Mt. Rainier, July 24th, 2005 -- Emmons Glacier Trip Report
Sunrise at 12,600 ft
I know, I know...stop the shouting. I've been pretty far behind on the blogging front. I never did get around to finishing the blog for my cross country trip, but I did post pictures. Here's the pic list if you care. If you want to know the stories behind the pix you'll have to take me out for a beer to get the low down. I'm too far behind to write the stories.
- Fort Wayne, IN to Ames, IA
- Ames, IA to Broken Bow, NE
- Broken Bow, NE to Riverton, WY
- Riverton, WY to Seattle, WA (marathon drive -- 1100 miles, 17 hours, and 1 speeding ticket)
This past weekend I guided a climb for charity up Mt. Rainier. Michelle and I had set up a charity auction climb a while ago when I still worked for Microsoft, and there were actually 2 winners. Michelle had already accompanied one of the winners up Mt. Ruth while I was driving cross country, and now it was time for Michelle and I to fulfill the climb for the second set of winners. Armand even flew in from Manhattan for the climb, as he had always wanted to summit Mt. Rainier but was never really presented with an opportunity. Last Thursday Armand and I spent hours reviewing our gear, reading about the route, discussing z-pulleys (and yes, you need a person to tend the first Prussik loop Armand!) and running to Whole Foods to stock up on food.
On Friday, Armand and I woke up at 3:30 am in order to meet up with Michelle at 4:00 am at my house. Michelle showed up bright eyed and bushy tailed (how does she do that?) so we packed the car and headed out. We arrived at the White River Ranger station in Mount Rainier National Park at 6:30 am, but we were 30 minutes early because the station doesn't open til 7. Anyway, the winners (Chris, Jen and Ed) also showed up at 6:30, so we spent 30 minutes doing a gear check and exchanging group gear. Once 7 rolled around we spoke to the ranger about our strategy -- climb to Camp Schurman the first day, spend a 2nd day acclimitizing at Schurman and head out early the 3rd day for the summit. The ranger also gave us updates on the route conditions. As we got to the White River Campground at 8:00am, it started raining hard. No matter, we threw on our 75 lb packs (though some couldn't even lift them) and began the 3.1 mile approach hike to Glacier Basin. The approach is straightforward and is covered with wildflowers. I would totally consider just camping at Glacier Basin for a couple days to go exploring because it is quite breath taking.
The snow pack had melted all the way back to the Inter Glacier, so we had another 1 mile long hike thru the moraine til we needed rope and crampons. At the beginning of the glacier, we cached our approach shoes and put on our double plastic boots, harnesses and crampons. I led the rope team with Chris, Michelle, Jen, Armand and Ed tied in behind me. We now began the long trek from 6000 ft to Camp Schurman at 9460 ft. The ranger advised us to rope up early and stay to the right of the running water coming down the glacier. The pace was a just a tad on the slow side, so we stopped half way up the glacier to rest. Chris was really struggling to keep up with the rest of the team, as his diabetes was having an effect on his performance. Chris pondered whether or not he should continue the climb. Jen (his wife) and I tried desperately to convince him to stay on the trip, but he figured it was smarter to play it safe and not jeopardize the rest of the team. In retrospect this was a very brave and wise decision as the climb to Camp Schurman is no picnic, as we would find out later. Jen decided to stay on the climb while Chris headed down to Glacier Basin. There were a couple of crevasse fields at the the top of the Inter Glacier, which we had to cross in order to reach Camp Curtis at 8800 ft. Once we were at Camp Curtis, we had to down climb thru the rock wall down to Camp Schurman. The rock wall was in terrible shape as most of us thought it ranked as a 5.4 or 5.5 rock climb rather than a simple class 4 scramble. Usually, a 5.4 rock climb is a piece of cake, except that in our situation where we had substantial exposure, wore crampons (in hindsight a bad move), donned double plastic boots, and carried a 70 lb pack on our backs. It took us a while to negotiate this rock wall, and even had to belay a few people to bottom. More on this rock wall later. At the bottom of the rockwall we had a stroll across the Emmons Glacier to camp. It was 6:30 pm, and our climb from Glacier Basin to Camp Schurman took us 8 hours. The wind was beating us up pretty good (it was a constant 30 MPH, with gusts well above that) so we had to really anchor all of gear to prevent it from blowing away. Cooking was a challenge as the wind kept blowing out the flame in our stoves, but luckily the strong sun caused glacial run off which we could use for water. This was key, as we didn't have to melt snow for water and we didn't have to conserve our gas -- though that didn't prevent some people from ....ahem....expulting their own (ARMAND!) . As we went to sleep, the wind picked up but the clouds stayed low. A couple of us put on our down parkas and spent some time bullshitting while we gazed at a beautiful sunset. That night the wind became stronger and it really beat up our tent, so it was difficult to sleep. Thank god we weren't summitting tonight, as the wind would have knocked us off the mountain. As we talked to other climbers, we found a couple who had been waiting since Thursday for the wind to die down for their attempt at the summit. The weather report did not look good for us, as the winds were supposed to continue. Ugh.
After the brutal hike to camp we were all happy that we had a rest day scheduled for Saturday. We slept in late, watched other parties go up the blustery route to the summit,and spent the day basically lounging. Around noon, I gathered up the team and we headed up to 10,100 ft to gain some more acclimitization and to practice crevasse rescues. While there, we bumped into a ranger coming down the mountain who told us that he started climbing up the mountain at 10:00 am and summitted at noon. WOW! We also found out that only half the teams summitted due to the strong wind, which was an ominous sign for us. Uh-oh. As luck would have it, the wind died down for good later in the day so our optimism rose considerably. We strode back to camp, cooked up some dinner, and went to bed around 5pm. Our strategy was to wake up at 10:00 pm and begin climbing to the summit.
At 7:30 pm the winds came back. Crap. I walked around and discovered the winds were not as strong, but they still could be trouble. A later start would put us in better position for a summit attempt as the winds typically died down 5:00 am in the morning. I consulted with the team and we moved the start out 2 hours to compensate, though Michelle would still wake up at 10pm to evaluate the weather. For some reason, I had acclimitized well and was sleeping like a baby even though the wind was strong and loud. The bad news is the acclimization was reached by drinking a ton of water (about a liter every 90 minutes) so everytime something woke me from my deep sleep I had to pee -- I negleted to bring a piss bottle so this meant putting on my socks, my boots, thermal pants, a thermal top and a parka everytime I wanted to go pee. This got old really fast. Anyway, at 10:00 pm Michelle woke me up. She liked the conditions outside and I concurred. I alerted everyone to start getting dressed (I was so bummed, as I had just fallen into a dreamy sleep, and for those of you who can dream at altitude, you'll remember that dreams are much more vivid and surreal the higher you get). The moon was rising as we roped in. It was extremely beautiful as it looked like a firey red ball was rising over the cascades -- my picture doesn't do it justice. The rope team was led by me followed by Jen, Michelle, Armand and Ed. I was tied in via figure 8 knot, whereas each person was approximately 10 meters behind me tied in with a butterfly knot except for Ed. He also had a figure 8 and had the unfortnate task of carrying 10 meters of coil. Other group gear consisted of 2 ice screws, 2 pickets, 4 quick draws, 2 sleeping bags, and a shovel. Regretably we totally forgot about our radios. At 11:10 pm we headed up the glacier to the summit.
Our pace was slow and steady. My strategy was to climb slow and to take a 5 minute break approximately every 60-90 minutes. The full moon lighted our way, as we were the first ones out of camp. The condtions could not be any better...this was a climbers dream. At 3:30 am around 12,000 ft, we discovered an unmarked crevasse. There appeared to be no sign of a route around the crevasse nor were there any boot tracks over the crevasse. I either took us off track or something was wrong. I found a bridge over the crevasse but it looked precarious. I gingerly climbed on the bridge poking my ice axe to see if would hold...my ice axe was going thru the snow like it was butter. Uh-oh this was not good. I quickly got off the bridge and devised a strategy. I took out my snow pickets and quick draws and asked Ed to put me on belay. I set up a running belay with the rope tied into a snow picket and quick draw on each side of the crevasse. Once I was safely on the other side, Ed took me off belay and I began belaying team members across the crevasse. The snow bridge held, but setting up this system took a lot of time and I was getting cold. The other teams, which left camp at 1 am, had caught up to us. No matter, we were on the other side of the crevasse and they weren't (yes, I'm actually that competitive). As I discovered my conservative climbing style is both an asset and a liability. We were all safely on the other side of the crevasse, but we were the only team to set up a belay station over it. Every other team simply walked on our tracks over the crevasse...thus I felt like I wasted 30 minutes moving people 30 feet. Oh well, we were all safe which was more important. One the other side of the crevasse we had a steep long trek to a major lip in the mountain. The route was wide, and 3 teams passed us going up this section of the mountain. At the top of the lip (12,600 ft), I had the team take a break. I could tell this last 600 ft was a major struggle for our team and I needed to know what was up. After we put on our parkas and downed some water I started asking everyone how they felt. We just didn't have the look of a team who wanted the summit and the most demanding parts of the climb were still ahead of us. I thought long and hard about what to do.... I could try to raise the team's morale and pull them up the mountain, but in order to be safe I needed them to be strong for the climb back down. As I was stuffing my face with chocolate covered espresso beans, another team sat down in front of us. They looked strong and their morale was great. At that moment, I crystalized the plan. As I was spitting out beans, I asked them if they would be willing to add a Denali/Aconcagua veteran to their team. After a little bit of negotiation they said yes, at which point we switched ropes and Armand joined their team. He specifically flew out here to bag the peak, and I knew he could do it. Thus, he joined their team and Jen, Michelle and Ed headed back down. We were a little bummed, but our major enemy just started to peak its head over the Cascades.
The four of us took our time heading down, as the sun began frying us to a crisp. We stopped to look at an icefall and a crevasse before arriving back at camp around 9:00 am, 10 hours after we left. The view of the Cascades was still good, but it didn't do enough to raise our spirits. Food and sleep were the cure for our morale and we all had a big helping of each as Armand summitted. Armand finally came back down around noon, completely drained. His team went fast up the summit and it took its toll on him. Since I bargained to get him on their team, he didn't feel like he was in a position to stop or slow down...which I found hilarious. After he rested for about an hour, we packed up camp and headed back down the mountain. Our first major obstacle was the rock wall. The climb up was worse than it was down. This time we didn't wear our crampons, nor were we roped up...but that didn't matter, the climb still sucked. The exposure was a little disheartening as a strong wind gust could have easily pulled me and my pack down the mountain. After an hour of rock negotiation, we were at the top of the Inlet Glacier. From there it was easy climbing back down the mountain. Chris met us at the moraine with an empty pack and gatorade. He was nice enough to carry all of our group gear, as we dashed back to the parking lot. Once there we were all tired, but happy. Armand checked his email (geek!). Chris and Jen were kind enough to provide a post climb beer as the climb officially ended. I didn't get home til around 10 pm (thus missing a punk show I was supposed to attend with Ellen). Armand and I stopped at Dick's for some dinner and then headed to bed. It was a really fun, hard working weekend. I am anxious to go back down to Rainier to camp again.