I was hiking in Southern California for about one and
half year and had hiked all major peaks in SoCal and also hiked Mount Whitney
in June 2015 – highest peak in lower 48 states. My hiking buddy Jerry motivated
me to take on Mount Rainier. Rainier is highest peak in Cascade range. A potentially active strata volcano and most glaciated peak in lower 48 states with 27 active glaciers.
This is the starting point and training ground for all top American mountaineers. Giant glaciers, steep climb and unpredictable weather of pacific northwest makes this mountain a perfect training ground for big Himalayan climbs.
With Jerry's motivation and desire to take the next big step,
in December 2015 I signed up for climbing Rainier. It was an uphill challenge
and I trained for 8 months for this mountain. Shopped around and bought all my
climbing gear. I was physically and mentally ready for this challenge by end of
July!
All excited about my 2016 adventure, I flew to Seattle on
morning of August 27th and stayed my friend Sushant Pathak’s place
for 2 days. Relaxed for 2 days and did some last minute shopping in Seattle
RMI.
Day 1 – August 29th
On afternoon of Monday 29th I drove to Ashford
which is base camp of all Mount Rainier climbs.
We had orientation of trip from 3pm to 6pm. We checked
all the gear during this orientation, and had introduction with my team members
After the orientation we packed our bags for next day’s
mountaineering school and surrendered to the beds
Day 2 – August 30th – Mountaineering school
day
We met 2 of our guides - JJ Justman and Lucas Halaand.
JJ had an impressive climbing resume with 1 summit of Everest, 20 summits of
Aconcagua and 237 summits of Rainier. We couldn’t have asked for a better
guide. Lucas was a newbie on Rainier but had 12 summits to his name.
RMI shuttle took us to Paradise visitor center.
After initial introduction with team we started our hike
for about 1 hour to lower snow field slopes of the mountain.
For next 3 hours we had training for rest stepping,
making corners, self-arrest, and roped travel. Stuff which looks easy in
YouTube videos turned out to be very challenging and tiring. It was fun to do
all those activities. After some rigorous but fun training we retraced our
steps back to paradise visitor center.
Day 3 – August 31st – Climb to Camp Muir
We met at 8am at the base camp in Ashford.
Our third guide
Pepper Dee joined us on this day.
After quick 5 minute update from guides we headed to
Paradise in RMI shuttle. At 9.30AM we stepped on the trail to Camp Muir. Today
we had to gain about 4,300 feet to reach 10,100 feet. Snow on the lower
altitude on mountain melts in late summer. We hiked on a dirt trail for about
1.5 hours to reach pebble creek.
Pebble creek is the beginning of Muir snowfields. We
changed into our mountaineering boots at this point. The weather turned foggy
as we were gaining elevation. We hiked on Muir snowfield for next 2.5 hours to
reach Camp Muir at around 2pm.
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| On Muir snowfield approaching Camp Muir. |
As we were 15 minutes away from Camp weather
became really windy and it started raining. We took all the required stuff for
summit day with us and dropped our packs outside of RMI bunkhouse. Found our bunk
space in the bunkhouse and started settling in for the night.
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| RMI Bunkhouse at Camp Muir - 10,188 ft |
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| Inside RMI Bunkhouse at Camp Muir |
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| At Camp Muir |
At 3PM 2 lead guides – JJ and Solveig came to bunkhouse
for summit talk. In 45 minutes talk they gave us some realistic expectations of
summit day.
At 4pm the guides provided us with warm water for dinner.
All of us had our gourmet dinner ;) and by 5pm most of us surrendered to the
sleeping bags.
Day 4 (Thursday September 1st)–
Our guides woke us up at midnight and have 1 hour to be
ready with our packs, and 15 more minutes outside the bunkhouse to wear
crampons and be summit ready. Although we had no appetite because of being at
altitude, we had to grab some breakfast. Everyone was ready by 1am and out of
bunkhouse. The wind from yesterday had died a little but it was still cold.
Temperature was around 20F, much below freezing point.
Rob from my team decided not to continue on the climb since he was not
feeling 100% at Camp Muir. It’s a hard decision after investing so much time and
money, but he took that call for good of the team. One definitely doesn’t want
to be a liability on Upper Mountain. So we were down to 6 members’ team at the beginning of
Summit day. Our 6 member team was divided on 3 different ropes each led by a
guide. JJ was leading with Martin and Richard, followed by Lucas with Johnny
and Morgan and then my team with Pepper, Matt and myself.
Our first leg of the climb was traversing Cowlitz glacier
and reaching Ingraham flats (11,200 ft). It was a gain of about 1,100 feet and took us
about 1 hour at a pace set by JJ. This section had a relatively gentle
elevation gain and everybody was performing really well.
At every break we were supposed to put our Insulated
Perka jacket on, eat about 300 calories, drink 300ml of water and sit down on
our backpacks. (Mountaineers say - why stand when you can sit, why sit when you
can lie down)
Our guides did a check on us to make sure that everybody
is in shape to continue the climb. JJ stepped on the trail with his team after
spending exactly 10 minutes at the flats. Soon other teams followed.
Next section was much steeper and longer section. We were
traversing disappointment cleaver – a section of loose rocks and scree. There
is a high risk of rock fall and ice avalanches in this section. So we had to
keep our pace and not take any breaks till we reach to the top of cleaver. This
section turned out to be much intense than first section.
We walked on Ingraham glacier for next 15 minutes,
descended about 200 feet to traverse around some massive crevasses – which we saw
while coming down in the daylight. After that section of 15 minutes we started
ascending cleaver – a section of loose rocks and scree. The guides shortened
ropes in order to gain control. We had to be very careful of not kicking any
loose rocks for safety of teams climbing below us. We had to keep pace for next
1.5 hour and that started kicking my butt. In mountaineering one cannot take
breaks anywhere except assigned spots in order to avoid risks of rock fall,
avalanches. Although I was struggling a little bit, I was sure that I will be
fine once I catch up with my breath at break#2. After 1.5 hours of climb we
reached to top of Disappointment cleaver 12,300 feet. We followed the same
rituals of break, only difference being it was getting tougher to do everything
– even opening packets of cliff bars.
Top of cleaver is the last point where you can turn
around. At this break you are committing yourself to summit. All guides asked
them their team if everyone was feeling good. Pepper asked me as well and my
response was I am feeling 80%, but confident of summit.
2 folks – Richard from my team and Nicole from other team
chose to turn around. Another tough decision, but good for the team!
Next leg of climb was reaching high break at 13,500. This
entire section was climb on very steep trail on hard glaciated ice. Climb was
getting more intense as we were gaining altitude. Initial 30 minutes after
break#2 were relatively conformable for me. But then I started struggling
significantly – mainly due to altitude kicking my butt. I was not pressure
breathing as much as I should have had done. My oxygen saturation was going
down and I was able to feel it. At this point Pepper started yelling at me to
breathe properly and keep walking.
Now the sun was rising above the clouds and we were able
to get amazing views around. We were above any other place in state of
Washington. We could see Mount Adams and Mount Hood to our south. This is
probably the most serene view I have witnessed in my life so far. Although I
was tired, I was able to enjoy the views around me.
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| Navigating switchbacks to high camp. 5.30 AM 12,600 feet |
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| Sunrise over Little Tahoma |
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| Mount Adams in front and Mount Hood (Oregon) in background |
After climbing for about 2 hours we finally reached high
break 13,500 feet, our last break before summit. Here Pepper shouted at me – “
I know you are tired. I asked you at Break 2 and you said you will come up. You
committed to the summit when you said that. Right now you are not walking in
style. We are going to drop your pack here. You are going to eat, drink water,
breathe, rest step and keep walking. You have no other option.” (Later on he
told me that that shouting was part of motivation technique to ignite burning
desire inside me). Although I was tired, I knew I was able to push myself to
summit. With all the hiking I had done, I had the endurance and confidence to
go down safely. So I gathered all my energy and started walking the last leg in
style. We were about 1 hour away from Crater summit. Conditions turned super
windy with winds blowing at 30mph. That coupled with altitude slowed us down.
My struggle was real as we were 400 vertical feet away from Summit. At this
point Pepper pulled the rope to drag me and keep up the pace.
All the teams came to a sudden halt when my team was at
around 13,900 feet. Solveig was leading the climb and she decided to call off
the expedition because it was too windy to continue further. Moreover because
of intense wind an ice bridge collapsed and a crevasse became wide open. The
conditions were not the best for 16 people to cross that crevasse.
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At 13,900 feet where Solveig almost decided to call off the climb |
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| Wide Open Crevasse at 13,800 feet |
At that point I was just glad to catch a break :) .
Solveig waited for about 2 minutes. Luckily the wind died down a little bit.
She decided to push through and was able to cross the crevasse comfortably.
Then rest of the gang followed her footsteps and at 8am
we made it to Creator summit at 14,300 feet!
Rainier is a potential active stratovolcano. It has 2
overlapping volcanic craters at the top. We entered the larger crater from
south eastern side. All of us dropped our packs. Everyone was exhausted. But
all of us had achieved something which very few people are able to accomplish.
This was the pinnacle of all our emotional, financial investment.
We would have celebrated in style on any other day, but
today was not that day. It was very
windy and cold at crater. Wind was about 40mph and temperature was about -5F.
Most us were so tired that we opted not to go to true summit, which was about
10 minutes away. Only 3 folks and 4 guides went to true summit. Other 8
climbers and 1 guide chose to call crater rim the summit for the day.
We savored on our rock hard cliff bars and water. Took a
break for about 20 minutes and tried to keep fire going inside us.
The hard part of being at summit is, you are only half
way done. You have to go all the way down now – the hardest part of
mountaineering.
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| My team approaching crater. Pic courtesy - Stacie Steele |
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| View from true summit - Pic Courtesy Matt Kayal |
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| Martin and Myself at Summit Crater |
Once everyone was back from true summit, we roped up
again and started retracing our steps. Downhill climb was easy on our lungs but
was very tiring on our legs. We started descending quickly and reached high
break in about 45 minutes. I picked up my backpack which Pepper made me drop on
the way up. We kept up nice and steady pace. Now we were able to see that
massive glacier and all those giant crevasses which we traverse in the
darkness.
After walking for about 2 hours at 11am we reached our
break#5 at top of disappointment cleaver.
We shed layers, had food and water. Next section was descending on loose
rock and scree which we climbed in dark. We shortened the ropes and started
descending on this section. Descending on rocky trail with your crampons on is
art of balancing your body weight. It is much more tiring on lungs than one
would imagine. At around noon we reached our last break at Ingraham flats. Now
we had last 30 minutes of gentle trail left to camp Muir. We completed this
last section appreciating the glacier and crevasses we crossed in dark about 8
hours ago.
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| Last break of the climb- Ingraham flats |
At 12.30pm we reached camp Muir. We had 1 hour to load
our stuff which we had left behind at bunkhouse. Everybody was efficient in
doing things by now. We got ready by 1.30pm.
Now we had to cover last 4,500 feet of home stretch on
Muir snowfield and then dirt trail. Although we had our heavy packs with us
now. Solveig gave us some tips for boot skiing, which is a way to use gravity
for our advantage. Somehow I did not master this art for next 1 hour and fell
down multiple times. Finally gave up on booth skiing and opted for
glissading. After 1.5 hour on Muir
snowfield, we reached pebble creek. Most of us changed into our hiking booths
here. Last 1 hour was on a dirt trail and we had a comfortable walk downhill. I
got a chance to thank Pepper personally for his push earlier this morning. We
had some good conversation. Finally at 4pm we reached paradise visitor center.
Yes!!! I did it. Mount Rainier is in my bag now. I had achieved my 2016 goal in style. I had a sense of accomplishment like
never before.
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| Its not the mountain we conquer but ourselves - Sir Edmund Hillary |
My recommendation for prep –
1) Be in the shape of your life!
2) Focus on cardio strength and endurance
3) Make sure you have strong legs
4) If you can, practice hiking with 30lb+ pack
5) Take rest 1 week before the climb. Don't push yourself too hard
6) Train harder than you can imagine!!!
7) Be in Shape of your lifetime! ( I started this list with the same point for a reason. Because you really really need to be in shape of your lifetime! This a beast of a mountain)
My recommendations during the climb -
1) Don't try new foods before the climb. Know what foods work for you the best
2) Stay hydrated at Camp Muir to avoid altitude sickness
3) Have ibuprfane or advil if you feel mild headache. Mild headaches are normal
4) Carry good quality of gloves and socks. Don't be cheap on that. Chemical hand warmers help a lot. Strongly recommended during winter conditions
5) Pressure breathe and rest step- don't forget this. It will be your lifesaver
6) Listen to your body. Turn around if you are not feeling strong.
It has to be a roundtrip and one doesn't want to become a liability on high mountain
7) Listen to your guides. RMI guides know what they are doing
8) Enjoy yourself. This is once in a lifetime adventure
