prudent if you plan to go unguided.
Thx for sharing Andrew. I’ve always wanted to do that. I once contacted Ranier Mountaineering about going with them…but never followed throught. This has perked my interest once again.
I guess the next logical step for you is Denali right?
Thx. again.
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