Allison Porter

Our climb of Mount Rainier was beautiful and we all had an amazing time.

We met for a gear check on Saturday afternoon and then were back at the Alpine Ascents International (AAI) office at 5 a.m. Sunday. The drive took about two hours total plus a few minutes for a stop at Starbucks in Enumclaw. From the trailhead we walked about four miles through the forest to a camping area called Glacier Basin and from there walked another hour or so through flowery meadows to the base of the Inter Glacier. After a brief review of snow skills we roped up and walked up the Inter Glacier to our first camp at 8500 feet. The view was incredible and the weather was clear; as a result we used a lot of sunscreen! Setting up camp involved digging platforms out of the snow and learning how to set up the AAI tents. We also discovered some impressive facts about our guides — one had recently summitted Mt. Denali twice in one day, another had summitted Everest eight times before and could pick up a boiling pot of water with his bare hands.

We slept until 7 a.m. and then packed up our camp to depart Monday morning for our next camp at Emmons Flats, approximately 9600 feet. This hike involved negotiating a steep downhill section of mud and loose rock, and we luckily avoided any injury from rockfall to continue on to our camp. We made a brief stop at Camp Schurman, 9500 feet, and arrived at Emmons Flats around 1 p.m. When we arrived, we were pleased to find that a full camp had already been dug in the snow, so we didn't have to prepare platforms for our tents. We set up the tents, ate dinner, and were in bed by 5:30 p.m.

At 11 p.m. we rose and prepared to head for the summit. Luckily we still had beautifully clear weather and could even see some of the Independence Day fireworks from the Seattle area! The stars were beautiful and it was bright enough that we could even see the mountain and some of its features with our headlamps turned off. We kept an even pace heading up the mountain, taking breaks every one or two hours to eat and drink. Some of us began to feel the effects of altitude, but there was nothing dangerous or severe. The sunrise began around 4 a.m. and was lovely. Our steady pace continued and we reached the summit at about 8:10 a.m. From the top we could see across the crater (which is huge — about ¼ mile in diameter); to the north we could see Mt. Baker, Mt. Shuksan, and Glacier Peak, and to the South we saw Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and another snowy peak, which we thought might be Three Sisters in Oregon. We took a lot of pictures including our celebratory shot with the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer banner, and a string of prayer flags onto which we had written the names of the cancer survivors and victims for whom we were climbing. After the photos we took a break to sign the register and then started heading down the mountain, hoping to get to camp before the snow softened up and made travel difficult.

During the first half of the descent the snow balled up in our crampons so we had to knock our boots on every step or two with our ice axes. This was a bit tedious but after a couple of hours the snow was sticking with less efficiency, and soon thereafter we removed our crampons entirely. Finally we were able to descend the last 1200 feet or so by glissading — sliding down the snow in a seated position. This was a lot of fun and much easier than walking! We arrived back at camp at around 12:10 pm and immediately entered our tents to rest and get out of the noon sun. Some of us ate and drank some soup, and we had dinner at about 4 p.m. and were in the tents for the night at 5:30 p.m.

Some nasty weather came in overnight, which included wind gusts of up to 30 mph and periodic drenching rains. It was difficult to sleep well and we stayed in the tents until 6:45 a.m. Wednesday morning when the weather cleared up quite a bit. At that point we packed up camp and started heading back to the parking lot. The descent was pleasant and included an interesting navigation up the mud/loose rock section and another fun glissade down the Inter Glacier. We arrived back at the parking lot at around 1:15 p.m. and stopped in Enumclaw on the way back for burgers, pizza, and other cheesy foods. Our final arrival to the AAI office in Seattle was at about 5:45 p.m. and we all departed exhausted, happy, and excited to take showers!