Lightboot hikers: Mt. Rainier Summit Climb

After months of hard conditioning, our perseverance, stamina, mental discipline, balance, and strength were put to the test as we, my friends, John, his wife, Sharon and son, Mike, made an attempt to summit Mt. Rainier, 14,411 feet.

We would be gaining over 9,000 feet in two days. Hiking and climbing over 20 miles in four days.

We began our climb on Tuesday, July 14 from Paradise at 5,400 feet. My pack weighed about 35 lbs. and Ted's pack weighed about 60 lbs. On this first day we would climb to Camp Muir, 10,100 feet, about a 4,700 foot elevation gain. It was an amazingly sunny day.

We started our climb about 7:00 a.m. We met our friends, John, Sharon and Mike at the Paradise parking lot. We started about the same time, but they reached Camp Muir before we did. Me and Ted did not get to Camp Muir until about 4:00 p.m.

On the way up we met Seth and Solveig, guides for RMI (Rainier Mountaineering, Inc.). They are a wonderful couple who guided me and Bronka, my 87 year old friend at the time, for an attempted summit of Mt. Rainier a couple years ago.

Because of the lack of snowfall, the Disappointment Clever route has had to be re-routed due to all the open crevasses, making it a much longer climb. We really appreciated RMI's hard work in trying to keep the route open and safe.

I also ran into Wynn Whittaker, another guide and one of the owners of RMI. He was also leading a group up. Had met him and his wife at Bronka's home last year.

When we finally got to Camp Muir, John and Sharon were able to secure some space in the public shelter there, so that we would not have to set up our tents.

It was really nice talking to the climbers there. Many were starting that night from Camp Muir to the summit, which is over 4,000 foot elevation gain. We were planning on spending the night at Camp Muir, then going up to Ingraham Flats, 11,100 feet to camp there on Wednesday and hopefully make a summit attempt on Wednesday/Thursday.

I was talking to one of the climber's that knew my friend, Bronka, Craig. He told me he just opened a Mountaineering store in Sedro Woolley. It will be fun to drive up there some day and visit it. He was making his team members a wonderful pasta feast with fresh bacon and a wonderful sauce mixed in. He had a huge pot on a big stove. Yummy!

We got our kitchen set up and we had our freeze dried, Chicken Pasta Primavera for dinner. Yummy! Then we were more than ready to get some sleep. It got very quiet as many climbers were preparing to get up about 11:00 p.m. from Camp Muir for a summit attempt.