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Hydrating on Muir snow field
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Mountaineering Day school
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Mount Rainier from Paradise
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Passing through the clouds
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Damon at Camp Muir
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Muir Hut
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Inside the spatious Muir Hut
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Bad Weather
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Mount Adams
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Mount Rainier attempt
June 2008
Ashford , WA
posted by Nomad75
I started out the day before the actual climb completing day school mountaineering training that is offered through RMI. The class teaches skills that would be needed for a safe summit attempt of Mount Rainier. I did the trip by myself but part of a 9 man team that was guided. During our training class the weather was nasty. We trained on the lower slopes of Mount Rainier and I was concerned that the weather could cancel our climb.
The next morning we drove back up to Paradise to start our climb and the weather was beautiful. The sun was out and you could actually see the mountain. I was starting to wonder if the mountain was really there because up to that point no one had seen the mountain through all of the rain, sleet, snow and ice. Our group made it to Camp Muir in five hours which included four rest stops which consisted of five to ten minute breaks to drink, eat and apply more sun screen. The climb to this point was non-technical and the trail for the most part was snow ranging from 3 to 6 inches.
Once we made it to Camp Muir we downloaded our gear and setup in the Muir hut which is a small shelter that holds roughly 18 climbers. The space was tight and the smell of sweaty feet and gas overpowered the senses. Once we settled in we ate a quick dinner drank plenty of fluids and tried to get to sleep around 6:00 P.M. That was hard to do with the anticipation of the climb, the sun peaking through the windows and the sound of 17 other climbers snoring and farting. Eventually I did get some sleep and around 2:00 A.M. the guides woke us with the bad news. During the night the weather had taken a turn for the worse. It was basically white out conditions with wet snow, ice and wind. The guides told us to suit up and be ready to climb in case the weather broke, but our chances did not look good. About an hour later it was official, we would not be going for the summit. The weather was too bad and the conditions further up the mountain were perfect for avalance.
At that point the plan was to go back to sleep and wait out the storm for our descent back to paradise. At 8:00 A.M. the guides woke us up again and told us to prepare for the descent, the weather was still nasty but we had to get down. On the way down we moved fast. No one wanted to be out in that type of weather, it was just plain nasty. The snow drifts that we were walking trough at times were up to our knees and my goggles and beard kept freezing over with ice. Our guide John did a great job of finding our way down with the limited visibility. We finally made it down to Paradise safely and it only took us 2 hours.
Once I made it home from the trip I found out the the next day a climbing group of three became lost in the same storm that we came down in along the Muir snowfield. The climbers were eventually rescued but unfortunatley one of the climbers died. At that point I was thankful that I had decided to use a guide service.
I wasn't upset that I did not make the summit because along the way I met some great people and the views were increadible, when the weather wasn't bad anyway. I will definately go back some day to make the summit.
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