Sorry to hear of the bad weather keeping you out. How was visibility? Could you even get good views of the mtn? Any chance of giving it a try again some other time?
Thanks... I'll give a long (sorry) overview if anybody's interested as it's a fantastic trip. It's a 4-day program, but it's really a two-day hike as the first day is orientation and the second day is training (which is a lot of fun).
We utilized RMI, a great guide service, who offer these programs. I went out there with three other buddies, but there were 17 people total in our group plus guides. They broke us up into two groups for training and the climb.
On the first day of the climb, you go from Paradise - elevation 5,400' (the last parking lot on Rainier) up to Camp Muir - elevation 10,188'. You leave at 9:30 AM and you're carrying about a 45 lb pack. The first mile or so is normal uphill hiking on regular paths, dirt, rocks and a few creeks. It's relatively challenging, but similar to the uphills in Jefferson Memorial if any of you have ever done that. The guides go relatively slow, so unless you are way out of shape, you'll be fine. My group had 8 people in it, and one guy dropped out at this point. His sister stayed in and complained that "her loser brother didn't train".
The second part of the first day is climbing up the Muir snow field. It's basically just a steep incline of snow - about 3,000 vertical feet - and at a pitch similar to a blue ski slope. This part is pretty funny, you get in a single file line with the members of your group, and you walk in lock step with them directly up the mountain. So it's put your right foot in the hole where they just removed their right foot, and then the left, over and over again until you take a break, which comes once every hour and ten minutes or so.
You finally make it to Camp Muir. It has a few houses - that one to the front left in the pic below all 16 of us slept in. And on the other side (just to the left of the guy in the white striped shirt) are latrines. The Muir Snowfield is to the left.
You spend the night in that little cabin - lights out around 6 PM, and then you allegedly wake up at midnight to start your true climb to the summit.
For us, this is where it got interesting. The climb up to Muir was in good weather. Views similar to what you see in the pic, although some high clouds rather than blue skies. You could still see Mt Adams, Mt St Helens, Mt Hood, etc. Plus you could still see the summit of Rainier.
However, about an hour after we arrived the wind hit. I'd say it was sustained 35 mph. Our guides came in and said that we're still going up, but it will be more difficult now. So we ate dinner and turned out the lights around 6:30.
I couldn't sleep, and had to take a piss around 9:30, so I walked outside and holy sh*t: complete white, I couldn't see more than 20 feet, and the wind about knocked me down. I had my iphone camera flashlight because I didn't think I needed my head lamp, which was real bad, as I made a wrong turn on the way to the latrines (down a path instead of up), and almost ended up going down the snowfield. At this point, I gave up on the latrines and just pissed with the wind (I think my piss may have ended up down in Seattle) - and hurried back inside freezing cold. I knew then and there we weren't going climbing at midnight.
At 2:30 AM the guides came in and said it was a lost cause for the Summit. They said winds were at a sustained 75 mph, and the freezing rain had even frozen up the wind gauge, so it might be higher. They said we'd try to go climb in morning, but I had my doubts. At 9 AM they came back in and said we needed to go down. It snowed the first 30 minutes of the hike down, and poured the last hour and a half.
Had we been able to go to the top, we would have had a much more challenging climb to the summit (about 6 hours), with a 4 hour return to Muir, followed by another hike down to the parking lot, all in one day.
So in all, we didn't get to do any real climbing with ropes, harnesses, crampons, etc., but we had a good time, and everybody on the tour with a few minor exceptions was cool to hang with. We spent Saturday afternoon crushing beers and watching the Cats at the RMI bar - which is an open air covered bar down in Ashford - so not a bad consolation prize.
I am signed up again for next year - Labor Day weekend.
:flushed::grimace:
