Day 4 – Summit Day!
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
My apologies in taking so long to post this. Between school starting back up, the end of 3rd Quarter at my real job, a weekend trip to see a big win, and putting the final touches on the opening of Papa Johns in Chicago, it has been super busy. I’m actually gratified that I’ve received a couple emails from folks awaiting summit day – so as I bask in the glow of the Bears win, here goes.
Although I had convinced myself that the reason I went to Rainier and paid the premium to use RMI was to learn all the skills – the highlight of any trip is almost always Summit Day. You save your dry pair of socks, and your favorite clif bars for that day. You probably have a little trouble sleeping the night before, and get some butterlies in your stomach. It’s a little like Christmas Eve (what – Christmas in your family didn’t involve getting up in the middle of the night and hiking uphill for hours on end?) We were all awakened at 2am on Wednesday morning for Summit day. Up until that point, my knee had still be bothering me quite a bit from the Half Marathon on Sunday, but the adrenaline always has a healing effect – I was ready to go!
We had about an hour to get ready – which sounds like a lot but there are about a hundred million little things to do. Breakfast needs to get made, wardrobe layers are discussed, bags are packed and repacked, blisters need to be duct taped, and then you put on clothes, crampons, and everything else. We were probably about 15 minutes late, but headed out of camp at 3:15 or so with excitement in the air.
When we start climbing a mountain in the dark, it always reminds me of the song about the ants marching. All you really see is a bunch of little headlamps, moving up the mountain. I was roped in with Mike, Shannon, and Garrett again, and we climbed for about an hour or so and stopped at the same site where we had rested the previous day. I was feeling much more comfortable in the crampons than I had the previous day – moving with much more ease and efficiency. The next part of the climb was the most treacherous, climbing up a large, narrow rock wall called Disappointment Cleaver. You can see the rock wall on the right of this picture of the route, which I found on a Tripod(!) website.
Route up Rainier
The climb wasn’t incredibly dangerous, but it was long, exhausting, tedious, and tough to do while not tripping over ropes. You also had to be very careful not to dislodge loose rocks, knocking them down onto the climbing team below you. Because of those hazards, we used a short rope technique. That allowed us to move quickly, and reduced the risk of knocking down rocks, but also made us even more unwieldy.
We made it to the top of the Cleaver without incident about 90min later, and were able to take some time to rest before the next stretch. I was eating gorp and gu chomps, while rationing myself to about 1/3 of a litre of water per stop. It was definitely getting colder and windier as we climbed into higher elevations.
The Top of Dissapointment Cleaver
After the Cleaver, we had to cross a 4-ft ice cravass which had a ladder across it. I was only thinking about crossing the Khumbu icefall as I went across – it was very cool. We would be on snow/ice the rest of the way up, which was a welcome reprieve from the rocky climbing.
It was about this time that I really started to reflect on how different traveling on ropes is to normal backpacking. There are certainly physical differences, but the more wearying aspect is psychological. It is very important to keep the appropriate rope interval (distance between climbers) while climbing. You literally have to keep pace with the person in front of you within a couple of inches. Further, the trail is narrow to the point that if a team ahead has to stop for some reason, it is very difficult to pass them. Your pace is very much at the mercy of everyone else. You don’t have the option of slowing/stopping for a sip of water or to snap a quick photo – you are part of a team that needs to move with almost military precision. Add to that the fact that your safety is literally tied to your partners, and it really became apparent that mountaineering was much more a team than an individual sport.
You also want to develop rapport and rhythm with your rope team – its a matter of safety and efficiency. For this reason, you want to keep those teams intact when possible on longer trips. This necessitates you being with the same folks the whole time – you can’t simply walk in a different spot in line if you want to chat with someone different. Truth be told – there’s not a lot of chatting anyway, most of the communication is limited to climbing-related topics, and everyone needs to stay alert to the potential dangers.
Anyway, after another traverse and a final rest stop, we got ready for our final summit assault. The sun was coming up, but it was also pretty windy up there – and freezing cold during the break (even with an insulating layer.) Garrett had brought up some hot cider which he generously offered to share – but I couldn’t bring myself to take any of it. Although it looked fantastic, I didn’t like the idea of using any resources I hadn’t packed with me, so I declined. (Garrett and Shannon complimented my style – a real point of pride at that moment.)
We got up from the cold, pushed on through, and made it up to the summit ridge! Although it’s not the highest I had been, I did think about the description from Peak Bagger: “Mount Rainier is perhaps the single most impressive mountain in the 48 contiguous United States. No other peak has the combination of high elevation, massive bulk, and extensive glaciation–and Mt. Rainier stands alone in splendid isolation.” I was certainly excited!
We made it up to the top of the Crater Rim (14,200.) One of our teammates had turned around at the top of the Cleaver (more on that in a later story), so we were 11 strong plus our guides at that point. The guides described that point as having “basically summitted,” and told us we could go ahead to the Columbia Crest – the true summit at 14,411 ft if we wanted. Bad weather was brewing up, however, and they cautioned us that if we wanted to head to the crest, we’d need to head back down with almost no rest. Needless to say, I didn’t climb that far to “almost make the top” and headed straight for the summit with probably 6-7 other climbers. We made it to the top, signed our names in a log book, and started the customary Summit Photo Shoot. (Note the bad weather in the background over Mt Adams.)
Rainier Summit - marker is by my right foot
We got back down, right as the weather was starting to turn very nasty and got in out of the snow. I took a couple picture that evening to show how things were turning on us.
Snow That Evening
Back in Camp - With Insulating Layer in the Cold
Out of the cold, back in the hut with dinner and warm cocoa we exchange climbing stories, and heard all sorts of stuff from Seth and Andy. I’ll try to document some of it in the next couple days – but I’m going to hit the sack now.
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