Mount Rainier is a “fourteener”, right?  And having hiked and climbed the fourteeners of Colorado, Rainier shouldn’t really be too hard, right?  Well, it was.  Rainier was a most tiring peaks for me.  Of course, it did feature a 15 or 16 mile trip and a massive 10,000 feet of elevation, not including ups and downs.  I was well-prepared for this trip but because, as always, I didn’t think it would be too hard, it turned out to be quite tough.  

Ken, Dan, Skip, and Susan all arrived in Seattle on Friday and we headed out for the National Park the following morning.  Skip and Susan had some other logistic stuff to take care of and they left well before the rest of us.

We were going to attempt Rainier from the less crowded Emmons Glacier route.  So we headed to the White River entrance and campground and got our first view of the mountain on the way to Enumclaw, but it wasn’t until we were in the town that the mountain rose up like a giant menace in front of us.  It looked every bit as big as Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world, that we’d climbed over a year ago.  There was a lenticular cloud sitting on the very top too.  After an early lunch in town we continued on and arrived at the entrance and ranger station around 11:30.  The rangers informed us that there was no more camping at Glacier Basin!  Uh-oh.  Fortunately Dan thought of mentioning Skip and Susan’s name since they’d arrived early and we discovered that they had added us to their reservation!  Awesome.

So, we hopped in the car again and drove to the crowded White River campground parking lot and were off for Glacier Basin at around 12:30.  Of course, our packs were quite heavy and I immediately started noticing my glut muscles working really hard. 

The Glacier Basin trail is a nice wide, fairly gentle trail that’s quite straight for a long time.  We passed numerous creeks crossing to join the main branch and it also wasn’t to when the shady parks of the trail began harboring large banks of snow.  The sunny parts were quite hot actually but the lack of obstruction gave us an occasional view of the monstrous peak and most of the route.  This would be no typical fourteener.

Eventually, the trail became completely covered in snow and the weight from the pack, although comfortable, seemed to be sapping my strength.  Finally, after more than 2 hours and 15 minutes we arrived at Glacier Basin and found Skip and Susan.  We set up camp nearby and rested from the tiring hike in.  We spent the rest of the day down the trail about 100 yards in the open basin where we had a nice view of the route up to the Inter glacier, which was, thankfully, completely covered in snow.  Apparently, the approach to the Inter glacier involves a lot of talus hopping.  We also went down to the creek to fetch water as well as just rest and enjoy the mixing of the cold breeze coming off the snow and the hot rays of the sun beating down.  After a hot (but not necessarily good – I’m pretty much fed up with freeze dried meals) dinner, we relaxed some more and then went to bed.  Everybody slept really well that night; I know I did.  We got over eight hours of sleep.  Certainly we’d need it since we’d only be getting four or so at most the following night since we were planning on climbing the next day if the weather looked good, and that meant arising at midnight.

So, we packed up and started for the Inter glacier.  Already, my pack didn’t seem as heavy.  I know I didn’t eat that much food!  Anyway, we crossed over the creek and began heading up.  The climb up the steepest part of the Inter glacier requires only perseverance and Ken, Skip, and I took turns breaking a new trail up the steepest part of the slope.  It was quite sunny and hot this day though misty low clouds moved in and out.  An occasional high cloud had a nice effect on  the temperature but the low misty clouds had the effect of just steaming up the area.  The sun still penetrated through and the clouds made if feel like we were climbing in a hot soup.  We took a break on top of the steep section for lunch then continued up the slopes.  All the crevasses were well covered this time of year.  The hike up the Inter glacier is deceptively long but eventually we arrived at the ridge crest.  This was the abandoned “Camp Curtis”.  For a brief instance, the clouds were semi-transparent and we could see across the Emmons Glacier to Little Tahoma.  We had to descend now about 200 feet on to the Emmons Glacier and continue a short traverse up to Camp Schurman and on to Emmons Flats where we’d be camping.  We had to negotiate around a few crevasses but there was obviously a predetermined trail, so this was a no-brainier.  Nevertheless, we wisely roped up.

We continued slogging past Camp Schurman to Emmons Flats which is only 5 to 10 minutes past Camp Schurman but is unquestionably the superior campsite with in-your-face views of the upper Emmons Glacier and the route.  There was no one else up here yet so we had our pick of the campsites.  While Ken and Dan widened one of the campsites to fit Ken’s honking REI 3-person tent  (I couldn’t help with my wrist in a cast ), I melted lots of snow for drinking and cooking.  Soon everything was set up and we had enough water for the remainder of the day and tomorrow’s climb.  Another team had moved in and set up their tents nearby.  Around 8pm, Dan and Ken announced they would go to bed.  I couldn’t conceive of going to be this early even if I had to get up in four hours so I stayed up and enjoyed an awesome sunset over the floor of clouds that was only about five hundred feet below us.  I also witnessed the full moon rising over Little Tahoma.  At about 10 o’clock, after spending several slides and getting my pack ready for tomorrow, I turned in.  Ken and Dan were out cold as I slid into the tent.  Ken was snoring and I only had one ear-plug…so I went to sleep on my side that didn’t have the ear plug!

After maybe an hour and a half of sleep, we got up.  It was deathly still and the moon shined like a light bulb down on us.  It was pretty cold despite there being no wind and the moon was about to fall behind the ridge.  After the usual dark clinking and clanking and energy bar and water consuming, we were ready to head out.  The five of us tied in to the same rope.  It was Ken in the lead, then me, then Susan, then Skip, and finally Dan, anchor boy.  The trail was well beat and we headed up.  There was one minor crevasse to jump over but most were completely covered this low down.  As we went higher, the wind picked up a little.  Moving closer to the ridge, the moon disappeared; the backlighting on the seracs around us was otherwordly.  It wasn’t long before we started seeing the first hints of sunrise.  It was 3:30 am, just after the longest day of the year, when we looked back and saw the premature sunrise with hues ranging from green to orange to deep blue.  That’s always a nice feeling:  knowing that the sun will be rising soon, but I thought back and remembered how hot it was the day before.  This day promised to be even hotter.  Around 4:15 or so we stopped using headlamps.  Around the 12,500 foot mark, I started feeling the altitude.  I was the only one who had been living at sea level for the past six months and it made a difference.  I just felt a little slower than normal.  Usually, I’m quite fast and can keep going easily without a break.  Not this time.  So, we slowed down a bit.

It was also at this point that the climb became more interesting.  Around 13,000 feet, the crevasses were much more numerous and the steepness began to vary much more.  We came to an intersection which was the obvious difference in going left or right around the bergeschrund.  We decided to add a little spice and head up to the right.  Apparently, the route to the left is much more straightforward and ends up at the crater at the same point the Disappointment Cleaver route does.  Taking the route to the right adds some more interest to the climb.  We had to cross three snow bridges, the most prominent being the second one.  It was fairly steep and the crevasse was pretty wide and deep.  Well, so long as you didn’t look down, it wasn’t a big deal.  We continued up.  The final snow bridge put us up and over the long bergeschrund.  The slope was a good bit steeper here and the snow had transformed to something much more icy, though by no means hard ice.  This was probably the trickiest part of the climb but it was short-lived.  We’d all climbed longer and harder sections in Colorado so it wasn’t too bad.  However, I was really really tired now.  We were at fourteen thousand feet and all I could think about was stopping to rest.  We did for a while and it was a pretty big effort to eat and drink water, though I did.  I remember being so uncaring about the summit that I figured I wouldn’t go on if it wasn’t over this next rise.  I was starting to wonder if I even had the energy to get down.

Fortunately, the summit was here indeed and we all made it in about seven hours.  I could have done it much faster if I was completely acclimated but there was no rush.  It was only 8 o’clock in the morning.  But, I was so tired that I didn’t have much effort to take any pictures.  I took a few then we headed down to an area below the rim to get out of the wind.  There were steam vents down here; you could sit next to them and get heated up rather quickly!  After maybe 45 minutes we started down.  It was amazing how fast I recovered my strength as we descended.  Sure enough, that’s one of the symptoms of not being acclimatized:  extreme fatigue.   The best medicine is descent and it worked great.  I was very thankful that I didn’t have altitude sickness, a truly miserable feeling.  We took a slightly different descent route, bypassing the steeper ice and the two upper snow bridges.  The route quickly became very hot and we began peeling clothes off as we descended.  Soon enough we were down to the area where the crevasses were safely covered and Ken and I unroped and glissaded the remainder of the way back into camp.  The glissading was actually decent work since the slope was quite moderate and the snow was so wet now.  We got back to camp and I thought I might rest a little but in the end we decided to break down and head out.  Soon enough, the others arrived, glissading as well.

We headed down to Camp Schurman roped up in the same order and were surprised to see that even more people were at Camp Schurman, and it was a Monday!  Even more, many more, were heading up as we passed the camp and were back on the Emmons.  Everyone asked us about the route and which direction we’d gone at the bergeschrund.  I didn’t realize to now how much a difference it made to go right instead of left.  They were glad to hear the news, it seemed.  Once at Camp Curtis, we unroped and then got ready to glissade all the way down to the base of the Inter glacier. 

It was an awesome glissade, truly one of the best.  What made it so awesome was that the path that was already there slalomed back and forth and occasionally jumped.  It was a whole lot of fun and a good way to save time and descend really fast.  Unfortunately, earlier on the climb I ripped my gaiters with my crampons (I always do this) and snow was packed in my boots.  My feet were essentially soaked now.  We got back to Glacier Basin, had a brief clothing adjustment, dug up our stash, and headed back out.  I wrung out my wool socks so the moisture didn’t seem that bad at all.  We cranked out of Glacier Basin back for the car and arrived somewhere around 4-5 pm, I would guess.  It was good to get back to the car after such a strenuous, but successful and very fun trip.