Climb For Kids - 2008 Climb of Mt. Rainier - Trip Report
The inaugural climb for Climb For Kids was earlier this week and it was definitely an adventure. The climbers on this first trip included James Goodman, Chad Behling, Peter Wall, Kevin MacDonald and myself. We all were in great shape and had our sites on the summit, but it appeared that mother nature had other plans for us.
As we arrived at the pleasant confines of Paradise at 5460 feet, we noticed a thick cold fog had overcome the entire mountain. The weather had even frozen Kevin's hair. Nevertheless, we spent the first day climbing with our 50 lbs packs up to Camp Muir at 10,080 feet. If you have never been to Camp Muir then you haven't had the pleasure of viewing the South Cascades from above. You really get to see the detail in Mt. St. Helens too. Looking in the other direction at Camp Muir, you can view our route over the Cowlitz Glacier onto Cathedral Gap. The digs at Camp Muir are not all that special, except that we had great guides as our cooks, a hut to sleep in, and an outhouse to relieve ourselves (which is a luxury at altitude, though your nose wouldn't agree).
Day 2 on the mountain was a rest day, where we enable our bodies to acclimatize to the lack of oxygen. Most of us had head aches sleeping the night before and one of us even became nauseous and vomited. Thus, we were happy to be taking it easy. After a lazy breakfast, the guides took us through mountaineering basic training - walking in snow, rope work, self arrest, etc. After lunch, we took advantage of the break in the weather and headed out to high camp at Ingram Flats. Once at camp (pay special attention to the lack of snow around the tents in that last picture), we had the summit talk, ate dinner and went to bed around 4:30 pm. Our plan was to wake up at midnight and start climbing by 1:00 am. Doing simple things at altitude can be difficult, like using the rest room. Since we no longer had the luxuries of Camp Muir, I had to use a bucket with a bag as my outhouse. You end up relieving yourself in front of god and country, but you have a great view that goes along with it. To top it off, you get the joy of carrying your waste off the mountain with you.
A storm starting coming in late on day 2. With it came 60 mph winds that created such a loud racket with our tents flaps that sleeping was impossible. The wind brought snow and snow and snow and snow. I mean it really snowed. You would not be able to tell that it was August by the amount of snow that fell on us. Seriously, we received 2 feet of snow between 10pm and 6am the next morning. Given this storm, a summit attempt was impossible. We all slept in til about 7am when we decided to pack up and head down the mountain. It was still snowing and the wind was howling.
The way down to Paradise was an adventure. First, we left Ingram Flats and had to carefully maneuver our way around the buried crevasses. Then once on top of Cathedral Gap we had to gingerly walk on the snow covered slopes down to the Cowlitz Glacier. Apparently we weren't ginger enough, as one of our rope teams got caught in a slab avalanche. We all just sort of watched them slide away and there was nothing we could do to help. They were lucky enough to stop themselves in time before being pulled off the mountain, however it was pretty scary. Once at Muir, we quickly ate some lunch and headed down to Paradise. The snow from Paradise to Muir had hardened over the last day turning the entire snowfield into an ice rink. There was a thick layer of ice covering the snow, and JJ, our guide who has led over 300 attempts up Rainier commented that he had never seen the snowfield in this condition.
We all got back down the mountain safely, and unfortunately did not reach the summit. However, we certainly had an adventure and raised $35,000 doing it. All the climbers commented that it was so much fun that they couldn't wait to try again next year. You should join us!
The rest of my pictures can found up on Flickr. I'll be linking to other team members' photos as they come in.
Thanks to everyone who made this possible. Your donations really made a difference.