saxybrian

I'll start this off by saying I left my rope at Muir on 9/13-14. If anyone picked it up, I'll buy you a beer or pay for shipping if it's far away. Send me an email at brianwthomas(@)g mail (dot) com I had planned a single push up Rainier with a friend. I left work around 3pm, got home around 3:30, finished packing my gear and left the house at 4:45pm. Got to Paradise around 8:20 and left the lot around 8:35. On the way up, I felt really slow, then I realized having had Mexican food the night before and and only sleeping 5 hours. This could be the problem. I reached pebble creek at about 1:08 minutes into the climb with out my friend in sight (we were gonna meet up on the snowfield). I ate, drank and relaxed there for about 15 minutes. I put my shirt back on, and my jacket over me and headed up the snowfield. From there up I seemed to be moving at a crawl. The upper snowfield provided some challenge w/o crampons, but was at the level where it seemed it would be a waste to put them on for a few hundred feet that you needed them, or to continue w/o them and have that little struggle. I made Muir at 3:50 from my start point. I got there, felt like crap from the lack of sleep, and the stomach issues I was having all day. Decided to sleep in the hut while my buddy tagged along with another rope team and made the summit. Overall, it was a fun trip, learned a bit about myself on the way up in the middle of the night by myself w/o another person in sight. My overall fun-meter on this trip was low due to the stomach issues and lack of sleep. Though I do think I could do it in a single push with a bit more training and a good night rest the day before. I think for this season I'm done with my climbs and may end up trying a ski from summit next season. Until next time. Brian

Ah, Just toss out invites, you'll find people. Put up your experiences in the climbing partners a few months before the trip. I did this when I lived in TX and got 6 trips up here that way. Just remember, it's Russian Roulette when you do that. You could get a crazy good partner, or someone who's a huge liability. I've been both during that time frame. If I'm free I'd be happy to link up with you to see if you want if I have time next year.

I can almost bet you'll get turned down for a solo request if you do it with your experience and your current attitude. Why not just link up with someone up here and head up. If you can't make it up in a guide group, what makes you think you can do it solo?

I think it depends on what type of skiing you do. If you're a winter/spring skier, I'd tend to a more fat setup like the coomback/sidestash. If you're into more late spring/summer skiing then something skinnier would be ok. I ski the K2 wayback and love the ski, it edges great, plays well on hard snow and is pretty light and sturdy. If you're a light dude you may want to check these out for the price you can't beat it. http://www.roostoutfitters.com/content/random-f08

I got denied on my first request, but I asked to climb any route. I then asked them about the DC on a good weather window and they approved it. In most cases that I've seen, folks get denied from lack of experience (in their resume to the rangers) or assume because itw as approved before it would again. Detail everything that you can

Hike up a few hours and camp on the Muir Snowfield? There's some camp sights on the lower mountain you can do, just do a search on Google and I'm sure you can find plenty.

Don't sleep in the main lot, head to the overnight lot just down the road, and don't 'let them know you're sleeping' in your car. They will ask you to go to a camp ground or 'not do it again' It's technically against their policy to do this as I've been poked at for doing it once by a Ranger at night.

Hey, Know you're wanting a ski partner, but I'm taking my ski's to Muir (not fully skilled enough for a summit ski) and we're taking a group up the Gib Ledges route looks like Sat/Sun if you want to party up with us and ski down solo if you don't find anyone. It's been a while since I've been up there, but in the summer my avg times to Muir were between 2:45-3:15 on good days, not sure How're they're going to compare these days with a few months off. Just thought I'd extend the invitation if you didn't get a response. -Brian Email me at brianwthomas@gmail.com

Accident happened, and climber is in good shape. Apparently there was a rock slide that had knocked him off a 30ft cliff and broke his fib/tib. Was able to get a heli flight out the following day after his partner raced down to get cell reception. Kudo's to him and he should be back up and running hopefully by next summer. Not going to throw names or anything since I'm not sure if he wants any of this on the net, but did want to say he is doing fine and in great spirits.

Josh! I have to say that when I started reading your reports a year or two ago when I lived in TX, I always thought to myself back then, "Man, this kid is crazy, I'd never climb with him, the mistakes he's made seem so large and dangerous." However, fast forward a few years and look at you. Got your Rainier trips down, things seem to moving swell and good for you and I haven't seen those silly mistakes such as "I forgot my gloves" or "Duct taping your feet to keep warm" I've also moved up here to the PNW since then and would love to climb with you if you ever need another partner. Keep up the good work.

Trip: Mt Rainier - DC (7/27/2012) - Disappointment Cleaver Date: 7/28/2012 Trip Report: Buddy of mine introduced me to a friend he climbed with a while back. Since my friend was off fighting a war oversea's his friend and I hooked up for a climb on the DC. The climb started off uneventful from Paradise parking lot with the exception we didn't bring a tent and when we finished with our registration there was 1 spot left at Muir which means we had to book it up. The trail from Paradise was pretty uneventful as normal. Pretty melted out to Pebble Creek which allowed me to reach the water crossing at 1:05 into my climb. This was a personal record for me so I was quiet happy. After this, I did the slow slog up the Muir Snowfield and by 8500ft It was 2 hours into the hike. My fastest previous hike to Muir with a full pack was 3:55 minutes so at this point, I wondered if it was possible to break 3 hours. Well turns out, I made it in 2:59 minutes. Awesome! After getting to Muir, I secured two spots in the shelter for myself and my partner. He got there about 30 minutes after I did. We ate, melted snow rested. It was about 1:45 by this time and we were getting bored and felt great, spoke with the rangers and they were having a really low freezing level (11500ft). We decided to head up for a day summit run and a night decent. Left about 3:00ish from Muir. Ended up on top of the gap and had to take our boots off and tape our heels due to hotspots. My mistake at this point was not taking a food break at the flats. Instead, we pushed past the flats and up the cleaver. We went through the rock fall / ice fall fast and ended up on top of the cleaver at about 3 hours into the push from Muir including our stop. At this point, I had hit a wall, pretty sure it was the 3 hour pace to Muir + not sleeping + last food break was 5 hours before + altitude. At this point, I knew I could make it to summit in about 3 more hours, however, I felt that coming down at 10pm in the dark with frozen snow and me being dead tired would not be ideal to living another day. So we opted to turn around and head back to Muir. We made it down to rock/ice fall area. After 3 -5 minutes of passing this, a huge fall happened with boulders the size of men tumbling right down the trail we were on moments before. Sometimes, it's just luck on missing things like this. We got to Muir, packed our gear and ended up in the parking lot at 11:30pm. Not bad from 9am to 11:30pm to make it to DC and back down. Both of us had never attempted a car2car before, but if I ate a bit more, and trained a tad harder (maybe a few days of laping Mt Si 3x) I could see no issues with doing this. Until next time!

No, that's not the gap. The gap looks like this right now, I took this last Saturday

Was just thinking either the DC or Emmons, but a up and over could be fun too. I'm down with whatever. Though I'd probably rather go down the DC route than Emmons side

I'd like to do DC/Emmons on Fri/Sat maybe even start late Thursday just to relax an extra day if we do Emmons. If anyone is interested please pm me or email at brianwthomas (at) gmail.com

txt me, I'm available after 3pm 512.577.6799

I want to hit up Rainier this year and drive out to park Thursday night, and climb Friday and be back to car Saturday. Does anyone want to head up? I've been to the summit 3x, lead 2 parties, been stuck in a blizzard, and turned around due to weather and my crappy physical conditioning (about 4 years ago). I don't have to hit the summit and have no issues turning around if conditions aren't right. Please make sure you are the same if you want to do this. I can make it to Muir in about 4-5 hours and would expect the same from the climbing partner. If you're interested shoot me an email to brianwthomas at (gmail) dot com.

I'll be living up there starting mid March if you can't hit it up in Feb. Gib Ledges is still on my bucket list. I've lead the DC and ID routes and really don't have a lot of interest in doing them. More looking at Gib Ledges or Nisqually that time of year.

Check out the blog at: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html (this is last october) and you can review the routes there to see what they are like in Oct) If you want a fast route i'd suggest DC or Emmons

On hard ice?

Don't forget breathing from your nose helps you prevent a lot of water loss which can help you on every aspect on the mountain.

I could care less if it does or doesn't. It works for me and so I stick with it. Just like people who don't change underwear on sports teams until they win a game. Whatever works, stick with. And since climbing can be 90% mental, and this helps me with that, then it helps me climb better!

I know it's a bit late on this post but hey I'll give it what I normally do. I normally drink the crap out of water on the trip to Rainier. I try to get 64oz on the drive to the mountain. Also, I can't stress super hydrating the night before. I fill my 2 Nalgens with Gator-aid (200 calories per bottle) I also take enough gu powder mix or whatever you like in powder form so you can use it on summit push. On the way up to muir it really depends on your speed. If you're fast, you'll eat less from what i normally see just due to the fact that you're still stopping every hour to eat, but it's only 4 hours vs 7 or something. I normally bring peanut butter M&Ms, gu packs, cliff bars, and anything like that for the way up. Something I can eat and hike with. Also I can't stress enough the gator-aid on the way up, that's 400 calories in your system w/o even chewing, plus some electrolytes. When at Camp, eat, eat, eat, eat. I don't care what it is, how full you are, try to down everything you can. Then, Poo, poo, poo, poo. Less weight for summit, and trust me (I have experience pooing at elevation on a glacier on a rope) you don't want to do this. On my summit push, I fill my bottles up with the powder mix for a extra few hundred calories. I take about 400 calories for each break (think about 3-4 up and 1-2 on way down) I'd stress for 6 breaks at about 300-400 calories or so on each one. Make sure it's food you'll enjoy, so get a mix of nuts, junk and everything else. This should get you where you be. Also remember that the slower you are the more you're going to feel it. I also suggest immodium before you summit run to avoid a epic 14k poo.

Won't bore you with all the details of the trip but here's a few. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So here's a fucking book. "That's what she said" was a huge part in this trip and kept us alive. Mile Stones: 3rd Rainier Summit 2nd Led summit Knocked 1hr 30mins off my fastest hike to Muir (3hr 55 min total) Still alive Marks first Summit Cute girl sitting on rock waiting on her boyfriend [not me ] Camp Muir tent site Camp Site + some crevasses on the "Moo" - litz glacier Now I want to say something about this picture here. The guy up front wanted to pass us since our 2nd guy wasn't feeling so hot. They had a really strong team, were moving a lot faster, but wanted us to stop moving all together with 150ft rope out. Doing this would have backed us up, made us stop, and would have caused every other rope team behind to move past us for about 30mins to an hour. The slope here wasn't very steep, so I asked their leader if he didn't mind moving straight instead of doing a switch back so we could all keep moving. Now the guy you can't see behind the dude on the left was a complete ass. I've pretty much ignored him, but the shit he said was pretty uncalled for. And if you read this post, your a douche bag. By the time he caught up to me he was one of the biggest pricks I've ever seen on a mountain. I kept my cool there as I didn't want to get into a fight at 13k, but now that I'm off that mountain you can go fuck yourself. (Sorry internet warrior coming out) Pretty pictures Crater shot and Mark taking a leak Group shot Celebrating on the Columbia Crest Yeah, I'm pretty bad ass now Decent time: The Ingraham looks like thor took his hammer to it and just shattered it. Some clouds rolled in as we hit the summit, it was probably one of the coolest things i've ever seen in my life as the clouds swooped over and down the other side of the crater. All in all a great trip except one douche bag on the mountain.

check my thread too on it, maybe we can get together.