Carson Seaberg, Brian Mulvany, and I summitted Mt Rainier in August of 2011. We were accompanied by Julie Smith an experienced mountaineer who has done every major peak in the world even Everest. At 51 Julie was a rock star literally passing slower groups on our way up.
Sounds easy right? Not at 13,000 feet at 3:00 am in the morning with headlamps, crampons, and 30 mile per hour winds. All the while knowing there are crevasses in the glaciers below. We left base camp at 1:00 am and reached the summit at around 6:00 am.
Carson was just behind me on our rope team. After Disappointment Cleaver we headed due north all the way to the Emmons Glacier just as the sun was beginning to warm the mountainside. It was heavenly looking back at Little Tahoma and the other various peaks as they poked through the clouds.
It was a cold summit that day. The rest of Washington was enjoying sun, but not on the top of Rainier. A cloud got caught on the top for about 2 hours and that happened to be the exact time I was there.
After hitting a couple golf balls off the summit towards Seattle, taking a couple pictures, and signing the log book we headed down. I’m going to reserve the pee drinking story for another day…
We found ourselves coming down heading northeast on the Emmons Glacier. We rounded the corner towards the south and crossed some breathtaking crevasses.
I tried to take pictures but cameras can’t factor in the altitude and 360 panorama.
I’ve always heard most accidents happen on the descent. It’s understandable after having done it several times. A person only has so much energy and it’s a stress on one’s metal and physical stamina. It’s a face-slapping, focusing event which persists for hours and hours.
Check out all the photos and videos at: http://s1084.photobucket.com/albums/j410/MtRainierteam/
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