Planning began and the climb started to come together. From past experience I have learned that the best weather window to climb Rainier is late July/early August, so we decided on the first week of August and to make it part of a larger Potts family vacation/road trip. That week worked the best for John as well, but my brother had to drop out because of other scheduling conflicts. It wasn't long though and we had other family and friends who wanted to climb with us. We ended up with a great group of eight climbers to be split up into two rope teams of four. Joining John and I were: Jim Germain, Ray Germain, Michael and Nadya Novak, Aaron Hanson, and Ryan Bledsoe. Only Ryan had climbed the mountain before with me in 2004 but the rest had either been on Rainier before or had climbed elsewhere and were ready to try Rainier.
In the end this trip turned out to be a really a great climb with some really great people. I debated on how to post the pictures and story behind the trip and decided to do it differently than I have before. This time I decided to add my daily journal notes followed with pictures from each days events. I hope you enjoy the trip.
Monday, August 3, 2009 (Meeting Up)
Today we continued our trip to Mount Rainier National Park. Last night we camped on the Oregon/Washington border on the Columbia River. We only have 250 or so miles to go and plan on being at our campsite in the Cougar Rock campground around 1:00 p.m.We arrive around 1:30 in the afternoon. Jim and Ray Germain, and John Graves and his nephew Aaron Hanson are already there and help us set up camp. About an hour after we arrive Michael and Nadya Novak roll in and Ryan Bledsoe shows up around 4:00 p.m.
When the Novak's arrive Nadya asks if I've seen the weather forecast. I hadn't and it sounds like there is a storm rolling in around Thursday, our planned summit day. We talk about this a little bit and decide to wait to make any decisions until after we talk to the climbing rangers at Paradise when we go to get our climbing permit.
A few of us get to Paradise about mid-afternoon we find that the permit office has just closed, but we do get a chance to talk to one of the climbing rangers. She tells us that the forecast does state there is a chance of a storm moving in on Thursday and, if we'd like, we can show up in the morning and change our permits to climb on Wednesday instead of Thursday. We head back to camp to talk it over and do a little training.
Back at camp we string a rope up in a tree where I explain and demonstrate the use of prussics to get out of a crevasse if you fall in. I, with Nadya's help, tie prussics for those who don't have them and we each take turns practicing here in the campground where it's safe .
While we practice we decide that we don't want to chance the weather and that we should pack up and go to our high camp tomorrow. This way we can make our summit attempt on Wednesday instead of Thursday. The original plan was to use Tuesday to do more training on crevasse rescue, rope systems, crampon use, and roped travel. Now we will have to cover the basics of that training on the way up the Muir Snowfield to Camp Muir.
Our campsite along the Columbia River Oregon/Washington border.
Explaining and demonstrating the use of prussics to get out of a crevasse in case you fall in.
Nadya Novak taking her turn "prussicing" up the rope.
Nadya setting up camp.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 (Getting Packed and Climb to Camp Muir)
Lisa treats us to a great Dutch Oven breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage, eggs, and hash browns after which we all start packing our bags for our hike up to Camp Muir.Myself and a few others drive up to Paradise around 9:00 a.m. to get the permits changed to climb tomorrow with an optional night's stay of Wednesday night. We get back to the campground around 10:00 a.m. and we all head back to the trailhead around 11:00 a.m. On the way we were stalled by a bad accident so we didn't start the hike up to Camp Muir until about 12:30 p.m.
Most of us made it to Muir around 5:30 p.m. where we got busy setting up camp, making dinner, melting snow for water, and packing bags for a midnight ascent. When we were about half done brewing water, we ran out of fuel. In our haste to get ready and climb earlier than originally planned we now found ourselves in a situation where we didn't have enough water for a safe ascent or the ability to cook any meals. I have never used canister stoves before in the mountains but others swore by them for their lack of fuss. We learned the hard way that they just don't burn hot enough at altitude. If we'd have been at a lower elevation we may have had enough fuel, but at 10,000 feet we didn't.
Michael graciously offered to run down and get more fuel the next day while we held another training day on the glaciers above high camp. We'd have to take the risk the weather would hold for a Thursday ascent. I told everyone I would get up at midnight to check with the guide services to see if they had extra fuel and/or water. If they did the Wednesday climb might go forward, but if not we'd have to either end the climb or have Michael get more fuel.
Throughout the day the weather was very windy with a frequent lenticular cloud cap forming over the summit. Both of those forecast a coming storm; the question was, would it hold off long enough for us to safely summit?
Lisa making an awesome Dutch Oven breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage, and hash browns.
Everyone was pretty amazed at our first breakfast.
Ryan Bledsoe
Michael Novak
Nadya Novak
The chef extraordinaire!!
Aaron Hanson
Ray Germain
Michael and Nadya
John Graves
Our wonderful helper Hannah.
Caleb
Hannah trying out Dad's pack (with a little help from the tailgate).
Ray getting ready to go.
Our awesome kids ready to hike part way up the trail with us.
Our family in the amazing beauty of Mount Rainier National Park.
Playing in glacial runoff.
The flowers of Paradise.
Jim Germain making his way up the trails that leave the Paradise Visitors Center on our way to Camp Muir.
Michael and Nadya very happy to be here.
The last sections of the maintained trails near treeline.
Aaron is liking this too.
Our team making their way up the Muir Snowfield on the way to Camp Muir.
Camp Muir. The guide services hut is on the left and the Park rangers use the building on the right.
Our campsite at Camp Muir on the edge of the Cowlitz Glacier.
Myself on the ridgeline at Camp Muir considering our situation.