Trying to get any sleep the night before a big summit day is always a challenge. Am I ready for this? Did I bring the right boots? Should I have brought that jacket instead of this one? It turns out to be a long restless night of going through all the “what ifs” since a lot of decisions are made at home, anticipating the conditions, long before you arrive at the trailhead.
DAY 4 – Summit Day+
We started shortly after 2am with a mixture of stars and headlamps of those on the trail ahead of us.
The first half-mile from Camp Muir crosses the Cowlitz Glacier to Cathedral Gap. Here we removed our crampons to climb up and over Cathedral Clever. Maybe we shouldn’t have wasted that time taking them off because, as soon as we got to the other side of this gap, the crampons were back for the crossing of Ingraham Glacier. High camp sits here on Ingraham Flats. Unfortunately, we really couldn’t see anything at this time of the morning.
Kick Up This Adventure
At 4am, we were only a mile in when we came upon our first crevasse! It was a pretty short span, and not much depth could be seen in the dark, but it definitely kicked up this adventure.
It wasn’t more than a half hour later, less than a half-mile away, where we reached the bergschrund at Disappointment Cleaver. No one thought to snap a pic here as we had to climb down into this void in order to claw our way over the chunks of ice and up the loose rocks on the other side. Since it was more dicey than walking across the ladders, I didn’t even think about getting a pic of it on the way back either.
Once across the schrund, we couldn’t have had a better vantage point to watch the sun come up!
The first light on Ingraham Glacier was equally impressive. If you look close enough, you can see the tents at High Camp on Ingraham Flats. Also notice Mt. Adams off in the distance.
These views were spectacular all morning. This is looking over the Emmons Glacier and Little Tahoma.
The climb is about 1,000 feet per mile, along a nicely groomed path thanks to all the guided groups that come up here. There really wasn’t any route finding to do. That would certainly be a different story in less than ideal weather conditions.
Walking the Planks
At 2 miles in, we found another ladder over the second crevasse. Walking the planks was very solid and secure. You just have to be careful to not trip over your crampons catching the wood.
The depths of these cracks is amazing. Standing there knowing this mountain is constantly on the move is just mindboggling.
Here’s looking back at this second crossing.
At 13,000 feet, the route took a slight detour to the north as a result of some massive separation here just a few weeks ago.
Looking back again toward Emmons Glacier and the miles of mountains making up these Cascades.
A third ladder was set across the end of that ice wall, where the route turns west again towards the summit. This was only a third of a mile beyond the previous ladder.
Finally, the last plank we had to walk.
I’d love to know how thick this ice is and what the ground looks like underneath it all.
The last 500 feet of elevation zig zags up the eastern slope to the crater rim.
It’s really hard to capture the magnitude of this mountainside.
At 10am, we hit the crater rim with a travel time of almost 8 hours. That felt way too long for only climbing 4,100 feet in 3.34 miles and we still had to cross this crater. Less than a half mile away, it took us another 30 minutes to reach Rainier’s true summit on the other side.
Summit Success
Standing on top of Washington’s tallest peak put me at #24 of 50… almost half-way to my goal!
If you are into signing the summit register you will find it below the summit. It looked just like the one on Baker with the word “Mazamas” on the lid.
The walk down was pretty straight-forward.
Nice Ice Baby
Best pic of the day. Look at that glacial blue!
Here’s that separation again from a different angle. This is what blocked the standard way up, causing us to detour around it.
Another view of the Ingram Glacier in the afternoon sun as we descended back to basecamp.
Now back above the bergschrund, we can clearly see what we crossed in the dark earlier that morning.
Some people were practicing their crevasse rescue skills, which is critical to know how to do on mountains like this.
It was 4pm when we walked back into camp on the heels of a fantastic day. We were so looking forward to dropping our packs, eating some food and grabbing some zzzzzz’s after 14 hours on the mountain.
Unfortunately, that is not what happened!
Awake for 24 Hours
The hut was so freakin’ full, we could barely squeeze through to get inside. There were people EVERYWHERE! Inside, outside… it was like a big frat party. All that was missing was the kegger and a live band. There was no way we were staying. I knew we’d get no sleep and was in no mood to try, all crammed in there like sardines. No thanks.
This unexpected situation gave us instant motivation to gather up the items we had left behind, re-arrange our packs for the long haul out and get on down to the car. It was a long day… and the day only got longer back at Paradise, trying to find us a place to stay anywhere in Ashford or Packwood. No one had a vacancy and it was now getting dark. Remember, we didn’t bring tents. What a mistake that was.
We decided our only other option was to make the 2-hour drive to Yakima and stay there. Arriving around midnight, tired and dirty, we immediately flopped into bed. A shower could wait ’til morning.
