I picked Doug up at his house at 3:30am Monday morning. It’s so hard to get up early for work, but I never seem to have a problem getting up to go play. Our destination was Little Tahoma, an 11,000′ pinnacle on the east side of Rainier. It’s really considered part of Mount Rainier, but if it were a mountain by itself, it would be the third highest point in the state.
We arrived at the Paradise parking lot just after sunrise and were greeted by a fox. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fox before. The day was bright and clear, and the mountain was spectacular. We were forced to ascend all the way to Anvil Rock (9,000′) before we could find a way across the Cowlitz Glacier. We immediately crossed a gnarly crevasse on a narrow snow bridge. After that breathtaking affair, we put a little more thought into how we would negotiate our way across the glacier. The remainder of the crevasses, thankfully, didn’t present any problems.
We dropped several hundred feet to cross the Cathedral Rocks, and several hundred more feet to cross the Ingraham Glacier. We made our way up through a notch in the next cleaver, and began plodding up the Whitman Glacier. By this time, the day was warm, and the snow was soft. Kicking steps became quite an ordeal. Some spots were so steep and soft, we found ourselves struggling up to our waists in snow.
Doug, the superman, kicked steps up the longest and steepest stretch, and I had a hard enough time finding energy just to walk in his footprints. I think I would have run out of gas if I had to do as much work as he did. A few hundred feet below the summit, we had to take yet another break to eat and drink. At this point, I was way to nauseous to do either very well. I tried to eat a red licorice stick. It took me five minutes to do it. Actually, I had to spit out the last bite.
The last little bit up to the summit is rotten rock. One must be sure of each handhold and foothold. Many times, rocks would come off, and we could hear them crashing down 2,000′ to the glacier below. We signed the summit register – the first ones to do so in 1998.
The slog back out was grueling. The soft snow made for slow going, and our calorie deficits didn’t help much either. By the time we made it back to the parking lot, it was foggy, and I was glad that this part of the route was wanded. It turned out to be about a 14 hour round trip, and, man, was I glad to see the car. On the drive out, we saw another fox – how wierd!
To climb Mount Rainier solo, one must first obtain written permission from the Park Service. The other option, of course, is to just do it. I stifled any tendencies to disobey authority, went through the proper channels, and, lo and behold, I received an email from the Park Service giving me the go-ahead.
Thus it was, on the morning of June 6, the ranger in the Paradise Climbing Hut found my name on his list, and I was all set to go. Just as I was about to start walking up the mountain, Bud, a friend from work, showed up in the parking lot. What a coincidence to run into eachother! After telling him that I was going for the summit, he took my picture and said, “Okay, see you Monday – I hope.”
The hike to Camp Muir went fine, it being the fourth time in the last couple of months that I’d hiked this stretch of snow. I slogged past dozens of RMI (Rainier Mountaineering Incorporated) guided clients. At Muir, I stopped briefly to eat, dress warmer, and get my ice axe out. The next hour took me across the Cowlitz Glacier, over Cathedral Rocks, and onto Ingraham Flats (11,000′), where I camped for the night. I stuffed my sleeping bag and foam pad into my bivy sack, and crawled in for a nap.
It didn’t take long for the nausea and the headache to start settling in, and soon I was feeling pretty bad. There’s only a couple of chores that one must take care of before the summit bid; namely, melting snow for water and consuming as many calories as possible, but these things became very difficult, and I mainly just stayed in my sleeping bag trying not to move my aching head.
Fortunately, as nightfall approached, I started to recover, and I reluctantly forced myself to eat and drink. The highlight of the evening was seeing the Space Shuttle make an orbit overhead. I had previously recorded the time and location from a satellite tracking web site, and, sure enough, at the appointed time, a bright point of light streaked through the sky. The Shuttle was docked to the Mir Space Station at the time, so the combination of the two produced a surprisingly obvious satellite. With all of my clothes on, even my wind parka, I managed to stay adequately warm in my down bag, but sleep was, nevertheless, hard to come by.
The first climbers to head for the summit passed my camp at 12:45am. Their heavy breathing echoed off the rocky cliffs and woke me up. Several more parties passed by before I started getting ready at 2:00am. The temperature must’ve been slightly below freezing, as the water in my cooking pot was solid. I strapped on my crampons and was walking by 2:30am. The bite of the crampons on the icy snow felt good, the dim glow of the moonlit glacier was mesmerizing, and I was excited to be on the move. My altitude sickness had thankfully disappeared.
Disappointment Cleaver has a few steep sections and narrow ledges that must be negotiated. Some call this the crux of the route, and a few parties turn back at this point, thus the name. At the top of the cleaver (12,000′), I looked back to see dozens of shimmering headlamps far below – the RMI clients no doubt. The route between 12,500′ and 13,500′ has several crevasses that must be avoided. Occasionally, one is forced to traverse beneath towering seracs. The fact that these towers of ice do eventually succumb to gravity is evidenced by the large chunks of ice that lay strewn about.
The sunrise is always a welcome sight. The headlamp is switched off, and the body starts to warm up. During the ascent, I managed to pass every climbing party, and by the time I stepped into the crater, it was only 6:00am! For the first time ever, I felt reasonably good on the summit (14,410′), and I even had enough energy to circumnavigate the crater rim.
I used a cell phone to call Scott and Jason from the summit. They noticed that I was pausing for breath every now and then, and asked if I was walking around. Nope, just sitting down relaxing, that’s what 40% less oxygen will do for you!
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