The next climb on our agenda was the big one... the one we had come all that way to tackle. Mt. Rainier, one of the most popular climbs in the lower 48. The mountain is larger and a more technical climb than anything I had done before. I was intimidated. And I was also still a little pooped from the first two climbs. Actually that is not fully accurate..I was probably in some of the best shape I had been in in quite some time, hardened up by the first two peaks. But some of my joints were feeling a hair creaky and I was just nervous! and I was also probably the least prepared out of the group.
My Uncle Gary and Chris were both real fired up. I was willing but I think I lacked their gusto. And when we got to Rainier it was foggy! At the top it was difficult to see farther then 15 or 20 feet. It was pea soup, cold, rainy, and generally miserable at the Paradise Lodge. So when we were making the decision to go or not to go, I told Gary and Chris that I was not comfortable with the climb. If conditions were better I would have gone, but I felt that I lacked the experience and conditioning for less than favorable weather. If something went wrong (and on Rainier it is a real possibility. They found the body of somebody that had been lost for quite some time around when we were there), I felt I would not be able to get myself out of trouble. So I told them to not worry about me and to go on ahead if they wanted to. But I think my decision to stay was the straw that broke the camels back. If I was gung ho like them I believe the group would have pressed ahead. But they decided to all stick together so we changed the plans.
So unfortunately we had to bid Rainier adiue...but we will be back! On the drive back to Seattle we began planning our next attack, and we decided on Mt. Baker. This was an ambitious plan my Uncle and Cousin cooked up. Mt. Baker is only a 10,000 foot tall mountain, but the kicker is you start at 3000 feet of elevation. That means it is 7,000 vertical feet from start to finish... which is quite a lot. I think on Mt. Hood we only tackled 5,500 feet in one day. And it was not exactly easy! And then added to that, Mt. Baker is one of the most glaciated peaks for its size out there. So it would make the crevasses found on Mt. Hood seem like nothing. Most people tackle this peak in two days, like we did for Mt. Adams. But we had a time constraint so we decided that we were going to attempt the mountain, up and down in one day.
It would be a grueling day, but afterwards we would be done, everybody flying back home the next day. So after a short layover so my cousin could get a bit of work done we headed off! Fast and light was our motto, and we started hiking up around 3 in the morning. It was difficult at first because we were hiking through forest in the middle of night. Hiking up a mountain at night is one thing, with your light reflecting off the snow. Hiking through a dark forest full or roots and rocks is a different matter. We had to tread carefully. But as it tended to do, the time began to melt away and before long we were over the trees, hiking a beautiful ridge line approaching the first glaciers of the mountain. We started trudging up the glacier but before too long, we noticed my cousin lagging behind. And this is quite odd. Usually I am the slowest one in the group and Chris is leaving me and Uncle Gary in the dust! Apparently after ascending that first 3,000 feet Chris' knee began to hurt. About six months earlier he had been training to run marathons (I told you my cousin was a sucker for punishment!) and at some point his knee began hurting. Well the day before the hike he had been running a little bit, and that combined with the beginning of the ascent was starting to take a toll. We had only completed about a quarter of the hike. We had gone halfway up, with the other halfway up to go and then decent. And in my experience the decent is WAY harder on the legs.
We decided to throw in the towel on the mountain. Chris tried to talk us into going back up, but neither Uncle Gary or I wanted to leave him alone in the middle of a mountain. It is just not a good idea in my book. And to be honest I wasn't feeling spectacular myself. I think I could have summitted, but it would have taken a LOT out of me. But it was not a complete loss. Bar none, the hike to this mountain through the forest and up the ridge line was one of the most beautiful hikes I have done. Ever. It was really spectacular country. And at heart I am more the hiker/backpacker than mountaineer, I think. ; ) And thus ends my story... until I save up enough vacation time to travel to even greater heights!
--Bob
