RMI 4-Day Summit Climb May 28-31st by WhittakerMtneer 2010-05-30 United States Washington Paradise Mountaineering 154 Views Like this Adventure Unlike this Adventure 2 Likes WhittakerMtneer Petermahoney

RMI Guide, Miles Clark used the SPOT while guiding on Mount Rainier May 28-31st.  Here's his trip report from the climb:

Paradise to Camp Muir

At 10am on May 30th a motley group of 9 clients and 3 guides gathered at Paradise (5,400 ft) in a cool misty cloud.  After a final gear check we looked up to see what the weather gods had to offer us that day.  A bit of wind and rain was nowhere near enough to hold any of us back.  The Memorial Day crowd had beaten in a nice trail up the Muir snowfield and we started up it.  The walking was good and a solid rhythm allowed day dreaming about the summit day to come.

At our first break I dropped my pack and cruised back down to Paradise with a client who wasn’t feeling well.  Upon getting that client comfortably set to head down in a RMI shuttle, I turned and began back up the snowfield hoping to reconnect with my team before they reached Camp Muir at 10,100 feet.

I put my head down in a west wind with rain and put one foot in front of the other for about 3 hours before rejoining the group 15 minutes before Camp Muir.  Upon arrival all the clients were in good spirits and happy to have made it to Camp Muir. 

After some hot drinks, water, dinner and a summit talk the climbers were ready for bed…..at 6pm.  Always a little weird to bed down at such an early hour, but the workout of coming up to Muir definitely makes it easier.

Camp Muir and Up

At approximately 2:15am the lead guides awoke our climbers with hot water for drinks and breakfast and informed them on the weather conditions.  By 3:30am we were all in harnesses, crampons, helmets with our packs on and ice axes in hand.  The weather had gotten worse overnight.  Snow was being swirled by a stiff breeze and two foot snowdrifts graced Camp Muir here and there.  Our objective was to climb and analyze the mountain as we went, taking it one stretch at a time.  

We fell into pace through powder snow across the Cowlitz glacier, up Cathedral Gap and into Ingraham Flats (11,000 ft), our first rest break.  The wind picked up a touch and the snow continued to come down at a moderate rate. 

From Ingraham Flats we pushed up through the many switchbacks of the Ingraham headwall to our next break at 12,500 ft.  The weather was worsening now with low visibility, stronger winds and more blowing snow.  Continuing onto the upper mountain would have put us in a position of much higher risk. 

It was here that our lead guides informed us that we were at our high point for the day.  Everyone understood the situation and most were pretty stoked to have made it as far up as we had in those conditions.

Hiking back down to Camp Muir was a little funky in the new snow, but definitely easy on the knees because of that soft new snow.

Camp Muir to Paradise

After one hour at Camp Muir we were ready to descend back to Paradise, where we had started our journey only 24 hours earlier.  The time was 9:30am when we left Muir.  The weather was stronger now with very low visibility and a strong west wind that drove snow against us.  The upper snowfield was easy going on fun fresh snow.  The lower snowfield was a little sloppy as the snow had turned to rain around 7,500 feet.  Nevertheless, we were back at Paradise and loading into the shuttles around 11am. 

Boots off and shoes on is always a highlight.

Once back in Ashford most folks enjoyed burgers off the grill and a cold beer.  A few of us even hung around until about 5pm laughing and telling stories.  I think these type of trips in difficult weather are even more rewarding than the perfect bluebird sky climbs.  You really earn every step up the mountain in challenging conditions and you feel pretty darn great about it once you’re done.