Rainier Attempt X-th July 2024

"Hey, want to come climb Mount Rainier with me?" - Paul asks me. The time of year was mid-May and the trip was scheduled for end of June into July. Fortunately for me, I had been trail running for the Quad Rock 25 (the event taking place near Fort Collins) and felt quite fit generally speaking by this time. What could go wrong? Just 4 weeks to switch from distance running to muscular endurance events, factoring in periodization of a quick strength build up and taper, no problem. I had planned to get in 3-4 rucks/water carries and a single backpack overnight. Life has a way of making the best laid plans evolve into plan D or even the ones we never expect. I only got 1 ruck in and switched into speed work for a 10k sea level A event later this summer, but I felt fit enough for a few days on the mountain.

Our climbing group consisted of 4 of us, Paul, myself, Rob, and his son Foster (at the time of writing this, 13yo). Part of the timing of this trip is to account for weather, climbing conditions, and group availability, there are tons of guiding resources to help plan out when to climb Rainier. Rob has an climbing acquaintance, Jon, that was also doing the climb and had us included on his permit. Their group had 5, and the group plan was to generally climb together; ascend to Camp Muir (~10000' elevation), move to Ingraham Flats (~11000), then push to the summit via the DC.

Timed Entry for most, or Wilderness Permit (Formerly) access

Day 0 Arrival
We arrive in SeaTac a little early in the day, enough time to pickup the usual things like a rental car, some trail food, and fuel from REI. The weather forecast had a promising high pressure system moving in with clear skies and moderate temps, all very promising.

Day 1
Heading into the Park, the PNW provided the full experience of a lowish hanging cloud later bottoming out around 6000' just above Paradise with the occasional glimpse of the majesty of Rainier. The pervasive wet mist that is Washington had us decide to wait a day and push the start of our climb by 1 day, I mean the weather was supposed to improve in the coming days.

Camped at Cougar Rock

Walking the Wonderland trail to stay active on the rest and wait day.

Day 2
Base camp day. Many locals and tourists alike climb up to Camp Muir from Paradise. Generally speaking, this route up Tahoma contains a classic American route that is devoid of most objective dangers outside of seasonal dangers and typical hiking hazards. The hike is almost 5000' in almost 5 miles with a fairly consistent average gradient to Camp Muir where guides and climbers base their upper mountain routes. Our climbing plan was a classical approach, climb to base camp at Camp Muir with heavy packs, spend 1 night at Camp Muir and have a 'rest' day to move to Ingraham Flats only 1000' higher, then make for the summit at night into morning. While we made it to Camp Muir well within an acceptable time frame, I personally was more exhausted than I had hoped. The heat of the snow fields and heavy packs had me cramping within 1000' of Muir, but maybe that's not too unusual given a 5000' day is big for most people let alone carrying 35% of my own weight on my back.

The weather was great and really I have no complaints, it was a wonderful day to be out climbing with friends.

Some logistical optimization = 4 of us in a 3p Tent

Day 3
One of the last minute adjustments our group made to save some weight and space was to go from 2 tents to 1 tent. Paul's Hilleberg Nammatj 3 GT has a vestibule which ostensibly adds a ton of space to our shelter, and since Foster and myself are really halflings, all 4 of us could fit into this tent system.

Pictured the 4 man snuggle party, but where does Matt fit?

The clouds go in and out as typical for 10,000’ but we enjoy our time in and above the clouds on a big mountain.

Keeping an eye on the hyperlocal forecast, the super group made the decision to travel up to Ingraham flats at 11,300’ which is a typically short travel day from Camp 1 aside from having to pack all the gear back up and move it. No rest day as we used up the extra day back in the beginning.

We did move into full crevasse travel mode with our rope teams.

Epic crevasse opening between Camp 1 and Camp 2

Day 4

This was our last day on mountain, so the push to the summit and descent or bail and return another day were our options. Having exhausted our fuel the night prior, our group realistically had enough rations to make it through the night and the morning. A summit push and descent simply put would require somewhere around 8-10L more water than we had, let alone the winds were whipping 30-40mph all night with no sign of waning. Considering we had not expended energy to built snow/wind walls and we had a series of unending crevasse depth latter climbs ahead, our group opted to snooze until sunrise (from our midnight wakeup call) to pack up and descend back to Paradise. The views above the clouds on the descent of the other major volcanoes were definitely a visual treat.

Life goes on and the mountain will certainly be there for the next attempt as is the tradition and how the mountain life goes. I would say this trip for me was a huge success as my core intent was to enjoy some time back on a big mountain, but of course I learned some new things about myself. Maybe next time we’ll bring skis and the conditions will be perfect for skiing from the summit.