Mt. Rainier was AWESOME!!!...but I never want to do that again...

We arrived at Paradise Ranger Station at 8am. The ranger informed us that the only route still climbable on the south side of the mountain was Disappointment Cleaver route. So, we packed up and hit the trail at 9:30am. Parking lot was packed with guide services taking people up the mountain, probably 30+ people. We hiked from Paradise (5500ft) to Camp Muir (10000ft), beautiful hike. Arrived at Camp Muir shortly after 2pm, and to our amazement THERE WAS A CASTLE FOR US TO SLEEP IN!!! well, it's really just a little bunk house made out stone, but it is kind of in the shape of a little castle...we had planned on packing the three of us into a two man tent, so we were super excited.

Afternoon at Muir: ate ramen and mashed potatoes for lunch, had a little nap nap in the sweet bunk castle, woke up to the sound of two europeans blabbing about something. They were fully decked out in climbing gear, harnesses on, roped up...but it was almost 4 in the afternoon. You only climb a mountain like Rainier by moonlight, when the ice is strongest(coldest). I asked them, “are you guys going up” “YA!” the bigger one said, and smiled...I drifted back to sleep...I woke the second to lots of commotion, people talking about a helicopter rescue!?! WHAT THE CHEESE!?! Went out side and Ranger Felip was in a flight suit and helmet talking with the helicopter that was in route. We climbed about fifty feet up the ridge and watch the helicopter drop in and pick up this guy who we think had a heart attack...very cool to watch (I'm still a little obsessed with PJ's). Dinner came next, freeze dried meals, then a thirty minute snow melt session (thanks a lot to the solo guy for letting us borrow his water filter) to get enough water for that nights climb. Crawled into our sleeping bags around 7:30pm.

12:30am castle bunk was going berserk! The two Europeans (Hanz and Franz aka team Holland aka two really nice pilots who were on a one week layover in Seattle) were busy roping up, solo guy was heading out the door, team NewYork (two native New Yorkers and one Australian) were having a team meating...one of them was feeling ill. We had pop tarts for breakfast, geared up, the hit the climb. As soon as we stepped out side we felt the wind...blowing really hard...REALLY hard...we dropped onto Cowlitz Glacier out of the wind. Crystal clear night, moon and stars shining, you could climb without your light on it was so bright! We looked out across the glacier and saw many groups of headlamps headed up. This glacier was easily crossed and at its end we climb on loose scree to the top of Cathedral Gap. On the other side of the Gap we traversed Ingraham Glacier to the scree ridge known as Disappointment Cleaver. We were on the cleaver for about and hour and a half, scrambling on rocks and loose scree (in crampons, roped up, very awkward). At the top we traversed onto Emmons Glacier, it would be ice and snow from here on out. Route finding here was relatively easy as the guide services had marked their route with little red flags, so we just followed the flags.

Most parties were easily passed as we caught them, until we reached one section of pretty steep ice. We got stuck behind one of the RMI groups, because they were belaying their clients up. So we waited, it was about 4am, temps bellow freezing, water in my bladder was frozen, wind was blasting, the wind chill was probalby -1000 or something crazy...not a good place to sit down and wait. We caught up with our solo friend here and joked about hot tubs and steak dinners...As soon as the route allowed, we passed the last of the guided trips and were free to zoom up the top section of the mountain (by zoom I mean Johnny was in front setting a killer pace and Eric and I were just hanging on).

SUN!!! Finally the sun came up as we were approaching the crater rim. It's amazing how your mood changes when the sun rises, you can see all the beauty around you, you warm up a little, you don't feel alone on a cold mountain anymore. We dropped into the rim out of the wind for a food break, then dropped our packs for the final push to the summit.

7am Standing on the summit, mix of emotions, I shed a few tears, not a long time to celebrate though, the wind was blasting us, we think around 40 or 50 mph (see video below).

DOWN

We descended into the clouds and visibility quickly went from 20 miles to 20 feet...but, the route was so well traveled that we had no problem finding our way down. Descending the cleaver was especially interesting, our faces constantly being stung by wind and rocks. At the bottom of the cleaver we sat down to put our crampons on before stepping back onto Ingraham Glacier. Solo was there and he told us about some group of climbers who were killed by rock fall right where we were sitting. We quickly jumped (three foot crevasse) to get onto the glacier and out of rockfall danger. I was last to get on the glacier, and as soon as I was a safe distance away the wind blasted the cleaver and unhinged a boulder the size of Eric's hatchback. It crashed down exactly where we had been sitting...If we had stayed literally 60 seconds longer we would have been crushed by the rock fall and ended up at the bottom of an icy grave...

we weren't lucky, it was not luck that kept us out of harms way. It was not chance that delivered us at just the right moment...I believe we were kept safe by the one who causes the wind to blow, the one who could tell the mountains to move and they would obey...

Got back to our caltle in the sky at 11:30, 10 hours round trip. WE WERE SO TIRED, jumped into our sleeping bags for a 45min nap nap. Again, I woke up to the sounds of team Holland blabbing about something. We packed up, took a picture with our European friends, then hiked 2 ½ hours back to the car...exhausted...

Camped last night between a freight rail road and the highway, constant cars and train whistles about every hour...we all slept straight thru the night:)

now we are in Portland, at Coffee Time, not sure where we are headed...