Rainier.. my highest!

(note: This is a big event on our blog to have James writing it, so enjoy!)
I just went 641 feet higher! My previous highest summit was the Grand Teton which stands at 13,770. The summit of Mount Rainier is 14,411. Honestly the best part of the trip was seeing friends that I have not seen in a while. Our climbing party of six included two friends from my hometown Aaron and Brandon Backcountry ski masters CJ and Cody. And finally the medical students Jim Waters (king of glaciers) and myself. After rendezvouing in Seattle we set out for the Paradise entrance of Mount Rainier on May 29th.

Standing at the foot of Rainier is humbling to say the least. It rises over 7000 vertical feet above the Paradise ranger station. We were soon on our way skiing toward our high camp on the flanks of the Wilson Glacier. This mountain is very alive! The enormous glaciers are tearing the mountain down while at the same time the volcano grows. Geological evidence indicates that Mount Rainier was at one time approximately 16,000 and that the current cone is around 500,000 years old. The route to high camp was largely crevasse free with only and handful of crossings.

From our camp on the south slopes of Rainier we had perfect views of Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens.

At 4:00 am the next morning we headed up the Fuhrer Finger, a narrow snow chute adjacent to the massive Nisqually Glacier. The Finger was originally ascended in the 1920's! We roped up across the Wilson Glacier to gain the Finger. In the pre-dawn hours the snow of the finger was

frozen and made for easy french stepping and front pointing. After 2,500 feet we reached the Upper Nisqually which beautiful and has some interesting formations. As I climbed higher I found it more difficult to focus on the landscapes and had to focus all my energy on putting one boot in front of another. Eventually we would climb for a minute or two and then take an equal rest.

At approximately 11:00 am we reached the summit crater. The wind was cranking across the summit so we took shelter inside the crater long enough to eat some lunch. We enjoyed the summit for a few minutes before putting on our skis and heading for home.

The ski down was awesome (mostly) It was really icy for the fist 1,000 or so feet. We then encountered some really good spring snow.

By the time we reached the top of the Finger the snow had turned to slush. This made for some hard turns on already noodled legs. We arrived in camp around 2:00 pm and packed up making it to the car around 6:00 pm.