Summit Denied
Here’s a trip report for a summit attempt from one of the guys who does BGT with me.
Climbing Mt. Rainier has been a goal of mine for a long time and my
opportunity finally arrived in late July of 2007. Christopher,
Steve, and I decided upon attempting the Emmon’s route. Though
supposedly a longer, harder approach with more crevasse danger it has
less rockfall danger than some of the other routes on the mountain.
Our first night’s hike to Glacier Basin was uneventful. Steve, our
third team member, had flown out from Minnesota and had already been
at the Basin and scoped out a primo site. After setting up the tent
we enjoyed some quesadillas and headed to bed. The next day we were
up fairly early and on our way to Camp Schurman. We decided to rope
up on the Inter glacier to practice walking as a rope team since this
was the first time the three of us had shared a rope with each
other. It was also my first time hiking on a glacier roped up. I
had hoped to gain some rope experience on my Mt. Whitney trip in
April but a Sierra Snowstorm stopped us at 11,500′. Back to Rainier,
Christopher and I set a pretty hard core pace and quickly wore Steve
out. We slowed down to a reasonable pace that we could all keep but
the initial climb took a lot of Steve. We made it to Camp Schurman by
early afternoon and set up camp and made dinner. After dinner that
it became apparent that Steve wasn’t prepared physically to head any
further up the mountain. He was a last minute addition so we didn’t
give him enough time to properly prepare. Sleep didn’t come until 8pm
and then we were up at 11:30 that night to make our summit attempt.
We had partnered up with a 3 person team for the summit attempt.
Since I was a newbie we wanted to have the security of another team
in case we ran into trouble. The mountain was gorgeous at midnight,
just a slight moon cast on Steamboat Prow and the lights of Seattle
gleaming in the distance. The wind was blowing but it wasn’t cold
initially, but as we started up the mountain the wind picked up and
was steadily blowing 30+ mph and causing me to get chilled. A pair
of mitts, and a long sleeve shirt under my shell and a beanie quickly
remedied that issue. The mountain and crevasses were beautiful as we
progressed slowly up the mountain. I did not experience any ill
effects from the altitude, but I did take diamox and except for some
tingling in my feet had no side effects. Everything was slow going
as we wanted to stay with the three person team we had partnered up
with. At 12,400 feet one of their team members became fatigued and
we bivied him down. After that we continued up the mountain and made
it to the bergschrund at 13,600′. This proved to be the crux of the
trip. In my opinion the bergschrund wasn’t too bad, and had about a
55 degree pitch snowbridge with some exposure on the sides. A team
before us had placed some pickets for pro, so Chris and I were pretty
comfortable using our axes and front pointing on the crampons, but a
member of the other team did not feel comfortable with the crossing
and seemed to be getting fatigued. Christopher and I wanted the
safety net of another team while descending so we decided as a group
not to continue on and turned around. I can’t say there wasn’t some
disappointment, but that’s life and the mountain isn’t going
anywhere. Safety, teamwork, and honoring one’s word is more
important than bagging a summit. The hike down wasn’t eventful
except that it was a long slog back to Schurman, some rest and then
the long slog back to the cars. We arrived back at the cars at 8:15
pm and hit a Mexican joint in Enumclaw for dinner and then the long
drive home to Snoqualmie. After being up for 24 hours I was ready to
go to bed, but a shower was required before my wife would let me in
the bed!I learned several lessons on this trip. One is that though I was
physically prepared for the trip, I didn’t have a good grasp of the
rope skills that I needed for glacier travel. Christopher and I
spent a weekend practicing on the Inter Glacier before the trip and
that really opened my eyes to what I didn’t know that I didn’t know.
Another thing I learned is to enjoy the journey instead of focusing
only on the summit. I had a great time building my relationship with
my hiking buddies and had a great opportunity to make a new friend in
Steve. Mt Rainier isn’t going anywhere, well unless there is an
eruption, but I am happy to have had a great experience on the
mountain. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to summit it, but
there is joy in the experience that is under valued. I look forward
to a return visit with the Mountain and future glacier climbs.
