Having grown up in Olympia, I had great views of Mt. Rainier from my bedroom window. Over the many years of looking at that 14,411 foot peak, I never thought that I would one day be climbing it. This summer, I had the opportunity to climb Rainier on a Mazama climb led by Bill, aka Papa Snake. Bill is one of the leaders for the Basic Climbing school (BCEP) with the Mazamas. His BCEP group is called the "Glacier Snakes" and I am one of his assistants. A number of other Glacier Snakes assistants were on the climb, such as Hungry Snake (Dan) G-Snake (Geoff), Obi Wan Danobi Snake (Daniel), Sneaky Snake (Caleb), and Brian, who has yet to be named. It's always nice to climb with people I already know or with whom I have climbed in the past because it makes climbing safer and more fun.
Though Mt. Rainier can be done in three days, Bill wisely scheduled the climb as a four day affair. Day 1 would be a strenuous hike from the trailhead to Camp Schurman, day 2 would be a rest day, day 3 would be summit day, and day 4 would be our pack out. Mt. Rainier is not a technically difficult climb, in that there is no rock climbing or crazy ice climbing involved, but it is a climb that is physically demanding. The presence of crevasses is the main risk to one's safety, though altitude sickness can be a major challenge in summitting Rainier.
Mt. Rainier has numerous routes in varying degrees of difficulty. The Disappointment Cleaver, also known as the "DC", on the southeast side of the mountain, is the most popular route. We would be climbing the Emmons Glacier route on the northeast side of the mountain. The Emmons route receives approximately 15% of the 10,000 summit attempts every year. Though it has more altitude gain than the DC, it has fewer crowds and is somewhat less technical from what I have had heard and read.
Day 1: White River Campground to Camp Schurman
The twelve of us on the climb met at the White River Ranger Station at 9:30 on Friday morning (7/8/11). There we obtained our climbing permits. The rangers gave us a short lecture on available water supplies, disposing of human waste, food storage, snow conditions, and anticipated weather. We left the station and drove to the White River campground which is also the parking area for climbers. We loaded up our gear and started up the Glacier Basin trail at 10:30am.
I had the feeling that the pack in to camp would be the most difficult of the four days, and is it turned out, I was right. On Day 1, we had to ascend 5,400 feet cumulative with a full pack, mine weighing about 55 pounds at the trailhead. In our first leg we ascended 1,500 feet over 3.2 miles to Glacier Basin which is a back country camping area at the base of the Inter Glacier. There we stopped for lunch, refilled water at the stream, and reapplied sunscreen. From there, we began the ascent up the Inter Glacier. We gained over 3,000 feet up to Camp Curtis, a ridge between the Inter and Emmons glaciers. The daytime heating softened the snow and there was a clear boot track all the way to Camp Curtis. We wore crampons but we did not need to rope up. The travel up the Inter Glacier was challenging because it was warm and with the sun shining directly on me, my energy was being depleted quickly despite eating plenty of food and drinking a lot of water. Finally, around 5pm, our tired group got to Camp Curtis. There, the winds were blowing hard and we were starting to lose the afternoon heat, so we quickly put on our harnesses and roped up for the descent onto the Emmons Glacier and then a 500 foot rise to Camp Schurman. We roped up because there were a number of crevasses beginning to open up.
The last stretch to Camp Schurman was the most difficult for me because my energy was gone. The first two rope teams got to the camp around 6:15, and my rope team, led by Obi Wan Danobi Snake, arrived at 6:30. The winds at Camp Schurman were not as strong as at Camp Curtis, but they were still brisk. We set up our tents, got unpacked, and began boiling water for dinner. After eating a tasty Mountain Home freeze dried lasagna dinner, we melted and filtered some water and went to bed around 9pm.
Day 2: Rest Day at Camp Schurman
The second day of our trip was a rest day. It is possible to depart for the actual climb at any of time of the day or night, but it was decided that we would have an alpine start of 2am on the third day. The advantage to the alpine start is since we don't have the daytime heating during the climb up, the snow will have had a chance to firm up overnight making glacier travel easier, and it makes snow bridges over crevasses a little more secure.
On Day 2 we just hung around camp. We had a leisurely breakfast, read our books and magazines, took a nap, and had some time to converse with each other. We had lunch and started some preparations for the climb. The day went by very quickly, so by early evening, we made our dinners, repacked for our climb, and off to bed at 8pm. Though the sun sets over the Wilson Glacier at 8, it doesn't get dark, until well after 9. And, since I don't sleep well in the light, I didn't fall asleep until closer to 10pm. A few short hours later, it was the 1am wake up call.
Day 3: Climb Day
Everyone's alarms went off at 1. We got up, got dressed, had a quick breakfast, put on our layers, crampons, and harnesses, and got onto our rope teams at 2. I would be on rope team 1, position 3 of 4. Admittedly, I was a little scared to be in team 1 because I know Papa Snake to be a moderately fast hiker and climber where I am slower. Furthermore, Papa Snake told all of us that if one person cannot reach the summit, the whole rope team doesn't make it. The crevasses are too dangerous not to be roped up. A person on team 3 was having some crampon issues, so we did not leave camp until 220am. To my pleasant surprise, I was able to keep up with Papa Snake, Andy, and Hungry Snake who were the other members of the rope team.
We made our way to the "Corridor" which is a straight route up the Emmons Glacier from about 10,000 to 11,200 feet. At the base of the corridor, we had to stop because of crampon issues on a climber on team 3. Being the middle of the night at over 10,000 feet, it gets pretty cold, so we had to keep moving. Once rope team 3 caught up, we continued up the glacier. At 12,500 feet, our route started to curve up and around the first of our major crevasses. We took a break at that point and waited for the other two rope teams to catch up. Again, it got cold and I could feel my toes were starting to freeze up. Fortunately, someone on the climb knew that to the keep the toes warm, it's important to squeeze the butt cheeks together. Sure enough, it worked. My fingers and toes had feeling again. At that level we enjoyed the sun rising though I did see some high clouds partially obscuring the sun which made me think in the back of my mind that weather could be an issue later on.
Shortly after our break, we came to the scariest crevasse crossing on the route. At 12,600 feet, there was a double crevasse. We would be required to take a step over a crevasse and then a second crevasse crossing less than 10 feet later. After reviewing our self arrest skills, we crossed the two massive openings safely and continued up the glacier. The boot track climbed along ridges and around crevasses up to above 13,000 feet. There was an impressive bergschrund with which we had to negotiate. Finally, we had our final push. Slowly, we ascended to 14,300 feet which is the east crater rim. It took a while to get to that point because we were all running out breath at that elevation. Fortunately, none of us on our rope team had any altitude sickness, however, a climber on the Obi Wan Danobi Snake's team did at 13,000 feet. He was getting to the point where he was no longer able to think clearly. A lucky break for that rope team is there was a group that turned around at 13,800 feet due to altitude sickness of one of their climbers, so he was able to rope on to their climb team to go back to camp. Those of us on the first two rope teams did not even realize we lost a climber until the third team got to the rim with only three people. Once at the rim, we got off our rope teams and hiked to the summit proper. There we congratulated each other and took some pictures. We did not stay long at the summit because the winds were blowing hard and the weather was changing for the worse. Apparently, a lenticular cloud had formed right over the top of us bringing snow, strong winds, and a drop in temperatures. Our summit time was about 10:30am, so it took a little over 8 hours to summit which is a respectable time for a team that large.
We walked back to where we left our ropes and had lunch on a northeast facing slope that had some protection from the wind. We quickly got back on the rope teams and started down about 11:30. We descended the exact same route that we came up. We were among the last ones to summit because the weather changed so quickly. The wind continued to blow strongly from the west and there continued to be blowing snow which partially covered our boot track going down. Fortunately, we were able to see the valley below for the most part, so we knew it was not a total white out. We would not want to lose our route coming down because of the crevasse danger. On our way down, we took multiple breaks because we were all tired. The snow softened up quite a bit which was a challenge because the snow balled up in my crampons rendering them less effective and causing a few minor falls. Of course, we could not glissade down the glacier because of the crevasses. Finally, at 4:00pm, we arrived back at Camp Schurman. We had a relaxing evening, but we were all so exhausted that we went to bed at 8pm and fell asleep immediately.
Day 4: Pack Out
Wake up call was at 6am. We had breakfast, got dressed, and packed up camp. We left camp before 9. We roped up to descend the Emmons Glacier and then the ascent back to Camp Curtis. At Camp Curtis, we put away the ropes and harnesses. The snow was still to icy to glissade safely, so we walked down the Inter Glacier about 1,000 feet. Then most of us glissaded from the 8,000 foot level down to 6,500 feet where the Inter Glacier started to level off down to Glacier Basin. We took a short break at Glacier Basin then we finished our hike out to the parking lot arriving at 12:30pm. We changed our clothes, packed up the cars, and then drove to Packwood for a celebratory lunch at Cruisers Pizza. Most people had pizza though I had fish and chips. After lunch, we said our goodbyes and drove back to Portland. I got home at 6:00pm.
Mt. Rainier was definitely a strenuous climb. The hardest part, in my opinion, is the pack in to Camp Schurman. The climb overall is beautiful. It was too bad that we did not have any views from the very top. I would recommend climbing Mt. Rainier, but it is essential to be in good physical condition and have good rope travel skills.
For all the photos from my trip, click on the link below:
Mt. Rainier Photos
Glacier Snakes are participants and/or assistants for Bill McLoughlin's group of the Basic Climbing School (BCEP) with the Mazamas, a mountaineering non-profit located in Portland, OR.
