Training for Rainier

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GregMiller
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by GregMiller »

Couple other things I just remembered:
I'd recommend getting comfortable sleeping with ear plugs and melatonin (or other sleep aid). When we did it, we went to sleep at 5 PM, and woke up at 10 for the summit bid. Thus, going to sleep when it was still light, and plenty of people were still moving around. 2 of us took melatonin, popped in ear plugs, and slept great. The third didn't, and slept horribly (our snoring apparently didn't help), and had a bad summit day as a result (still summitted, but was exhausted).
Get comfortable jumping/leaping in crampons - when we did Rainier, about a mile down the trench from the crater was a crevasse that you had to climb up across on the way up, and jump across/down on the way back. The other two made it across gracefully enough, but I tripped on the landing and sprawled face first, thankfully in a nice wide flat area. So, it might be worth it being comfortable with that before you go.
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Scott P
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by Scott P »

When we did it, we went to sleep at 5 PM, and woke up at 10 for the summit bid.
That is really early. Why so early? :?: Were you on the top before sunrise?
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GregMiller
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by GregMiller »

It was really warm when we did it - pretty much everyone left Camp Muir before 11 in order to beat the heat. Sunrise summit was a nice bonus :-D
Route definitely got sloppy on the way down, glad we left when we did.
Still Here
been scared and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has friz me, Sun has baked me,
Looks like between 'em they done Tried to make me
Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'-- But I don't care! I'm still here!
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ChrisinAZ
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by ChrisinAZ »

Similar experience to us (freeze line was at 16k the day we summitted--the only place I ever actually felt cold was on the crater rim!). Except we got a later start, it took us a bit longer than average to make the top from Muir, and the descent was almost all mashed potatoes. Not fun, and not recommended! Unfortunately it was either that, get basically no sleep, or take a full extra day to do the climb. Not really an easy answer, just be as safe as possible.

I was lucky and somehow managed to fall asleep for around 5 hours in spite of neighboring climbers loudly blabbing, but sleep aids would be a very good idea. The corollary is: please be considerate of your fellow climbers and try to keep noise to a minimum, especially after sunset or so!
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DoctorBreaks
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by DoctorBreaks »

A lot fo great info here. Thank you everyone for your responses. :) For now I'm going to work on the endurance aspects of climbing Rainier and look into the Crevasse Rescue class by CMS. Will most likely plan on going in early July since that seems to be the best time to summit. :)


Thanks again

-John
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AlexeyD
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by AlexeyD »

Lots of good advice on here. I'll just mention one last thing, which is more of a general piece of advice: be flexible in your plans. At some point you need to get tickets and travel there, and no matter what time of year you go, there's a chance that conditions will not be favorable for a Rainier ascent. If that's the case - there are PLENTY of other great things to do in Washington. Climbing in Leavenworth, hiking the Wonderland Trail near Rainier, climbing peaks in the Tatoosh Range, check out the beaches and rainforest in Olympic NP...I can go on and on. Not to say don't go for Rainier if it conditions are right - but it seems like a lot of accident and close calls begin with the mentality of "well...I came all the way out here, so better give it a try, no matter what". Well...a "try" on Rainier can exact a heavy price if things go badly. I say all this with the knowledge of hindsight, having been victim to that very mindset. If I ever go back, I've promised myself to never make that mistake again...
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by peter303 »

AlexeyD wrote:Lots of good advice on here. I'll just mention one last thing, which is more of a general piece of advice: be flexible in your plans. At some point you need to get tickets and travel there, and no matter what time of year you go, there's a chance that conditions will not be favorable for a Rainier ascent.
Good point. Rainier accounted for 7 of 15 lower48 14er fatalites in 2014. Most of that from one horrible event.
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by SurfNTurf »

DoctorBreaks wrote:A lot fo great info here. Thank you everyone for your responses. :) For now I'm going to work on the endurance aspects of climbing Rainier and look into the Crevasse Rescue class by CMS. Will most likely plan on going in early July since that seems to be the best time to summit. :)


Thanks again

-John
Just a note: CMC's Basic Mountaineering School is being remodeled into a modular offering. Instead of having to commit something like two months to an expansive course, you'll now be able to pick and choose which elements you want to learn. I've heard nothing but good things about Colorado Mountain School, but crevasse rescue is only a small part of the skillset you need to build when transitioning from summer 14er hiking to Mt. Rainier. You post a lot of (good, well-thought out) beginner questions here, and in my opinion BMS would be far more helpful to you at this stage in your climbing career than a specialized one-day crevasse rescue course. Not to mention, without practice you'd forget 80 percent of what you learned about pulley systems by July 2016. My advice would be to enroll in BMS now, and the CMS crevasse rescue clinic in winter 2016.
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by Mrwaffles989 »

AlexeyD wrote:Lots of good advice on here. I'll just mention one last thing, which is more of a general piece of advice: be flexible in your plans. At some point you need to get tickets and travel there, and no matter what time of year you go, there's a chance that conditions will not be favorable for a Rainier ascent. If that's the case - there are PLENTY of other great things to do in Washington. Climbing in Leavenworth, hiking the Wonderland Trail near Rainier, climbing peaks in the Tatoosh Range, check out the beaches and rainforest in Olympic NP...I can go on and on. Not to say don't go for Rainier if it conditions are right - but it seems like a lot of accident and close calls begin with the mentality of "well...I came all the way out here, so better give it a try, no matter what". Well...a "try" on Rainier can exact a heavy price if things go badly. I say all this with the knowledge of hindsight, having been victim to that very mindset. If I ever go back, I've promised myself to never make that mistake again...
This is an excellent piece of advice. I went out last April with a 7 day plane ticket and ended up purchasing an additional ticket because of poor weather. I fell into the same heuristic trap Alexey mentions above...stay safe. I believe 4 people were missing from Paradise when I arrived, and then 6 more passed away the following week on Liberty. Stay flexible, the coast and rainforests are really enjoyable, as are the North Cascades, and there is plenty to do in Seattle. Have fun!
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metalmountain
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by metalmountain »

AlexeyD wrote:Lots of good advice on here. I'll just mention one last thing, which is more of a general piece of advice: be flexible in your plans. At some point you need to get tickets and travel there, and no matter what time of year you go, there's a chance that conditions will not be favorable for a Rainier ascent. If that's the case - there are PLENTY of other great things to do in Washington. Climbing in Leavenworth, hiking the Wonderland Trail near Rainier, climbing peaks in the Tatoosh Range, check out the beaches and rainforest in Olympic NP...I can go on and on. Not to say don't go for Rainier if it conditions are right - but it seems like a lot of accident and close calls begin with the mentality of "well...I came all the way out here, so better give it a try, no matter what". Well...a "try" on Rainier can exact a heavy price if things go badly. I say all this with the knowledge of hindsight, having been victim to that very mindset. If I ever go back, I've promised myself to never make that mistake again...

Yeahhhhh...We flew out there last summer with a limited window. Which we knew was a bad idea, but a couple folks were time constrained unfortunately. The weather looked OK when we left Denver, but it was terrible by the time we got to Seattle. We never even saw Rainier until 4 days later on afternoon we left, when it came out in its full glory just to tease us as we drove to the airport. We tried to salvage the trip with a climb up Shuksan but after a few hours in crap visibility and sideways rain we decided that we should head back to the car.

Exactly a year previous however I flew out there for 7 days, and we got bluebird weather for all but 2 days. Got up and down Emmons in a couple days and had enough time to go snag some stuff in the Cascades as well. Just to echo what has been said here, go out there and be as flexible as possible. Rainier can be socked in, but you can salvage the trip by looking elsewhere. Of course if you go guided that limits your options a bit, but you gotta do what you feel comfortable with in that regard.
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by spiderman »

We brought supplies for five days up to Camp Muir. That was fortunate because there was 100 mph winds on days 2 and 3. The guided parties were dragged to the crater rim and then dragged back down the trail when they could proceed no further. We just played games in our tent and waited for the good weather to arrive. It was a cake walk when the conditions were good.
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Re: Training for Rainier

Post by pvnisher »

Guided groups went up on 100 mph winds, and your tent survived 100 mph winds???
At 60 mph tree limbs break, at 70 mph trees are uprooted. Walking in anything more than 55-60 is just about impossible.
Stick your hand out the car window going 75. Now imagine walking in that!

People love to overestimate wind speed and slope angle...
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