Before I left for my climb, I stated that the only thing that could stop me from reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier was weather – Mother Nature must have heard my challenge.

My rope team turned around at 11,300 feet due to extreme weather conditions at 2:45 a.m. on Sunday morning.  I had climbed for over 17 hours over a 39 hour period, but felt that I had the mindset and physical ability to reach the summit if allowed.  I was one of 14 people out of 100+ campers who actually attempted to summit that morning and we reached the highest elevation on the mountain that day – the other campers called our group “crazy as hell”; looking back, I probably agree with them.

I am extremely disappointed that reaching the summit was not an option – despite our tremendous efforts.  I’m proud, however, that we made a safe and smart decision, really, the only decision feasible–no one could have safely made the summit that morning.  I am also extremely proud of what I did accomplish: I have never been pushed to my limits both physically and mentally like I was during the three days of climbing.  Physically: my body was put through an incredible test and wanted to quit on many occasions, yet I kept putting one foot in front of the other and never stopped.  Mentally: I cannot count the number of times I wanted to quit; I questioned myself so many times why I was doing it and had many concerns of not being able to keep going, but after several such battles in my head, I refused to give up.  I found myself having to play mind games throughout the day to stay motivated – one instance was trying to think of every person who made donations and allowed me the opportunity; another was song lyrics, i.e., Bob Seger “I stood on top of the great divide… I could go east, I could go west, it was all up to me to decide”.  Looking back, I am glad I kept going and tackled each challenge.  I look forward to another attempt at Rainier soon.

Taking you through the climbing details:

Friday: we spent seven hours climbing up and down the mountain from 5,000 to 7,000 feet and across several ranges.  On snow fields, we practiced the techniques of mountain climbing and familiarized ourselves with self arrest, avalanche recovery, anchoring, roping as a group, and other skills and safety related techniques.  It was a long hard day of climbing, but I felt extremely strong afterwards and rested well that night at base camp.

Saturday: we set off at 8:30am in pursuit of advanced base camp (Camp Muir).  The day was extremely cloudy and we did not have a single solid “vista” view during the entire climb; we were in a complete cloud for 90% of the day.  The goal was to get there by 4pm (we pushed really hard and made it by 3pm).  This climb was extremely challenging and did its best to knock me out.  As a surprise to me, it was straight up (no side-to-side at all).  The best way to explain it is imagine having to spend six straight hours on a stair climber with a 45 to 50 pound back pack and 10 pound ski boats while chugging through a foot of snow and ice.  This is when I realized that it is nearly impossible to train for mountain climbing in Michigan – you cannot simulate a climb of that duration, the snowy conditions, or the issue of altitude.  We took only 3 five minute breaks with a 10 minute lunch halfway up.  The incline was probably 70 degrees for most of the way – comparable to a black diamond ski slope.  With about 2 hours left in the climb, altitude sickness started taking major effects on my mind and body.  In summary, I started losing it.  It took every ounce of me to keep trucking on as I could barely breathe for two hours.  I was gasping for air constantly and had a hard time remembering to do “pressure breathing” (a technique of breathing that is vital to climbing a mountain).  I had the worst headache I have ever had and severe nausea.  We climbed nearly 5,000 feet in elevation – about a thousand feet per hour.  When we arrived at advanced base camp (10,000 ft.) – I was straight-up out of it and in a total daze.  I crawled into my sleeping area and fought with my mind for a good hour before I had to try to eat and drink to relieve my altitude sickness.  One of the key issues with altitude is that you lose your appetite – I had to throw down two bowls of freeze dried beef stroganoff and some beef jerky; I struggled to keep it down.  The next hour was a true test of my mental strength – questioning the climb and my ability (all because of the altitude sickness).  I finally felt good and knew I could summit and therefore started to doze around 9:30pm; then, my legs began to tighten and tense waking me up at 10:00pm.  I think I finally settled down around 11 and was woken up by the guides at 11:30 to begin the summit attempt.  I was surprised when I geared up and went outside and saw it was snowing extremely hard.  We roped up and left by 11:45pm: it was pitch black and very snowy and windy.  We had head lamps on our helmets, but I could only see two feet in front of me – a complete white out. 

Sunday morning:  after a 20 minute hike up a strenuous snow field (Cowlitz) we reached the edge of the mountain and started climbing up the thousands of snow covered rocks (Cathedral Gap).  For the next hour, I was scared out of my mind.  We were on the side of the mountain, 80 degree slope, with only an 8 inch walking path, and we were fighting 60 mph winds with extreme gusts and a total white out.  We were in a blizzard by full definition.  It snowed three feet in just over an hour.  We had to keep our left hand with the ice axe locked on the upper side of the mountain to keep from falling down the right side (again – an 80 degree slope).  The wind gust knocked the person in front of me down 4 times including once to the wrong side and knocked me over once (blew me right into the mountain).  During this time, I was thinking every step was crazy and completely questioned my sanity for wanting to do this.  I totally forgot the two most important techniques of climbing – pressure breathing and rest stepping.  After an hour into it, and because I didn’t use those two techniques, I was completely exhausted and could barely move my feet.  At one point, I asked my guide to stop for a minute, but he said it was too dangerous to stop – if he said yes, I may have asked to turn back.  15 minutes later, I realized 1) these are professional guides and know what they are doing, 2) I don’t know anything about climbing and this could be normal conditions, and 3) there was no way I was giving up.  So, my mind totally shifted from being scared to absolutely loving the thrill.  I started to thrive in the moment and began pressure breathing and rest stepping.  By 2:00am, I was on a full tank of gas.  The summit was mine as long as the guides were willing to take me there; which I started to wonder if they would.  Over the next 45 minutes, we climbed up a very steep snow bank through 3 feet of snow and had to negotiate ourselves around many crevasses.  In some instances, I would step right over a 100 feet deep crack in the glacier onto a free standing glacier 4 feet in width only to step right back onto the glacier.  God bless the guides because I am sure without one, in these blizzard conditions, it would be easy to fall right into one.  We finally reached an area called Ingrahm Flats and took a break – it was 2:45 a.m.  Again, I felt powerful and motivated to continue.  There were two people (of our group of nine) who vocally wanted to turn back.  At this point we realized that we were the only people who made an attempt to summit (other than one group of 5 who followed us).  There were approximately 100 people camped out at camp Muir, but only 14 plus 3 guides left camp.  The guides grouped to discuss next steps.  They decided that there was zero chance of reaching the summit and going any further would put us in severe danger.  What normally would have taken 1 hour took us nearly three.  They said the storm was worsening, we risked avalanche danger in the next stretch, and would risk having to be rescued which would not be possible until the morning and meant spending the night in a man-made snow cave on the mountain.  With those descriptions of what was to come, no-one complained about turning back.  They also shared that experiencing what we just went through was a bigger “climber” thrill than reaching the summit; I’m pretty sure, however, no-one would agreed. 

We arrived back at Camp Muir at 4 a.m.  I spent 20 minutes sitting on the ledge looking at absolutely nothing but black and snow trying to relax myself, so I could sleep.  I slept for about two hours before we got up at 7:30 to pack-up. 

Sunday: we spent the day sliding down ice and trekking through about 3 feet of snow all the way down.  It was a complete white out again and didn’t offer a single view of the (supposedly) amazing views around Rainier.  We got back to the lodge at noon where we immediately grabbed a few pitchers of beer and some pizza. 

I feel extremely fortunate to have had this adventurous experience and am very grateful to those who made it possible.  I plan to go back to Rainier if the weather permits in September during a work trip (guides tell me that there is a very slim chance that weather and scheduling would allow me in September), and will for sure attempt to summit Rainier again next July (best month).  Not even mother-nature can tell me I can’t accomplish something.  Don’t worry – next time I won’t ask for donations, but will do a trip on my own with the guide service!

Thanks to the following for allowing this to happen:  my family: Mom, Frank & Tari, Joan, Mike, Shelly & Dusty, Chris, Frank, Stephanie, Yvonne & Joe, Ray & Karen, Uncle Dennis, Sue, Patti & Dave, Grandma Esther, and friends: Paul Hallas, Brooks Waugh, Keith & Amelia Lorizio, Sean McElroy, Fred & Emily Schwarze, Matt & Katie Feodoroff, Mike & Michelle Gutow, Kathy Rizk, Mike Bologna, Sean Stevenson, Justin Pharmer, Matt Joswick, , Bryan & Kristina Watson, Steve Gotz, John Chung, Stacy Randazzo, Carolynn Gardziola, Steph & Andrew Cottrell, Chris & Jenica Tremberth, Greg Bloom, Natalie Shoemaker, Jeff & Brandi Verkyn, Kraig Hansen, Michelle Brouliard, Adam Erhard, Andrea Ferguson, Kevin & Jeannette VonGrabe, Nicole and Jeff Fryer, and of course Renee and Troy!