Mount Rainier Disappointment Cleaver in Early September

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I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking when I spontaneously decided to make Mount Rainier the first volcano I attempt to summit. On top of that, I decided to try and climb her in September, when the crevasse danger is relatively high. To make things even more interesting, this will be the first time I rope up, with ice axe in hand, crampons on my boots, to try and cross a glacier.

Anyway, this beautiful mountain will kick off my objective of climbing all 5 of Washington's volcanoes.

Off to a Rough Start

I originally planned for this trip to be with a party of 3, including myself. I would be joined by 2 old friends from high school. One of whom, Ricky, I hadn't seen since high school actually. I had found out that he had recently gotten into mountaineering and had already climbed a few volcanos, including Rainier. So, I reached out and we made a plan to climb together with another friend of ours.

Suddenly, long story short, on the day we had planned to leave Seattle, Ricky and I found out the third member of our party decided to bail without notice (very not cool). If you're reading this, please don't bail on a mountaineering trip last minute, especially without telling anyone (seriously, not cool). This causes things to change dramatically. Considering I had minimal experience we had to first, evaluate if it was still feasible to even attempt to climb this mountain. Then, we had to reconsider our gear management for one less person. Specifically, we needed to:

• Figure out if we could leave some gear behind due to a smaller group.
• Acquire gear that was supposed to be supplied by the third member of our party.
• Adjust who would carry what.

We also had to take into account the added risk of being a party 2, rather than 3. Safe glacier travel becomes a big concern with only two people. It's much more difficult to conduct crevasse rescue alone. Especially, if you've never practiced crevasse rescue techniques.

The Night Before: Leave Seattle

In the end, we both really wanted to climb Rainier and, the weather window looked pretty good. We decided that we would do 2 nights on the mountain and spend the first day going over basic crevasse rescue. Then, attempt to summit on the second day. I had done some research on crevasse rescue myself and was looking forward to actually practicing on the mountain. We left that night and slept in my car, somewhere close to Paradise - Mount Rainier National Park.

Day 1: Paradise - Mount Rainier National Park

We arrived at the location where we slept sometime after dark, maybe around 10:00pm. I think I slept well enough. We woke up around 6:30am and planned to make a quick stop at the Guide House when they opened to get our climbing permits.

We arrive at the Guide House to get our permits, and an update on the current weather conditions.

A Little Unexpected Change...?

The ranger gave us our climbing permits and proceeded to tell us that a small weather system that was expected to arrive in about 3 days, picked up some speed and is looking to arrive sooner than expected. Ricky and I asked a few questions regarding this, and we went on our way.

Once we left the ranger station, we sort of acknowledged amongst each other, the fact that there was potential bad weather conditions moving in and didn't speak much more about it. There was a moment though, where I thought this was less than ideal and the safest option was to simply prepare for a summit push one day sooner than we had planned. In the back of my head I knew Ricky was thinking the same thing.

The Climb Begins

We got packed up, put on our boots and hit the trail at almost exactly 9:00am.

The hike through Paradise is always pleasant. The trails are very well maintained and the vegetation is well protected. We quickly climbed past Panorama Point and up onto the Muir Snowfield.

Just below Camp Muir, I witness the first of many crevasses. It was a small one, just only 30-40cm at its widest point.

It's a little too early to be crossing crevasses, I wonder what it's like further up Rainier. I thought to myself...

Camp Muir

Getting up to Camp Muir wasn't so bad. We arrived at around 1:30pm. With our heavy packs, I'd say 4.5 hours is pretty good time! The clouds started to clear out and the sun was shining, it was a beautiful day with lots of eager climbers hanging around Camp Muir.

It was time to rest up a bit, grab some food and catch our breath. After we eat, relax and take a few pictures, I bring up the weather report we received at the Guide House.

After some discussion and risk analysis, we came to the conclusion that it would be safer to try and beat the weather system moving in, than to spend the next day going over crevasse rescue. We thought, it would be safer to not put ourselves in a situation where we would take on more risk, than to hope that the benefits of spending one day going over crevasse rescue would outweigh to risk of the incoming weather system. So, we both quickly agreed that the best decision was to make our summit push tomorrow morning, rather than waiting another day.

Not only is Rainier my first Washington volcano summit attempt but, we're planning on climbing her in less than 24 hours... Sweet.

We also decided this would be a great time to melt snow to refill on water. So, we resupply on water, get roped up and head out to camp. Camp Muir is a great spot to camp before making the final push to the summit but, we wanted to give ourselves a bit more of a head start.

We planned on making it to Ingraham Flats, which is on Ingraham Glacier, just next to Little Tahoma Peak and below the Ingraham Ice Falls. It's a great place to camp if you have the time and, if Camp Muir is crowded. It's at around 11,000ft elevation, giving you a 1,000ft head start from Camp Muir.

Ingraham Flats

We got to Ingraham Flats fairly quickly. It was around 5:30pm when we arrived. We got a nice view of the Ingraham Ice Falls as we approached camp. These ice falls are constantly moving and making loud crunching noises as the ice melts and moves around on itself.

The glacier surface had this wavy texture and was rock hard. We had plenty of room but, the surface was not easy to work with in terms of making a flat area for us to setup camp. It took us a while to carve out a flat spot for my large Nemo Chogori 2-person tent. But, after shoveling and picking away at the glacier surface with our ice axes, we manged to make it work. By the time we had the tent up and prepped for us to sleep, it was around 7pm. We quickly made some dinner before the sun went down and tried to get some sleep before an early alpine start.

Day 2: Summit Day

We woke up at around 1:30am, I think. we tried for a 2:00am start. It was a pretty good night of sleep for myself. I can't say the same for Ricky though. Sometime in the middle of the night, Ricky's sleeping pad popped and we didn't have any backups. This is a big reason by some people tend to bring both, an inflatable sleeping pad and, a closed-cell foam sleeping pad. It's miserable when you don't have any insulation to protect you from a literal frozen surface. He ended up sleeping on top of his pack and any extra clothes he had. I actually slept through the night quite well in my cozy 0-degree (Fahrenheit) sleeping bag.

We got roped up with headlamps on, and left camp at about 2:10am. We made our way from camp up and across the Disappointment Cleaver. Towards the end of Disappointment Cleaver I remember my ankles being pretty sore at this point. Trying to walk on rock and scree with crampons on can get pretty tiring, and hard on your ankles. After Disappointment Cleaver, we switch-backed around crevasses up toward the southeast crater rim.

During this section there was the longest, most exposed, and most seemingly precarious crevasse ladder crossings I have ever encountered. It was a crevasse where, the other side had lifted so high that the ladder sat at, at least, a 60° angle. It honestly might have been higher than that. Also, the ladder crossing was actually a double-ladder, attached together with rope. Looking at this thing, it was hard to trust. I really wish I got a picture of it but, being on Mount Rainier and crossing crevasses for the first time, taking a picture at this moment was the last thing I was thinking.

In order to cross safely, I set up a, sort-of, running belay while Ricky crossed. Essentially, I Prusik-hitched a cordelette to the rope and, attached the cordelette to my harness. As Ricky crossed I slowly fed rope out through the Prusik-hitch. This way, if he were to fall, there would be less slack in the system. He did the same for me as I crossed, except he took in slack as I crossed over toward him.

The Final Push

After the crazy double-ladder crossing, the rest of the way to the summit was pretty mellow. We just had to put our heads down and grind it to the top. We got to about a couple hundred feet below the southeast crater rim, which is just a, mostly flat, hike from the summit. At this point, the sun is rising and it's about 6:00am.

We officially made it to the crater rim at 6:25am and I'm starting to feel extremely accomplished and grateful for being in such a magical place. I realize...

I have never been this high before. This is so AWESOME!!!

We quickly trek across the crater of Mount Rainier. Crossing the crater of Mount Rainier was such an epic experience. It's just a really huge flat piece of ice. We hike up to the true summit, give each other some knuckles and take it all in. This was such a rewarding experience. We lucked out with awesome weather that day, it really wasn't too windy at the top. Though, it was extremely cold. We reach the summit at exactly 6:52am. It took us about 4 hours and 20 minutes to reach the summit from Ingraham Flats.

We open up the Mazamas box and sign the summit register, take some photos and prepare for the long hike back down. I completely forget about the weather system moving in, but Ricky keeps us on good pace to make it back in time before the weather system moves in on us.

The Descent

We make our way back down pretty quickly. I start to feel the initial excitement fade as the realization of the long trek back begins to surface. With that, I start feeling a little light headed and I have a slight headache. After a couple hours we get back down to our tent and I'm completely exhausted at this point. I stuff the tent and remaining gear in my pack and we get on our way.

Once we make it back down to Camp Muir, we look behind us and notice that the summit Rainier is completely covered in a thick cloud.

I am really glad we decided to go a day early. Climbing in that would not have been fun...

After a 20 minute nap in the Camp Muir Public Shelter, a sudden burst of energy comes over me and we start to head down down to the parking lot. We enjoy the nice sunny weather at the lower elevation and say bye to all the marmots that are running around Paradise. I've successfully completed Mount Rainier. It was a beautiful experience and I am beyond stoked to climb more mountains!