The Mount Rainer National Park is a common destination for outdoor loving Seattleites that come for camping, hiking, biking, skiing, climbing or just to practice the good old American tradition of shooting road signs.
This year a couple of friends and I decided to try to climb the mountain, and I hope to share some of that experience in this post. Though we were in decent general shape and were hiking in the Cascades more or less every weekend, neither of us had any experience from glacier traversal or climbing so we signed up for RMIs 4 day summit climb. In retrospect, going with a guide service was definitely the right choice - we didn't have the skills or experience to safely climb the mountain ourselves.
A four day climb may not sound like a big time commitment, but add to that hours spent gearing up at REI and many weekends of training hikes and you've got a decent size project. The four days with RMI were spent as follows:
Day one. Drove the two hours from Seattle to Ashford, a small town at the base of Rainer. We checked in and did a quick intro and gear check. This was a very short day, so we had pizza and explored the surroundings afterwards.
Day two. Traveled by bus up to the Paradise parking lot, which is a common starting point for all kinds of people, ranging from flip flop wearing tourists experiencing snow for the first time to some very accomplished mountaineers. From Paradise we hiked up half an hour and practiced basic skills like self-arrest, rest-stepping and walking in a rope team. This was useful and fun. We headed back to Ashford in the early afternoon with plenty of day light left - would have liked to stay longer and learn more, for example the basics of crevasse rescue.
Day three. Hiking to Camp Muir.
Day four. Climbing to the summit, back to Camp Muir and down to the Paradise parking lot. Meet up in Ashford and drive home.
GPS trace from our climb.The Good
- Great guides. Experienced and professional!
- Great climb! Very good experience, perfect weather.
The Bad
- First day. Too short. Could have combined with second day.
- Second day. Also too short. Option to stay longer and learn more would have been good.
Tips
- Book early. Call the day RMI starts taking bookings for the season.
- Keep cost down. Guiding and pack list can easily add up to $5000. Borrow equipment from friends or buy second hand.
- Know your equipment before the climb, especially your boots.
- Be in good shape so you can enjoy it. This was harder than I thought it would be.
- Bring 2 friends! Rope team with 1 guide and us three friends was a lot of fun!
