I thought I would start you off with a picture of the beautiful mountain. Mt. Rainier is located in Washington State a little more then an hour southeast of Seattle. Mt. Rainier is a dormant volcano and is one of the tallest Mountains in the lower 48 states. At 14,411 feet it is the tallest mountain of the Cascade Range.

In 2005 a group of people including, my wife and me, were planning on climbing the mountain in early July. Our guide, a man by the name of Mark, always takes his groups on a training day up to 10,000 feet before the actual attempt to get the team used to hiking together, being roped in and doing training exercises and emergency drills.

Now this was not going to be my first time on the mountain. A few years before this I had made my first attempt at the summit. Again I was guided by Mark, who has multiple summits on Mt. Rainier. At an elevation of somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 feet the altitude got the best of me. Up came the little food I had eaten the night before mixed with the red Gatorade I had been drinking as we climbed. To this day I have never had a red Gatorade. The altitude sickness was not what stopped our attempt. I can hike through being sick. That is not that big a deal. We were making our attempt in August and some of the trail had become quite technical. Well myself and another climber were beginners, and the 15 foot long, 18 inch wide ice bridge was the determining factor for turn around. Knowing we had nearly 2000 feet more and its bound to get even more technical because of the melting snow, the group decided to head back to camp and call it an attempt. I was thrilled. Regardless this story is not about that trip but the training day.

The morning of the climb to 10,000 feet was beautiful. A few clouds blotting the bright blue sky and a crisp chill was in the air. Our climb started with a 3 mile hike in before we hit the glacier and need to rope together. It is not always necessary to rope in so early, but for the sake of training the team Mark wanted us to rope in when we did. The first 3 miles felt amazing and our excitement to hit the glacier grew with every step. That 3 miles would prove to cause many tears on the way out.

A fresh snow had fallen over the previous few days, so covering the ground was nearly 2 feet of unplowed snow.  Luckily a few of the guys in our group were experienced mountaineers and in extremely good shape.  They went ahead of the group and plowed the trail for the rest of us.  This still did not make the going easy.  Walking through fresh snow and post holing every step zaps your energy quickly.  We pressed on towards our goal and the only thing to change was our altitude and the weather.  By about 8,000 feet the blue sky had been swallowed up by a local weather system.  Mt. Rainier is so large that it can create its own weather patterns.  So although the towns located around the mountain were still experiencing beautiful blue skies, the mountain was stirring up its own weather surprises. 

Mt. Rainier has a topographic prominence of 13,210 feet.  That means at the base of the mountain it covers that much land.  To put that in perspective, it is the largest topographic prominence of every mountain on the continent of North America, and has a larger topographical prominence then the 2nd tallest mountain in the world K2(13,189 feet).  This gigantic base is one of the main causes for the weather systems on Mt. Rainier.

Well by the time we reached 9,000 feet the weather really started to pick up.  The wind was fierce and picked up the top layer of light blanketing snow and turned it into a near whiteout.  Shortly after this Mark decided to stop and do some training exercises with the team.  He later told me that he likes extreme weather on training days because then climbers do not underestimate the power of the mountain.  We went through some of the training and decided instead of hiking up the few hundred more feet to base camp, which was our goal, we would head back down the mountain now.  The weather had really picked up and we were experiencing 40-60 mph winds and gusts up to 80.  Luckily Mark is a professional and had marked our trail for the way down.  Even though most of the way up was beautiful and clear he still marked the trail.  This proved to be a great move on his part because the way down we could not see but 20 feet in the white out.  We could see just enough to see our next marker and hike to it.  

When we turned around most people were very happy that decision was made, including myself.  My body does not acclimate that quickly to high altitude and even at 8000 and 9000 feet I really started feeling the affects of it.  I had no appetite and was extremely fatigued.  Because of this I was excited to turn back around and drop a few thousand feet because I knew I would feel so much more refreshed.  For a lot of the team though it was the way down that was the worst. 

Typically people think that the way down is much easier then the way up.  Well when there is 2 feet of snow and you sink in deep with every step this is not true.  Hiking down takes more balance and more strength in your legs then going up.  It also takes more energy out of you because not one of your steps is stable and your always shifting on your feet.  This made the way down very grueling.  Especially when you are roped in with 3 or 4 other people.  Once we got down to 6000 feet I felt like a new person because I was out of the altitude.  My appetite returned and I ate a candy bar I had in my pack and go the energy I needed to bust my way down the mountain.  Well bust my way down the mountain I could not do because I was roped in with some other fellows and were not quite feeling as refreshed as I was. 

This whole time my wife had been doing better then I was.  She hiked up faster and at the top was more functional.  She did not experience the altitude like I had and she was in excellent shape.  On the way down those roles switched.  Once I came out of the altitude it was like I was a new person, well by then my wife had started to feel extremely tired and was ready to be done.

We hit the bottom of the snow and were able to untie the ropes and hike solo.  The only thing that awaited us was the 3 mile hike out.  3 miles does not seem like a whole lot, but when you have already been hiking for 12 hours through 2 feet of snow, 3 miles is an eternity.  We started off and initially it felt good.  Well then night started to fall and the desire to get off the trail increased.  I was hiking with my wife so that we could encourage each other to make it all the way.  Multiple times my wife burst into tears from fatigue and her boots rubbing her shins raw.  I kept telling her the parking lot was around the next corner.  I knew that I was lying because I had experienced this hike once before and knew it was a long one.  She afterward told me she was glad I kept telling her that it was just around the corner because it helped keep her going.  By the end of the three miles I have to admit I started believing myself and hoping that it really would be around the next corner.  That 3 miles is so brutal and long and painful, but once you see the parking lot all that pain fades and pure relief and joy flood your body.  When you take a 40 pound pack off after 14 hours of hiking you feel like you are just going to float away, and your legs feel like they walk for you.  It is a great feeling.   

We later found out that on the same day of our climb two climbers from the other side of the mountain never made it back down.

Because of the beautiful weather to start the day these two climbers headed off for just a day trip up the mountain.  Turns out that one of them was in shorts and the other in jeans.  Unfortunately they were unprepared for the sudden and drastic change in weather.  In the white out got lost and were not able to get out or be rescued in time. 

It is vitally important to be prepared for any conditions on Mt. Rainier, or any mountain you climb.  Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.