My Rainier Report (long)

[Iapetus999]

My Trip to Rainier

I just want to say that I had a great experience. I may say some things in here that sound pretty negative about it but I don’t regret attempting this climb and I’m glad I did it.

I arrived at base camp in Ashford WA around 5:30 after going to the M’s game on Wednesday. I was really excited about the whole climb. I got my rental gear from the shop. At 7:00 there was a slide show about the climb. I talked with some of the people about it and was really psyched. The rooms there were pretty Spartan. Just a bed and a bathroom, no TV or phone.

Got to bed early and woke up around 5 ready for climbing school. I couldn’t go back to sleep. They have little café next to the office that I got drinks at a lot during this trip. I got all my gear together and got to the staging area around 7. They had me in a different room that night so I had to pack up and put all my stuff in the car.

They split us up into an ‘A’ and ‘B’ group. We took a bus up to Paradise. When I was putting on suntan lotion I started feeling a little carsick. Could this have been the first precursor of what was to come?

It turned out to be a nice day. Warm but partly cloudy so it wasn’t too bad. About ½ hour into the climb I started running into trouble. The blisters on my feet that popped up the last time I wore mountain boots were back and painful. After about an hour we reached the training area. It was a small patch of ice tucked away in a corner of the mountain.

It was pretty fun. We put on crampons and trudged around the ice. Then we all got tied together on a rope. I finally used my ice axe for its intended purpose instead of just a weight on my pack. Who woulda thought that you can use it to stop from sliding into a crevasse and dying? Someone would yell “falling” and everyone would have to drop down, dig your axe and spikes into the ice, and trying not to slip. The guide would yank on the rope to make sure you were secure. A couple times I went down on slushy places and got all wet. I still am having trouble figuring out the other thing they were talking about…“use your eye sacks.” Not sure what that is.

When I got back to the base I exchanged my crappy rental boots for some different ones. I also got some “sock liners” to help prevent more blisters. I went to this place called “Copper Creek Inn” for dinner which was really good.

Got to bed early, but slept even worse. Got up around 5 again. I had packed everything the night before but double-checked everything and once again had to put everything back in the car. At 8 they divided us again into A/B/C groups. My group was pretty kewl. There was a guy from my gym, a 17 yo and his dad, and 18 yo, a couple from Australia, a laser physicist from Sandia Labs or something and maybe a couple more. Our lead guide Dave was a guy who had done Everest a couple times along with a bunch of other mountains. He had summitted Rainier a couple hundred times. The other “associate guides” Joel and Jason were pretty kewl too. I felt pretty confident about their abilities.

[Iapetus999]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

The climb up to Camp Muir at 10,000’ went pretty well. The pace was fairly slow. We took 4 stops along the way. At 5 hrs/5000’ it’s still a really hard climb and harder than the training climbs that I’ve done. Also my pack was at it’s heaviest since I carried almost all the equipment and food I was going to need for the trip. It was clear and warm out tho. I think the sun takes something out of you.

We got to the camp around 3:00. We settled into this small shelter that held 25 people. We were all crammed together on these sleeping pads. Dave gave us a long talk about how to pack and all the equipment checks that we needed to do. He also suggested that we drink a lot of water. This was a bad idea as it turned out.

I made my “dinner” which was a “just-add-hot-water” chili. This was also a bad idea. I had figured it would give me a lot of energy but it wound up really upsetting my stomach. We had a “lights out” at 6pm and were told we would be woken up at 12.

I knew I wouldn’t sleep. I have sleep apnea which requires the use of a machine that blows air into me. I also figured I would be too nervous to sleep. What I didn’t figure is that I would have to use the bathroom every hour. I had terrible gas and stomach pains. Things were going South in a hurry.

[Iapetus999]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

When I do races like 5K’s things are a lot different. I usually get a decent amount of sleep, and I control what food I eat before the race. I usually get some pre-race stomach jitters but I arrive an hour early and it usually resolves itself. When they woke us up at 12 it was all rush, rush, rush. I did use the bathroom but not enough. Things were pretty crazy. There was a full moon which helped a lot. Finally we all got roped up and ready to go.I was with Dave. I felt really honored. I’m not sure how they picked who got on what rope but I was hoping it was because he wanted me with him. We started out along the glacier. I felt pretty tired and my stomach hurt a lot. We got to this place called “Cathedral Gap” which is a big pile of rocks you need to climb over. This is where I really started having trouble. I couldn’t breath very well. It’s not like the feeling I get when I start out too fast on a 5K and run out of breath. It’s more of a strangled feeling.

I started having thoughts like “I want to find a place I can just lay down and die.” I was hot and cold at the same time. The wind had picked up a lot even tho it was clear out. The temp wasn’t real cold. Conditions were “perfect” but my body wasn’t.

Finally we get to the first stop called “Ingraham Flats” and I plopped down. They told me to eat/drink but I couldn’t I felt nauseous and my stomach cramped up whenever I took a sip of water. My body was all out of whack and I was freezing cold despite having put a heavy parka on. They told me “If you can’t eat or drink we need to send you back.”

I felt completely miserable. At that point I didn’t care anymore. I was exhausted, freezing cold, shivering, cramping, and altogether unhappy. I was at 11,100 feet at 2am. I knew deep in my heart that I couldn’t go any further. They said that the next stretch was a 1:45 climb. If I was this bad after 50 mins, another 105 mins wouldn’t be possible. Today as I write this I wonder about it but at the time I was completely certain that I couldn’t continue. In fact I felt like I never wanted to attempt this again. Lack of sleep, bad food, high altitude, etc etc may be just too much for me to handle.

[Iapetus999]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

The rest of the night is kind of a haze to me. About 7 other people also had stopped at this point and wanted to go back. We needed to wait for another guide or 2 to come up and lead us back down. I sat there shivering in the night. At one point I heard a loud rumbling like a jet plane was near. It was an ice slide on the section where people were climbing. Fortunately it didn’t hit anyone. Finally we roped up again and headed back to base. At one point I stumbled on my own feet and fell. I felt myself sliding down the ice and I called out “Fall! Fall!” I quickly got my ice axe down and stopped myself. When I got back up I noticed that I could’ve slid into a deep crevasse. So it turned out I actually needed my ice axe.

When I got back to base and into my sleeping bag it was 4:30. I was freezing cold all night long. I think I slept and hour or two. Whenever I looked at my watch it seemed to say “7:30” every time. I think I really got up around 6:30 and just dozed after that.

Around 8:30-9 another group of climbers that didn’t make it to the top came down. They had gotten to the next stop after where I turned around. I think out of the 25 people that set out for the summit that night, only half of them made it. A guide came around and said that he would try to get someone to take us down off the mountain. I wanted to go really bad because I still felt miserable. I never could get warm and I still wasn’t able to eat or drink anything until around 9:00. For the next couple hours I hung out waiting to go down. Finally around 11:30 they were ready to go but I saw my group coming down the mountain so I decided to wait for them. I had been feeling really sorry for myself and embarrassed and wanted to never see those people again. As I started feeling better and less ill I realized I was being a poor sport. I mean I really had accomplished something. I pushed myself really hard and gotten to a spot a lot of people can only dream of. My group was surprised and I think pretty appreciative of the fact that I waited for them. That made me feel a lot better. At 1:00 we all headed down the mountain. My energy had come back finally and had some fun on the way down sliding down the melting ice and snow.

When we reached the parking lot I looked back up at the mountain, shook my fist and said, “You may have defeated me today, Rainier, but I’ll be back!”


After getting back to basecamp we all gathered around and got certificates. They even made a special one for me that didn’t say “Summit” but instead said “11,000 feet.”


I managed to drive home even tho my contacts were completely dried out and fell asleep around 8.

[Iapetus999]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

This is what I learned for this experience:

• You can’t train too much
• Proper food/hydration is critical. Too much can be as bad as too little.
• I need more hi-altitude training
• Rainier is really hard, esp without sleep.
• Rental equipment sucks
• Proper clothing is essential. I think I could’ve done better.
• Rest is essential. I thought I could handle lack of sleep but there is a limit.
• I need to make my own decisions and not rely on guides as far as clothing etc.
• My backpack and most of my gear was fine including my hydration pak
• It takes some people multiple tries to be able to do it.
• I need to be able to climb in my sleep and at a quick pace.

So this is my overall conclusion:

I had a great time. I learned a whole lot about mountaineering and gained a whole new level of respect for those people. I’d never climbed on a glacier before and never had been to 11,000’ (except on a chairlift).

I want to do this again. I don’t know when, I don’t know how. The training is really hard and time consuming. I made a lot of mistakes. It may take me several attempts and several years. I won’t even begin to train again until I’m much fitter than I am now.

I’m glad I had this experience and it’s something I’ll remember the rest of my life.

[Lisa M]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

That's an amazing adventure, Iap!

I think you should write your own novel about how you almost summited the mountain, and better yet, summitted your own feelings of enjoying the great out doors.

What a great and yet wild ride up and down the mountain.

Here's to next time!

[CalvinFish]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

Iap,

11,000 feet is way up there for a low lander. Nice job. Do you think it was altitude sickness? It has completely floored me in the past. Once it was only 9,000 in New Mexico that just about killed me. I was the only one feeling bad out of 10 people and made the whole group stop for 24 hours to adjust.

I think three days is tough for getting to 14,000 from sea level. That mountain is still there! Get it next time!

Dave

[womanpraised]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

Iap- AWESOME for you! It sounds like you have started by building a solid base of what you know/can do, and what you learned/are aiming for.

Since I Know you are gonna try this again, dont know if you have heard of them, already tried them, or if it would cross over, but REI sells socks called Thurlos, or Thorlos.. they are the best for hiking.. can go all day in them and not get one blister, even in new boots or when they get wet. Maybe you can see if they have eye-sacks while you are there?

I just bet you are so proud. Remember, you cant make a dollar unless you get that first penny!

[Bugaboo]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

Wow Iap! You may not have reached the summit but you're a hero in my book! That's incredible!

[DebbietheHugBug]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)




My hat's off to ya!!

[Heidi3]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

I am amazed and impressed and totally happy for you!!!!! congratulations ...wonderful!!!!!!

[Sheshy]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

An excellent adventure! You should be very proud of yourself!

[Desertthorn]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

My hubby got about the same distance as you did and had to turn around and come back down. He was disappointed also. Sounds like the flu to me. Sorry you didn't make it but next one thing about Mt Rainier, it will be there next year. So, okay now we will but the second round.
Lynne

[Brook]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

Iap - I think you're absolutely amazing! Sounds like quite an adventure, and if anyone can do it, I know it's you!!

Well done, my friend!!!

[cleochatra]

Re: My Rainier Report (long)

Dave, it sounds like you had the same experience many, many, MANY others have had on their first climb of Mount Rainier! My brother in law actually worked at that rental shop, and even he didn't make it up the first time due to altitude sickness. It's a tough climb! A lot of people discount Mt Rainier as being a pretty uber-climb, but having family from that area, we're well aware of the real challenge to that beautiful mountain! It's a toughie! You'll get to the top next time. I think everyone needs that beginner's course in the climb. It's unlike anything else, isn't it? It's awesome hearing you talk about places I know well, but it also makes me homesick! {{{Iapetus}}}