pete_a Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 A buddy of mine and I had been talking last week about just how taxing on ones legs and brain would it be to climb Rainier in a day as opposed to the standard 2-3 day trip most folks opt for, so we decided with the good weather forecast this weekend to give it a go. We knew that our car-to-car time wasn't going to be anything impressive and our pace was going to be really slow at the end, but we just wanted to see if we could do it. Left Paradise at 8pm on sunday and starting chugging up to towards Muir. Arrived at Muir at 11:30 and fired up the stove to refill the water bottles. By 1am we were hydrated and roped up and joining the masses departing Muir. I had climbed the Ingraham glacier a couple times before but never the DC...figuring out which way to go up the cleaver was a little challenging for our sleep deprived brains but we pounded the caffinated gu at the top of the cleaver and kept on going. The sun came up with about 1500ft to go and we topped out at 8am. Beautiful morning, warm enough to lounge around on the crater rim in lightweight poly. More gu and water and now it was time to head down, there are a couple sketchy snowbridges on the route still, they look like they could fail within a week or two, and the route meananders quite a ways over onto the Emmons and back, and rockfall was of course a concern while on the cleaver, but otherwise the whole route is in great shape. Had to stop at the top of the cleaver and at Ingraham flats to rest the screaming quads for a few minutes, but we were back at Muir by 11:30, put on dry socks, refilled the water bottles and stumbled down the snowfield. Back to cold soda in the car at 3pm. Not exactly record breaking time, but still a hell of a lot of fun to get in a bit of a sufferfest climb before the summer is over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryland_moore Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 Nice job Pete! Now on to Olympus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_a Posted September 2, 2003 Author Share Posted September 2, 2003 ...maybe....but this was kind of my one weekend break in between studying for my state architecture licensing exams... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figger_Eight Posted September 2, 2003 Share Posted September 2, 2003 Holy balls Pete...you're a glutton for punishment this year! Good effort Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_Larson Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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