Curt's Account of the Rainier Climb:

I trained for Mt. Rainier for 2 years which was overkill but made my trip easier and safer. I live in Colorado and have many 13,000'+ ascents. Last year I was turned back by weather at camp Muir. I was very intimidated by the mountain at that time. 9,000 feet from top to start, the weather is just mean and the mountain makes its own storms aside from the forecast.

The crevasses are deep and blue.There is nothing like that here in Colorado. I did every thing I could do to prepare for this year. I read books and practiced on small glaciers here. The best book was Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue. I read this and every book I could find on the subject several times. I found articles, gear list and stories of dead and injured climbers and researched on the Internet. I tried to learn from their experience as much as possible.

I climbed MT Shasta the Monday before our Friday summit. The team I chose was just luck, they all gave something to help the others achieve beyond there capabilities. 3 of 5 dropped out and not one wanted the team to quit. Jennifer could not leave Muir because it was so hard to make it to Muir and she had a lot of weight in her pack, so that among other things killed her steam.

Tim was the next to have trouble at Ingraham Flats, I started to push the team to move faster because of time. Then Tim realized he was finished and he stayed at Ingraham Flats until daylight to return to Muir. We pushed on without him. The next few hours were endless. As we topped Disappointment Cleaver Dan felt sick. He tried to ignore it but he was soon too sick to move on. He got very ill on a steep slope and Nate and I pulled him up to a safer ledge. It was hard for Nate to leave Dan on the mountain and I knew it was not the right thing to do but all three of us knew how much we wanted this climb.

Nate and I climbed for two more hours in white out conditions. He asked me several times if we were safe. I have good navigation skills and felt OK about the cloud hindering our view of the top. It was thinning out slightly, every so often I would see some blue so I played the odds and assured Nate that we were OK and near the top. As we got closer people were returning from the crest where they reported 60 mph gusts. They were covered in ice. I wasn't sure I wanted to be on top. As we reached the crest the wind was minimal and we crossed the crater for the true summit. We signed in for the team and took photos. We crossed back over the crater and the clouds broke. We were treated to the summit view we came for. It was 75 deg on top of the Cleaver and we took many breaks to enjoy the views. The temp made it very dangerous downclimbing the snowfields and glacier ice. That was the only bummer for me on the trip but it all worked out.

As I left Washington I saw a 360deg rainbow around the sun with two brighter rainbow spots on the side. I saw It again but not totally full in Leadville Colorado. Just before a climb it's something else.(GO TO THE MOUNTAINS) Curt's email: acar100@pcisys.net