Tim's Account of the Rainier Climb: tim gerlitz - author of the website. For comments please e-mail. (climbing account at mid page) When you are preparing and training for Rainier, you should take the climb VERY seriously and begin a good physical training program months in advance. They say, "You can't over train for Rainier," and this wisdom should be heeded. Gear? Dan's account gets really detailed on this subject. A few notables for me though: I summited once in 1986 with leathers on and attempted the summit this year with leathers again. Mistake. My feet got too cold. Seemed that everyone else had plastic boots on...I wish I would have had a pair. Also, I purchased a Petzl headlamp, the kind that allows the battery to be placed in my shirt to keep it warm. During my 1986 climb, my batteries went dead on my headlamp in 1/2 hour, and this happened to almost all of the team this time around. Invest in an excellent head lamp. This Petzl is good for 7 hours and has a halogen lamp! Trekking poles were a big deal on the Muir snow field. My ski poles were okay, but I prefer a staff. Start off to Muir early, like 7 or 8am. Try for 1000 feet an hour. It's a pretty rough, long haul up the field, and don't under-estimate it. Try to get to Muir by 1 or 2pm to set up camp, rehydrate, eat, assemble gear and rest. Otherwise, you won't have the energy needed for the midnight bedrise to summit. Bring enough food, but really take a critical look at your pack weight. Since your summit pack is much lighter, that's one thing...but why break your back on the way to Muir with a huge load? Also, hydrate like crazy prior to the climb, and drink yourself silly at Muir. We assembled an Internet Team. Kind of risky having not met anyone prior to the climb, but it was a good call and the team was excellent. Curt was the team leader and we spent time team building and working on rope and rescue the day prior to the climb. Some slept at Cougar CG and others at the lodge. I personally did a lot of reading on Rainier for months prior to the climb.

Though I summitted once in 86', I hadn't ever really taken a serious study of The Mountain. A few books discussed some of the tragedies and mistakes climbers had made over the past 100 years. I'd suggest that you take a look at these books too and consider their stories. We chose to climb on a day that Rainier Mountaineering Inc. was NOT on the mountain. We didn't have to deal with a New York subway atmosphere at Muir as a result...and in fact, it was pretty quiet while we were there. RMI has a website listing their climbing dates for the year, so you can plan around them that way. I don't want to be too critical of RMI because they have safely taken thousands to the summit.

Though I didn't summit this time around, the experience, as usual, brought me to my knees with awe. This is a beautiful mountain...difficult to describe, and always changing.

Account: The Mountain had been socked in for a week, and folks at Paradise hadn't seen it until the day we arrived. The first images in the photo archive show the mountain as it looked peeking through the clouds and mist that morning. The mountain was a lot different since my climb 13 years ago. In 1986, there wasn't any snow at Paradise in June. This year, there were 20 foot snow banks towering over the parking lot, and there was a record snow year on the mountain. We had been hearing about avalanches for the past month, and already the mountain had claimed the life of one person, and several accidents had occurred.

At 10pm Wednesday morning, Jennifer and I, (brother, sister), met our climbing party at the steps of the Ranger Station in the parking lot. The 5 of us would train that day and climb to Muir the next morning. Considering we had only communicated by e-mail the past 6 months and never spoken by phone or met otherwise, there was probably a bit of general anxiety as we introduced ourselves. As we hung out and did some rope work while hanging out of a tree in Cougar CG later, though, the team building and respect began to set in. We bonded pretty quickly and there was essential trust present. It was important that we had a very experienced climber on the team...Curt. And he had all of the leadership qualities and technical skills you would want the team leader to have. So, we were feeling pretty confident and looked forward to the Muir climb Thursday. Bob was our "ground crew" person, and he was a very important part of our team, ("Sherpa Bob").

The next morning we left Paradise after a good breakfast. There was a mix of mist and sun as we trudged through the snow with our heavy packs. Muir has been described as a "forced march" by some. It is a long, challenging journey, to say the least. The path "unfolds like a ribbon" fooling you at every rise. Jennifer was having some problems, (see her account), so I agreeded to pace her to Muir and the rest of the party would go ahead of us. It was important for me to stick with my sister and encourage her up to high camp. The day was long, and we didn't reach Muir until 7pm which is about 5 hours later than you should arrive at Muir though the rest of the team had been settled in since 1pm. Because Jennifer and I had exerted that much energy with the weight of our packs for that long, (about 10 hours), we weren't really in much shape for the summit climb. To put it mildly, we were wiped out. But, we did the best we could, setting up camp, trying to get our gear together, and the other guys had made some extra water for us, (thanks guys!). I made a soup that was inedible...another mistake, probably because I was tired. Everybody else was already in bed by this time at Muir, (I think there were about 40 climbers in all spread about). So, with only a few snacks in me and most of my energy expended, I wasn't sure what shape I'd be in when we got up for the summit attempt at midnight. Because the cold was setting in at high camp, and it was already 8:45 pm, I started to freak out a bit because I knew I was pushing it. I tried to get my gear laid out so I wouldn't have to fumble about when we got up, and flopped into my bag. By the way, I have to say that Muir was a lot more pleasant than the last time I was here because it wasn't very crowded...the RMI guys wouldn't be up until tomorrow. So less hustle and bustle and more peace.

It was around 12:30 am when Curt knocked on my tent door. He was full of high energy, and Nate and Dan were already up. He said, "I'm 100% how about you?" I kind of inventoried my energy and said, "Yeah! 100%" hoping that my mindset would increase my energy level. I pulled my clothes on, hooked into the rope, but forgot to put on my gaitors..very serious error I realized about an hour later because now and then my crampons would brush against my pants and my crampons were shreding my pants and creating a fall hazard each time I caught them together. We headed across the Cowlitz and then up the rocks to Cathedral Gap and over to the Ingraham glacier. Even though it was dark night, you could see the awesome crevasses at the side of the little cow trail in the snow. We made it a few hundred yards before the ice fall area on the Ingraham. Before committing to the cleaver, I unhooked. I was worn out and couldn't keep pace. It was 3am. I didn't want to hold the team up with my poor pace, (I didn't have enough time to recover from the Muir hike), and I sure as hell didn't want to get up on the cleaver somewhere and bail out only to have to batten down in the ice for a descending party to pick me up. It was agreed that I'd wait until sunrise before attempting to climb back down to Muir unroped. I hung out at Ingraham Flats with a small party who was getting ready for their ascent. I did hear the big serac break and our team yell and move quickly towards the cleaver. That is the area where the tragedy occurred many years ago taking close to a dozen people, and the sound echoed off of the rock framing Cadaver Gap just to my left. Off of Tahoma Peak hung the thumbnail of a new moon and as the sun slowly made its way skyward, reds and oranges bathed the ice around me. I could see a cloud cap cover the summit and a foot of snow began to dump on the ascenders. I could see on the otherside of the cleaver the Emmons glacier with monstrous ice breaks, like a city sky line of glacier ice framed against the sunrise colors. The Emmons is an awesome, mindblowing site. And the blue green hues began to show in the crevasses as the sun rose higher. I figured it was safe enough to attempt to climb back to Muir unroped. I carefully made my way to Muir having hooked into my ice axe. I would sink the axe to the head, take two steps, and then repeated the process slowly moving along until I reached the Gap. Here I spent about an hour taking in the morning sun as it creeped towards the tiny tents below at Muir, (see the last picture at the bottom of the page on the photo-archive page). Then I climbed up and over, through the rock debris and traversed along the Cowlitz back to camp. I had prepared for the climb for months, and felt a heavy weight, but then reframed. I had summited once 13 years ago, and will summit again someday in the near future. Today's journey, with the company of my sister and my new climbing partners was an exceptional event in my life...so I didn't define my experience as failure...only as another experience.

Back at Muir I spent the morning with Jennifer. Dan showed up hours later and discussed his altitude sickness and ordeal above the cleaver. Sounded intense. Early afternoon Nate and Curt barged into camp, having had summitted. One climber reported that there were sustained winds of 35 MPH at the crater rim and 50 MPH gusts with a windchill of 15 degrees below zero. With the summit reached by 2, team excitement was high. Nate had second degree burns from the sun which had blistered and he was showing some signs of heat exhaustion. Rest, bandages and water. Jennifer and I left Muir first and the rest the team followed about 1/2 hour behind. A magnificent adventure, and I look forward to returning again soon.

(A few of my equipment pieces): Petzl helmet, Expedition 25 North Face Tent, Archtyrex 80 internal frame pack, Black Diamond Sabretooth crampons, 85cm ice axe. (I'm an expert backpacker but beginner mountaineer, age 39 at time of the climb). EMAIL TIM