Mt. Ranier

Mt Ranier in Washington State is quite a bit different than the fourteeners that we hike in Colorado. First of all you have to start hiking at around 5500 ft and the peak is 14,400, so there is alot of elevation gain. Secondly, this is a severe alpine hike. Even in the summer, you reach the snowline at about 7500 ft and are on snow and ice the rest of the way. The mountain is covered by dozens of glaciers and true to the definition of a glacier - they move. Above 10,000 ft crevasses, breaking ice, and falling rock create very dangerous conditions. Add in the unpredictable and ever changing weather and it is a really fun mountain to be on.

We started planning for this months in advance. We took an avalanche awareness course at REI, and took a crevasse rescue and glacier travel course at Estes Park. We spent several days practicing techniques at St. Marys Glacier, and an evening working with ropes in Ski's front yard. We also made about a dozen trips to REI and other stores finding just the right gear, and finally we spent one evening packing it all up and weighing in. You can see the pics from the weigh in on the right. Our packs weighed about 50 pounds a piece. For the menu we took Ramen noodles, beef jerky, samon (canned) oatmeal, granola bars, and a few candy bars and energy bars.

July 5th the three of us (Ski, Crash, and Myself) hopped a plane to Seattle and got our rental car just in time to get to REI and buy fuel for our stoves since you can't take fuel on the plane. Then we drove to Puyallup Wa, which is about half way (90 min) to Ranier National Park. We got all our gear ready and had a good dinner knowing we would be eating light for the next several days. Then we got up early and headed to Paradise - the name of the area in Ranier National Park where we would begin the trek.

It was a gloomy overcast day with light rain - about normal for this part of the country. You can see the pic of the entrance to the park and then the parking lot shot of us getting ready. We checked in at the ranger station and got a weateher report and were on our way. We never did see the mountain that day, even though the enormous mass of rock and ice was rising nearly two miles in the air right in front of us. We just got on the trail and started slogging up the terrain. After about two miles we crossed *** creek and then hit snow immediately. There is a shot of Ski crossing the creek looking like 'Patsy' from 'The Holy Grail'. There are a couple of shots of us hiking up in the fog as well. The visibility was terrible, once we got on the snow everything was white. Luckily the trail is well definied and easy to stay on once you find it (we were off of it for a little bit at first). It is so steep that it is like going up stairs. Some of the guides for the guided parties 'kick steps' for everyone to hike up which makes it easier, but it is still a tough slog. Two more miles and we were at camp Muir where amazingly we came out of the clouds and it was sunny and quite nice. We made it there by 3pm, which was good because it took us longer to set up camp and make dinner than we anticipated. There are pics of us at the camp and in the tent.

We wanted to be hiking by 2am, but we got up late when our alrm didnt go off (and then went off late) either by malfunction or operator error, we never decided which. It took us longer to get our gear together and get going also. Crash and I had not slept at all and that didnt help much. We still thought that we were hiking by 2:30, although we knew we were one of the last parties to get on the trail. We started seeing crevasses almost immediately as we hiked up over the next ridge and onto Ingram flats. Rockfall is prevalent along this part of the route, so we left our crampons on and got over the rocky hill quickly which was no easy feat. The pics to the right labeled 'route' and 'crevasse' are of ingram flats. You can see tents in the crevasse picture, which gives you an idea of the size. You could fit a house in that crevasse, and the tents are only a few yards away. The pics labeled 'guided parties' and 'route' shows the route up the glacier with alot of broken ice and crevasses. We first started to see the sunrise around 5 or 5:30 am - great pics on the right. It was then that we realized we didnt get started hiking until 3:30. Which would explain why we were 1.5 - 2 hours behind the first parties.

At this point we started winding our way through the crevasses and up the trail. I wish we had better pics, but we really weren't stopping to take pics or take our hands off the ropes and ice axes at this point. Besides the obvious danger of slipping and falling on the steep hard icey slopes, there is the added demension of moving ice. We saw a cravasse ledge fall in just a few hundred feet away from us with literally TONS of ice and it shook the glacier. The glacier moves 18 inches a day on average, and you want to be ready if it moves under you or breaks away. Luckily neither happened to us. We started coming across crevasses that were wide enough to drive a volkswagon into and deep enough to cause seriour damage (30-40ft). One narrow crack was only 6-8 inches wide, but we couldn't see the bottom. Most of the crevasses had narrow snow bridges which didn't make me feel any better since I was crossing them first. The lack of sleep was making us drag, and I knew we needed to be pushing to make up time. Ice was already melting and falling and it was only 7am. We were at about 11,900 ft. We had come 1900 ft from camp Muir and had 2500 ft to go. It was 7am and we wouldnt summit until at least noon, making it 3pm coming back across the crevasses. None of us felt good about that after letting them thaw in the sun all day. So we decided to turn around. A few minutes later we encountered a group coming down that informed us there had been an accident 700 ft above us and a rescue was about to be in progress. We hiked back to camp muir and made a good lunch while we observed the helicopters and rangers rescue the three hikers and one guide that had slid down the mountain, two of them into a crevasse.

The hike down was pretty uneventful, except that it was a clear day and we finally had the visibility to see the surrounding area and the mountain rising above. It was beautiful. We made it down in time to pack up, shower, and get into seattle for dinner. It was dissapointing to be that high up and not summit, but the saying goes - 'live to play another day' - we will be back!