Mount Rainier is an active volcano in Washington state. At 14,411 it is the most prominent mountain in the continnental US. This an overview of the Disappointment Cleaver route up Mt. Rainier.
Jason arrived in Seattle and arrived at his hotel late the first day. The next day he explored Seattle, went to the Pike Place seafood market and did some shopping. The next day he rented a car(red Ford Mustang), and headed to Ashford. It took him about 2 hours to drive to the Whittaker bunkhouse and RMI guide service. He checked in and had orientation and their gear inspection. Orientation included watching a movie and getting acquainted with the guide and other team members. Jason had taken some of his own gear including his caving pit harness. The guide, Bob, had never seen a caving harness and had to check it out and give him the ok to use it but they were very impressed with its weight capacity. Next he went to Wittaker Mountaineering and rented his mountaineering boots, crampons and some other gear and got his food packets, food tickets etc.
The next day started training with Bob and Pete. They took a shuttle up to Paradise Lodge at 5,400 feet. This is where the parking area and visitor center is located. From Paradise they hike up through a thick fog to complete trainnig on walking with crampons,using ice axe, performing self arrests and walking in a rope team. They went back to the Lodge for a late lunch.Then they got packed up and ready to start climbing.
The next day they took the shuttle back to Paradise and started climbing. They climbed up to Camp Muir and estabilished high camp.The weather was still bad and they had to take shelter in their tents until the weather cleared. This picture was taken from Camp Muir looking over the Cowlitz Glacier towards Cathedral Gap.
In this pic Jason is hangin out with his tent mates Ed and Eric. Eric was already starting to suffer from the effects of altitude.
Jason rode out the storm in his tent and no one got much sleep because the storm was so loud. The next day the weather finally cleared and Jason was able to take this picture of the next peak, Mt Hood. You can see the storm clouds are now under them. This was a rest day for Jason's team. The team ahead of them were unable to summit because of the storm and were turned around at 12,000 feet.
On their rest day they were joined by the last guide, Gary. The walked across the Cowlitz Glacier to Cathedral Gap. They had to train to use their crampons and extabilish rope teams based on ability. They started out with 3 guides and 10 climbers. This picture is taken on the Cowlitz looking back at Camp Muir. If you look below the rope teams crossing the glacier you can see some large crevasses in the ice.
Here the rope teams are resting at Cathedral Gap and another group is passing through.
They returned to Camp Muir and prepared for their summit bid. They ate an early supper and went to bed at 6:00. Everyone got up at midnight, ate breakfast and prepared to summit. They hooked into their rope teams and set off at 1am across the Cowlitz Glacier. The weather was cooperating and everything was still and quiet, nothing coud be heard except the crunch of crampons in the frozen snow. It was still dark out and they walked by the light of their headlamps. Due to altitue sickness, one climber had to stay at Camp Muir. The climbing was steep and their were several crevasses that had to be crossed. The hardest climbing was Disappointment Cleaver. It was so steep it was almost like climbing a ladder. Eric was vomiting blood by this stage and at the top of Disappointment Cleaver he and another climber were turned around and taken back down by Pete. This is at about 12,000 feet and also the point where the sun finally came up. After a short break they continued to climb. It started to get colder and Jason had to start layering up and he also started to feel the altitude. At 13,000 feet the sun was out in full force, it was cold and Jason was really starting to feel the effects of the mountain. Basically he was cold and miserable. Then he wonders why I don't want to climb. Sounds fun doesn't it. At this point the climbe became a series of switchbacks. The teams in front of them were knocking stuff loose and it was coming down the mountain at them. They even had a snow shovel whiz by and barely miss them. At this point there were crevases that had he be crossed by snow bridge and seracs(huge ice blocks) overhanging the trail with increased avalanch risk. They made it to the false summit at 8am and Jason was worn out from the thin air, altitude and cold. This picture was taken from the true summit looking back across the crater at the false summit. They had to walk acroos the summit and the snow was real soft and difficult to walk in. Jason wasn't sure he was going to make it across.
This is Jason at the true summitt at about 8:30am. They stayed at the summit for about 30 minutes and then began the descent. You have to get down quickly because the mountain gets more dangerouse as the snow heats up throughout the day.
This is the descent. At about 1000 feet below the summit they came across a guy in his sleeping bag staked down in the snow that didn't make it and was waiting for his team. They weren't able to take many pictures because they haad to rush to get down and were only allowed 4 breaks on the ascent and 2 breaks on the way down.
The team arrived back at Camp Muir at around 1pm. Jason had a throbbing headache, dehydration and nausea. They packed up at Muir and continued all the way down to Paradise. By this time Jason was able to recover from the altitude and they were able to start climbing at their own pace and they would actually sit down and slide down the mountain and might of even had a snowball fight. They arrived at Paradise at 5:30om and took the shuttle back to the bunkhouse where they ate and received their certificates.
Here Jason is posing with his guides from left: Bob, Pete and Gary. This was Gary's 300th summit. That night they stayed at the bunkhouse and celebrated their successful summit. The next day Jason flew home. Once home Jason lost a toenail and his lips were swollen from sun exposure but he had a great time and said it was the best birthday present ever.
Looking back up the mountain.
