Rainier!

I summited Rainier yesterday.

I got a lot of "how was it?" yesterday too.
The short answer: it was hard, but fun.

The long answer:
Dan and Nat and I left Wednesday morning from Portland. We had a big breakfast of pancakes and eggs and other goodies and then jumped in the car for the 2 hour something minute drive to Paradise in Rainier National Park. We checked in with the rangers and confirmed our itinerary and shouldered our packs for the march up to Camp Muir.
Our packs weighed far too much for our climb. We had 4 days of food and not a lot of lightweight gear. My pack weighed in at a (literally) staggering 60 lbs. Nat's weighed a little less and Dan's weighed a little more. The extra weight forced us to move slowly up the hill to Camp Muir and wiped us out by the time we got there. Camp Muir sits about 5 miles away from and 5000 feet above Paradise. So we climbed roughly the equivalent of the South Side route on Mt Hood just to get to our campsite. I dropped my pack at the top and got very shaky and very weak. Hydration and food became the first order of business.
Dan made it to the top a few minutes later, after watching an avalanche crash down the Nisqually glacier to climber's left. Just minutes before Dan and I had seen another avalanche crash down the same glacier. My first ever avalanche!
Once Dan joined us, we got to work pitching camp. Nat flattened out a platform for me and him. Dan set up his tent. We melted some snow and boiled some water and ate some dehydrated foods. Then we chatted about the climbing plan. Originally in the car we had planned to climb Wednesday night-Thursday morning. Our packs tired us out more than expected. The warmth of the afternoon left us a little dehydrated. And our longer than expected approach to Muir (we had figured 5 hours to get there and we used 6 and a half hours) only left us 2 or 3 hours at most for a nap before a Wednesday night assault. Since the weather forecast showed increasingly nice weather and since we had several days provisions, we decided to get a full night of sleep and spend the next day resting and preparing for the climb up the Disappointment Cleaver route.

Now, as I have a birthday party to attend (Happy Birthday Warren!!!!), I will continue the tale later. And post pictures when I get them from Nat and Dan.