In this trip report, I want to write about the experience of summiting Rainier via the DC route and getting my 9th consecutive month of skiing in, but I also want to write about how my perception of and attitude towards goals has evolved over the course of this last year.
I’ve been sport climbing for a few years now, and I’ve been skiing on and off since I was a kid, but I’ve never been any sort of great talent at either.
This last winter, I decided I wanted to use climbing and skiing to explore and enjoy being in the mountains, rather than to push the limits of my skill in more controlled situations (climbing on bolts, skiing in-bounds). I got a good deal on a backcountry ski setup through my friend Todd, and took an AIARE level 1 avalanche safety course through BC Adventure Guides. Todd taught me the basics of skinning and skiing with a trip to Muir in November 2015, and the course got me hooked on using my skis to access fun areas and enjoy a few turns. I began to really enjoy the perverse pleasures of skiing uphill. At the same time, I was thinking about the next climbing season, and really wanted to learn how to trad climb, so I could make it up easy/moderate alpine routes. I applied for the WAC Basic Climbing course so I could learn glacier travel, and have experience planning alpine climbing trips. Unfortunately, I didn’t get in to the program, which they suggested was because I had too much rock climbing experience, so I would only benefit from the glacier/snow climbing portion of the course.
Around this time (Feb/March), my friend Pete and I took a quick trip to Mt. St. Helens to summit and ski down. Along the way, we talked about our climbing goals for the summer, and he mentioned the climbing team that he was a part of organizing (mentioned in previous posts), and I decided to join. Since I had just done MSH, and the team planned on doing Baker and Rainier, I also decided that I wanted to summit all five Washington volcanoes in one season. I didn’t know exactly what this would entail, except that it would push my fitness and require me to learn a lot about climbing in an alpine environment. And that was enough for me. However, I felt like I needed to set a goal, and I didn’t have a framework for how to set that goal other than that I knew there was a set of mountains that fit my skills and abilities.
Fast forward to the Emmons attempt. Not summiting was a bit of a bummer, as I felt like I was prepared for the trip, and given different conditions could have summited. However, the route was beautiful, and the experience of climbing Rainier was very enjoyable. I distinctly remember thinking to myself at several points that it wasn’t a slog at all, in fact I was actually enjoying the process of climbing, not just the prospect of the summit.
But the nagging of my final unclimbed Washington volcano pushed me to great lengths to plan another attempt. I constantly sent group texts to Pete and Luke, and marked every free weekend on my calendar as a possible day to attempt Rainier. In addition, my goal of skiing every month for a year was pushing me to find a time to ski in July. Finally, on the final weekend of July, the weather, a good team of climbers, and a free couple of days finally came together.
We put together a group of climbers including Pete, Luke, Hanna, David, Vlad, and myself, and settled on doing the DC route, since it offered the shortest route to the summit. I decided (rather stupidly) to carry my skis and boots to Camp Muir and to ski down from there on our descent. I was obviously the only one to do this silly thing, since Luke already got his July turns in, and no one else was willing to subject themselves to this issue. My pack with skis and boots topped out our scale (which had a 55 pound limit), I’m estimating it was around 60 pounds, which is WAY too much for a 1 night trip.
The weather on the way up was amazing though, cool breezes, sunshine, and crowds of people streaming from Paradise to Muir to enjoy it with. We got to camp around 1 or 2 pm and set up in the midst of a giant village. Seemed like everyone decided this was the weekend to attempt. We set up our camp, melted water, shoved some freeze-dried dinners into our faces and curled up to go to sleep. In order to save weight (since clearly that was a priority of mine), Pete, Luke and I shared a 2-person tent.
We woke up around 10:30 pm, just after it actually got dark, shoved more freeze-dried food in our faces, and I went off to take one of my famed 20 minute warrior dumps. When I got back, everyone was ready to go (except for me of course), and I quickly got ready, muttering apologies. Unfortunately Hanna was feeling pretty sick, so she made the decision to stay in camp and sleep through the night. The rest of us split into two rope teams, Pete with Vlad, and the other three of us on the 2nd rope. We moved through the night fairly quickly, passing groups on the way through Ingraham Flats, just at the bottom of Disappointment Cleaver, and on the cleaver itself. In contrast to Emmons, there isn’t much positive to say about my experience ascending the DC route, other than that I didn’t get my head knocked off my all the loose shitty rock on the cleaver. It was dark, fairly windy, and the route itself lacks a natural aesthetic, feeling more like it’s been blasted into the side of a mountain by brute force and the plodding of thousands of crampon-ed La Sportiva Nepal rental boots.
I wish I had more positive things to say about the climb, but at least the summit experience was awesome. We made it to the top just before sunrise, with every single bit of our clothing on, and found shelter by the summit register, where the ground was being warmed by the venting of the volcano. We sat and chatted with some other climbers as the sun peeked out and then started our way down.
The descent was much warmer, and the winds had died down, so Luke, David, and myself enjoyed more conversation as we walked down over the ladder crossings and snow bridge hops.
We got back to camp around 1 or so, and then put on my skis and attempted to make some turns. I ended up skiing about 600 vertical feet before deciding that this was too much bullshit to make it worth skiing. Super suncupped, but still crusty and rigid. Much too bumpy for my tired legs to handle. Never again will I set myself up to not enjoy skiing, but hey at least I got month 9 in, right?
Right, I suppose. But this experience did make me rethink my approach to goals. I think it’s important to have goals to guide me in my training, and my objectives. But I think this experience has taught me that these goals need to be goals that I make independently. I can’t just pick a list of peaks or an athletic feat that someone else has posted on the internet and blindly think “well, I guess I can start there!” For me, the times when my goals have been the most satisfying to fulfill is when I’ve seen a mountain, or read a trip report and been inspired by the goal itself, not by its place on a list or a blog. I’m super glad I was able to do all five volcanoes in a single season, and my first season mountaineering even. However, the most positive part of this experience by far was getting to do this with friends. Getting to become good friends with Pete and Luke, and getting to share summits with people like Kimber, Hanna, David, Vlad, Todd, and Eric (among others!) was one of the coolest experiences of 2016, and helped make up for the waste of a year that 2015 was for me. And luckily, even though this Rainier summit/July ski wasn’t the most enjoyable, it wasn’t my last summit, and it wasn’t my last chance to make some summer turns. I’m looking forward to catching up on writing about the rest of my summer and to keep getting after it this fall and winter!
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