Carpe Diem

The time has finally come. I've been determined to climb Mt. Rainier since I made it my New Years Resolution in January and I'll finally get to do it. I've actually sectioned off my life this year into two sections because of all that's gone into preparing for this. My pre-Rainier life and my post-Rainier life. It's been hard to plan things with my friends for so long and I've just kept telling them "let's do such and such after Rainier." I'm sure they're tired of hearing that and I know I'm tired of saying it. :)

I made a pact with myself that I would make an attempt on the Mountain one way or another before the climbing season was over. I've finally decided to go with the RMI guide service. They have both a 4 day and a 5 day summit climb. I've opted to go with the 4 day climb, which includes a day and a half of training before the summit attempt.

The way the guided service is set up, I'll be going down to Ashford, Washington (just outside the park entrance) Tuesday for introductions and the first part of training. On Wednesday we'll spend the day near Paradise doing some training as a group. I'm guessing this will include more self arrest and ropes training. Then on Thursday we'll hike up to Camp Muir. With the guide service we'll be staying in a hut rather than in our own tents. They say to bring ear plugs as it can be hard to sleep in the hut. On Friday morning we'll get started on the trail to the summit at 12:30am. I have been reading reports of teams heading up earlier than that because of the warmer temperatures lately on the mountain.

So now it's the last minute preparations. I'm trying to figure out what food and how much to bring. Luckily the recommended foods for a climb like this are pizza, beef jerky, chips, candy, etc. Being that those are my favorite foods, I think I can handle that. I'm also trying to figure out what layers I'll want for the summit climb. They say it's much colder up on Rainier than people think it will be so I'm guessing my down jacket will be coming in handy.

I'll be going on my last short training hike today on one of the trails near Seattle. It'll be nice to take a break from those trails for a while after this is over. I'm actually looking forward to doing some normal hiking for a bit after this experience. Although, there is talk of still climbing Mt. Adams this summer!

Anyway, if all goes well, anyone with a view of Mt. Rainier should be able to look up on their commute to work Friday morning and hopefully see me waving from the top. :)