Rainier Summit July 16, 2013

Well, I started this blog post in July and I never finished...until now in September...

Dave Hahn has summited Mount Everest 15 times.  People ask the question, "Why??".  Well, I'm not quite sure, but he says that every time he climbs the mountain there is something new.  I can definitely agree to that statement.  I personally would be content with one summit of that mountain and appreciative that I made it down alive.  I suppose I could feel this same way about Rainier, but I can't.  It's visible from my front yard, it's cheap to climb,  and I can summit and eat dinner at a nice restaurant all in the same day.

Climbing Rainier for the 2nd time in as many years has no comparison to Dave Hahn, but on my puny scale it was a unique experience and was very fun.  The journey from Paradise up to the Ingraham Flats was mostly the same, but from the Cleaver on it was a new mountain for me.

The journey started as it has many other times.  Alarm clock goes off around 2:30AM and I hop out of bed.  The coffee is prepped so I just turn it on.  I pour a bowl of granola cereal and enjoy a cup of coffee.  Now I'm awake enough to shower for the last time for 2 days!  I put on all my gear including boots and gaiters.  The car is ready to go and Preston and I meet up and head for McDonalds.  McDonalds changed their breakfast hours to 4am so we could enjoy a sausage egg McMuffin instead of a double cheeseburger (who eats burgers at 4am anyways?).

Early Monday morning on Mt Rainier is pretty peaceful.  There are no crowds and the check-in process with the climbing rangers is painless.  They are always happy to share the latest route conditions and wish us a safe climb.

"Start".  The stop watch begins at Paradise and we begin our trek to Camp Muir.  We are climbing at around 1100ft/hr making great time.  I've learned to keep ahead of my thirst and energy levels by eating and drinking as I hike.  My food and water are conveniently located on my pack so I can access as I keep hiking.  Eating and drinking after you feel the need means you're too late and you're going to feel much more fatigued.  Somewhere around 8,000 ft we stop for a break and chat with a skier.  I'm looking at my watch and my hopes of making it to Muir under 4hrs are diminishing.  The conversation ends and I kick it into high gear and finish my climb in 3hrs, 48minutes with 55lbs on my back.  Preston finished his climb at just a few minutes over 4hrs for his personal best time too.

A proud sweating thumbs up

The camp is pretty open and we setup in the public shelter.  The afternoon is spent leisurely eating and chatting with all the climbers.  We wander over to the Ranger hut and get their input on the DC route.  They describe the route as having two variations from the top of the cleaver (left or right).  The left route has a crevasse with a large snow bridge separated by a 2 ft gap to step across.  They said the bridge was somewhere around 25ft long and a huge cavern was visible at the gap going down 300+ ft!  They said keep good spacing on your rope cause you'd have quite a ride when that bridge breaks!  The right route is brand new and the guide service had just finished shoveling a boot path up to the summit!  The decision was simple for us!  Right on!

We got our ropes and glacier gear all prepped and got in bed around 7pm.  Midnight came pretty quick and I was eating my breakfast and saying a few short prayers for God's protection.  For some reason we were really slow that morning and ended up being one of the last parties out of camp.  Something didn't agree with Preston's stomach and he was going slower than normal.  I was in the lead and I kept the rope pretty tight the whole way.  Bowel movement #1 occurred at the base of the cleaver.  I thought I was safe 20ft away, but the uphill wind brought a terrible aroma my way!  Preston feels "good as new" and we keep going.  It was a little difficult navigating up the cleaver this year for some reason.  We got off course a few times and wound up scrambling up some really lousy loose terrain.

Sunrise at approximately 12,500ft

At the top of the cleaver we approach the route junction.  We head right and see a party of 4 ahead of us.  It was still dark and we began to hear a roar on the mountain.  It was a ways off and we were not sure of the ice fall location.  We didn't think too much of it and kept hiking.  The crux of the whole route was ahead of us.  A short 30ft, 45-50deg, wall was ahead of us above a crevasse ladder.  We wait probably 30-45 minutes before our turn to ascend the wall.  The guide service placed a fixed line and it was comforting to hang onto that rope and sink in the ice axe for 4pts of contact with the mountain.

The wall just above the cleaver on the "right" route

Above this we crossed a snow bridge and passed between a couple spectacular crevasses.  We experienced nothing near this cool last year.  The route traversed out onto the Emmons Glacier before switch backing all the way to the summit.  Several more crevasses were to be crossed with a small stride.  The wind coming down this side of the mountain was pretty fierce at times.  More than once we had to stop and hunch over on our ice axes to stay glued to the mountain.  The wind gusts were very strong and very sudden.

Crossing a snow bridge next to some spectacular crevasses

Preston crossing the snow bridge

Looking into a crevasse

Despite all the delays and stomach issues, we managed to reach the summit only 30 minutes later than last year.  The air temperature was not too cold and we enjoyed another summit.  The wind was probably 40-50 mph.  My trusty iPhone 5 came in strong and I place two phone calls:  one to my wife and one to my mother.  I sign my name in the summit registry (the best alibi I can think of) and we head back down the mountain (after BM#2 in the crater!).  Both of us are a bit apprehensive about going down that wall just above the cleaver.  We attach a prussic knot on the fixed line and work our way down to the bottom without incident.  We make it to the top of the cleaver and BM#3 kicks in and all the blue bags are gone.  I'm lucky my stomach was cooperating since I gave all my supplies away!

Summit time

We glance over to our right to look at the left route.  That's when we realize where all that noise came from earlier that morning.  A large ice chunk broke loose and covered a section of the trail.  Fortunately nobody had traveled that direction that day and we were sure happy about our decision to go right.

The "Left" route was hit by ice fall at 4am

The trek down the cleaver is as miserable as I remember it but I do a better job keeping myself fed and hydrated this time.  We get to Muir and take a short break before packing up all the gear.  The weather began to turn and we watched a cloud surround the upper mountain and dump rain (maybe snow).  The weather forecast was accurate and we hit our pleasant weather window just as the forecast predicted.  Unfortunately, the storm worked it's way down the mountain and we got caught in some of that rain before reaching the car.

Notice the cloud development above

Another successful summit with great new memories.  The route was much different than last year and made for a great trip.  Last year was a "Walk up" and this year was not.  It gave us a new sense of accomplishment going through that small amount of technical climbing.  Good times.

Thanks for reading.

Mount Shasta

Mount Shasta Summit

 

I spent Memorial Day weekend down in Mount Shasta California with my family and my good friend and his wife.  The trip included a successful summit of Mt Shasta, great eating, a little bit of sight seeing, and plenty of relaxation.  

Unfortunately, the trip began pretty rough with a 24hr sickness my wife suffered.  I came home early from work on Wednesday to take care of the kids while she rested.  I came into the house to 3 little girls sitting around a couple cartons of ice cream!  The baby gate to the pantry was torn down and there was a stool in there for someone to reach a high shelf to pull down some bags and coffee filters.  Coffee filters were placed everywhere in the house.  They wreaked havoc elsewhere in the house and I'll stop to keep this brief.  Wow! I regret not taking a few pictures to laugh about when they're older!  I also discovered that we had booked the vacation rental home for Thursday through Monday (booked in early April) and we were planning on leaving on Friday morning!  Not sure how I goofed on the dates, but we ended up leaving at 11pm on Wednesday and drove all night and arrived in town at 7:30am to eat breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Mount Shasta.  It actually was a pleasant surprise to go on vacation a day early.  My productivity at work wasn't too great anyways with my excitement of the vacation :)  Anyways, we ate a hearty breakfast at the diner and then drove up to Bunny Flats to scope out the trailhead and pickup the climbing fee envelopes.  We drove back down and went to see if the house was ready.  We arrived at the house too soon and went back into town to kill some more time.  Then I noticed a clanging noise under the car.  Discovered that a rear shock was broke!  Fortunately there was a Les Schwab in town and we were able to get it fixed free of charge (warranty repair).

The woes of the beginning of the trip were now OVER.  We checked into the house at 1pm and were amazed.  The description on the Internet didn't do justice to this place.  We had rented a two bedroom fully furnished home with a nice deck looking directly at Mount Shasta.  The house was on a 3 acre farm with goats & chickens and a little creek flowing through it.  The animals kept the kids entertained.  The goats were fun and never seemed to stop eating whatever weeds you stuck through the fence.  We enjoyed all the fresh eggs we could eat.

Thursday was very sunny, but unusually cold and the mountain was the only thing hiding behind some clouds.  The next day the mountain was perfectly clear and Preston and I were very excited to get on the trail.

Here's the details of the climb...

5/25/13:  We left Bunny Flats trailhead at 8 AM (Elev. 6,950ft).  We climbed up to Helen Lake (Elev 10,450ft) and arrived at 11:30am.  Preston and I were fully rested that morning and climbed at 1,000ft/hr which is a pretty good pace.  We setup camp and started boiling snow to refill our water and to cook our Mountain House meals (Chicken and Rice...mmmm).  Considering our fast pace to basecamp and our high energy levels, we considered going for the summit that afternoon and descending all the way to the car by headlamp.

We decided to take a 2hr nap and decide on the summit at that point.  We awoke at 2pm and consulted the ranger and he advised us not to. He said clouds were rolling in and would stay thru the evening. He told us that a  perfect weather window was coming in the late evening thru 11 am the next day.  Sure enough, the clouds came in that afternoon so we just milled around camp until about 6pm.  One of the other parties was descending to base camp that day and discovered a mouse had pooped all over their cooking pots and he was still around under their tent.  After about 10 minutes, we got the mouse to run away from the tent and he met his fate.  We tossed his body down the moraine to discourage other mice from entering camp (haha).  After hearing the ranger talk about "leave no trace" for the 5th time and his passion for packing out poop, we decided it was time to get horizontal and rest up for the summit climb.

5/26/13

We awoke at 1 am to beautiful clear skies and a full moon.  The temp was 20 deg. with no wind.  I had cell service, so I made a video to send to my wife.  Breakfast consisted of a muffin, candy bar, and some Sante Fe spicy trailmix.  My clothing layers were long johns, Mt Hardwear soft shell pants, white Columbia shirt, black first ascent hoodie, Acts 2:38 fleece ;) , REI Shuksan hard shell, Mountain Hardear gloves and a Buff (great product from REI). 

A guy named Greg asked to climb with us because his other climbing partners were sick from the altitude. We agreed and had a moment of prayer before our departure.  We left base camp at 2:15 am. We climbed quickly to 11,800 ft and realized I was missing a glove (DOH!!).  I told the guys to take a quick break while I went to see where I dropped my glove.  I used my GPS to stay on my tracks and ended up descending 450 ft and found my glove.  I huffed it back up and threw my backpack on and we kept climbing.  No break for me due to my carelessness.  We continued to climb up avalanche gulch and stayed to the right of the Heart. Directly above the right side of the heart was a chimney that was currently the main route and recommended by the ranger.  We ascended to the top of the chimney and the little hill to 13,200 ft.  This leg of the journey was the steepest part of the whole climb.  The temps dropped to 10 deg and winds increased to 30 MPH.  I stopped and put on more layers (all of them!).  I had a balaclava on the hoodie, mt hardwear beanie, and covered my face with my buff. Then I put on my Mountain Hardwear parka and took off my helmet because the rockfall danger was gone.  That was the coldest climbing conditions I've been in. I wasn't getting sweaty or too warm climbing in my parka.  The experience of climbing in this cold was very insightful since I always pack these extra layers, but I never have to use them.  I was very comfortable in these layers so I know I could withstand even colder temperatures. 

The steepest part do the climb was over now and we were now at the base of Misery Hill.  Misery Hill is a gentle slope that ascends about 600 ft to the summit plateau.  The long slog and the altitude makes it miserable.  The altitude was starting to get to me as far as my wind. Just walking across the flat plateau was exhausting. The summit was a ~100ft tall rock at the end of a ridge line. The trail continued past the summit and cuts back along the ridge for a gentle climb up to the summit. I arrived at 7am and sounded my joyful "summit time baby!" cheer. I looked down from the summit and watched Preston and Greg approach the summit. We enjoyed the summit taking pictures and I was able to make a few phone calls. I was even able to have a FaceTime call. We began the descent at 8am and arrived back to base camp by 10:20am. The snow was still hard and glissading was not very fun. It was rough on our backsides and gear.

The clouds were rolling in just as predicted.  Many climbers were headed into those clouds.  We were very blessed to have had such a perfect weather window for climbing.  We packed up camp and left about 11am back to the trailhead. Arrived at bunny flats at 1:15pm. From about 8:30am all the way to the trailhead, a steady stream of climbers were ascending the mountain. I would estimate 300 climbers were going up that Saturday morning.  I couldn't have asked for a better climbing experience.  We avoided the crowds and nailed the best weather window during the whole holiday weekend.  Wow!  Thank you Jesus.

We made the quick drive back to the house and showered up before going out to dinner to our traditional Mexican meal.  The rest of the trip consisted of a trip to the annual mushroom festival.  An unusual theme, but really it was just like any other festival but with a few mushroom booths and lawn ornaments.  We had a BBQ Sunday evening and I consumed 2 of the tastiest burgers known to planet Earth.  We finely chopped up a package of bacon and mixed it into the hamburger.  This resulted in fire hazard on the grill, but it put a nice crunch to the outside of the burger trapping in the moisture for a very tasty juicy burger.  Topped it with bacon, and bacon grease fried onion, and the usual lettuce tomato and condiments.  Probably the most unhealthy thing I've consumed, but when you've climbed a 14,000 ft mountain you can get away with eating like that a little bit.

What a trip.  What bummer to return to the real world of alarm clocks, demanding bosses, deadlines, & house chores!

Thanks for reading.