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Rainier in 1 day


Bakes

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Besides really good cardio...what does it take to do Rainier in a day. It just seems crazy to me that some people make it a 4 day hardest climb of my life experience and others just kinda park at Paradise and run up and back in time for lunch.

 

Anyways, anybody have any info on how they did Rainier in a single day? Specifically, gear, start times, routes, etc..

 

Thanks

 

Bakes

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Around 1983 some friends and I did Liberty Ridge as an overnighter from White River CG. We humped over St. Elmo's pass and climbed up to Thumb Rock to bivy, then climbed up and over the next day and descended the Emmons. But I guess that doesn't fit what you're asking, because we carried a tent and stove...

[img:left]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/235/456107416_7cb3e3a027.jpg[/img]

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I've done Rainier in under 12 hrs r/t by two routes, several times. And almost half that time once on DC. With normal gear..well sorta because we never roped up and one of my buddies never bothered to put on crampons the first time. And in today's super lwt stuff, again unroped last summer. None of them would be considered a "speed" ascent.

 

Gear you'll use isn't a big deal..gear you carry (or more importantly what you don't) on your back is. I don't carry much and not much of what the Mountaineers ( or NPS for that matter) would want you to have.

 

Runners (running shoes or trail runners) to Muir or close to Muir every time. Boots the entire way on the other routes, Katz and Fuhrer Finger.

 

I took 3 liters in bottles on the first trip and 4 liters on the others. Pushed fluids the day before and just before heading up. I like to summit with a full liter. Last time I took a MSR stove and brewed up at Ingraham flats on the way down in the morning. Didn't have too but wanted to enjoy sunrise and morning. I've started at any time between early evening to midnight depending on how fit I have felt.

 

As I've gotten older I have found I like an early evening leave time which gets me to Muir in time for a nap in the hut and a little something to eat and drink out of the wind. The guided parties usually wake me up and I am out the door before they are and then long gone. Hate to be climbing under big rope teams or having to pass them in the middle of the night so better to just be off before they get started. Which is easy enough to do.

 

Just my opinion but if you are in reasonable shape and take care of yourself during the climb with hydration and food a one day climb is the easiest way to do Rainer.

If you start to feel bad just turn around. Pretty quick to get off if the conditons are good. Which they need to be for me to make a one day ascent. I look for a good cold spell with a clear sky just after a warm weather period. I also like to see the trails lower down clear of snow. But that isn't required as long as the snow is hard for easy walking to 10K.

 

Planning on a north side route this spring, done in the same way and coming down through Muir.

 

Couple of guys have posted on their one day speed climbs. Worth hitting the search function to look at those.

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Besides really good cardio...what does it take to do Rainier in a day. It just seems crazy to me that some people make it a 4 day hardest climb of my life experience and others just kinda park at Paradise and run up and back in time for lunch.

 

Anyways, anybody have any info on how they did Rainier in a single day? Specifically, gear, start times, routes, etc..

 

Thanks

 

Bakes

 

You need a permit and you will need to carry (and know how to use or they would prefer you just stay off) the prerequisite gear: axe, screws, rope, stakes, and etc. (solo requires a special permit from the Park Super).

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The first time I went from Paradise to the summit crater was right about 24 hours round trip. Seems like we left Paradise around 5pm and walked up to Muir, arriving around 10pm. The best part was walking out of the white out just below Muir just as it was getting dark. We slept for a few hours and then climbed the Gib Route. The hit the summit crater but did not go over to Columbia Crest. Warren and I had altitude sickness as we lived at 200'. We stumbled down the DC and back to Muir were we picked up our bags and headed back down to Paradise which seems like we arrived at around 5pm. Funny, until today I really did think about this being a one day ascent but I guess it was.

 

Oddly enough, today my harder ascents on Rainier tend to be three to four day climbs. Why? mostly cause we do things like come in from Carbon River. So we typically spend the night at a mid elevation camp (8k), stroll up to a high camp (10k-11k) on the Norwand side and relax, summit, and then come down to Sherman for the night then walking back around the hill and down to the Carbon RIver.

 

This year we did the Kautz and we purposely tried to go slow. We could have gone faster but as Vince said we were on vacation (He had also just come off of Denali and was still recovering - which for a guy of 60 was great). And in the end we went faster than planned. For instance, on our summit day we left Hazard at 6am and got to the summit plateau at 10:30an even though we screwed around on top for 1.5 hours and were back down to Paradise at 5pm.

 

 

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Have you sumitted the big R? If not you may want try it in a two day first to see how you handle altitude.

 

Bird dog is right on...my post was assuming you had climbed Rainier. If not I would suggest a 3 day trip. Depending on the route a night at 9 or 10 and a second night out at 11 or above will make summiting a lot easier.

 

I really don't like 2 day trips on Rainier because so many either get sick or are just too tired from the first day going from 4 or 5000ft to 10K.

 

And yes, you do need a permit to solo Rainier (which takes a few weeks to get) or for that matter to climb unroped above 10K feet as we found out on our first one day climb. Three of us climbed "together" on DC. We didn't rope up and were seperated by several minutes on the route both getting to Muir and above Muir. That wasn't the original intention as we did bring a rope, it was just the way it worked out. None of us were concerned. Clients and their guides commented to the Park Service, who then made a point of talking to us.

 

I wouldn't say soloing Rainier is hard by the easiesst routes. I live close to the mountain and it is the easiest way for me to climb it when the weather is good and conditions are solid. But and it is a BIG caveat I don't think soloing any route on Rainier is the smartest idea.

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We did the Emmons in spring, 2003 in a day. It was our first time on rainier. We left at 11:00p.m., got lost for an hour or so. Brewed up at Sherman as the sun rose....Amazing...and then continued up to the summit. We were back at sherman by about 1 p.m., and then back at the base by about 4-5p.m.

Tried Gib. Ledges in jan/feb 2004 in a day..made it to 12,500 when storm came in. Descended ingrahm headwall in whiteout...interesting...lots of postholing.

Rainier is very easily doable in a day with proper fitness, not minding suffering, brewing up occasionally/carrying lots of water, and going light.

We were new to the whole mountaineering thing, and didn't fully know how to really cut weight. Doing rainier in a day is fine if you don't mind walking for 12 hours.

That said, partying at camp Muir on 2 day ascents is some of the best camping ever. International feel close to home.

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That said, partying at camp Muir on 2 day ascents is some of the best camping ever. International feel close to home.

 

I used to do most of my climbing as day climbs, mostly because I was a single parent and it was hard to get more than a day off. Now I really enjoy camping, I look forward to bivis. I did Rainier last September and we could have easily done it in a day, but instead we enjoyed hanging out at camp Muir, drinking tea, and chatting with folks and acclimatizing for an easy summit day.

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First time I did it in a day was a week after a 2 day climb, which we figured would take all the mental "where do we go next" speculation that seems to wear on you after awhile. As for the water we took 2 liters to Muir, brewed enough for 2 more liters while getting the ropes ready and eat. Aside from that the next hardest thing for me was the sleep factor. Did it 12 hours RT, DC July.

 

Gear we took (2 person team):

One bivi w/ pad

MSR stove/2 liter pot

Lightweight rope 37m

Alpine harness/2 prusik/2 locking caribiners and a few non, belay device and rescue pulley, few slings(each)

One picket each

Standard jacket/clothing

Marmot Eiger pack

2 one liter waterbottles (each)

Alum crampons

Headlamp/ice axe/helmet (each)

Sunblock (very important)

Food you didnt have to cook

Other stuff (like sunglasses-polarized)

 

TTT

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I did it in a day, 1:00 AM (or so) to 5:00 PM (or so) on the Fuhrer Finger route, in June 1996. I had read that it was the shortest route to the summit, so it seemed like the best route for a one-day outing.

The biggest surprise, to me, is that the following day I was much less sore and stiff than I typically am after 2-day climbs. When you avoid hauling the 40-pound pack, with sleeping bag, pad, tent, and all the other overnight gear, up, and more importantly, back down, and that makes a big difference.

 

These days, that seems to me to miss the point of climbing: getting into the experience of nature, instead turning the mountain into something like a gigantic gym (in fact the guy I climbed with, who was doing his second Rainier climb of the week, climbed with a Walkman radio.)

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Didn't Tenzing Sherpa do it in 5-1/2 hrs (RT) from Paradise?

 

A permit to solo? Isn't that like a license to kill? Who the hell would bother? I sure didn't when I went for the FWA of W Rib Willis Wall; do I look stupid? Don't answer that. The paperwork is scarier than the climb!

Edited by Reilly
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Hey Reilly! was Rainier even a National park back then?

 

rotflmao :)

 

NPS paper work is only there to scare off the ones that shouldn't be thinking about it anyway.

 

Soloing or climbing above 10K unroped and being ticketed means a day in Federal Court. Paper work is easier and cheaper. Federal Judges seem to have little sense of humor. Need a rescue for any reason? No permit and you'll pay the bill. What do you think a Chinook rents for by the hour? Back in Reilly's day bi-planes were $5 a day ;)

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I agree with DH. If I wanted up and down in a day I would ski tour up as much as I could and ski down. Even if you choose a more difficult, you are still going to be able to ski down most of the way. That is assuming you are not planning on climbing DC. This is the last route I would climb for speed, even if it is used for speed records.

 

I think the fastest I've done is leave Seattle at 7:30pm and be back in Seattle the next day at about the same time after climbing Emmons.

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A guy went solo there, without a permit, when I was leading a team out of Camp Muir (even after the Ranger there asked him where he was intending to go?, at the climbers cabin the evening before, to which he made a wiseguy crack with: "Where is anybody going?" and then told him he couldn't go higher without a permit).

 

I seen him the next day when I was up on DC; he was doing a panic slide from above me down the glacier and hit the bottom of a 12 foot crevasse, just below me, doing about 120 mph (you know the rest).

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"Hey Reilly! was Rainier even a National park back then?"

 

What's a National Park? :battlecage:

 

I actually was charged for a helo rescue BITD. I still have the bill: Total for 2.5 hours flight time, taxes, and gratuities= $145! Whoo-Hooo! I'll take two!

 

I woulda loved to see the Pine Fuzz ticket me on that solo. I hiked up with Dusan Jagersky and Jim Wickwire so I had my 'muscle' and my legal representation; I was totally covered! There was so much snow on the upper Carbon none of us roped up. After a cozy night together in a cave (no sleeping bags either you pussies!) they went on to do the FWA of the E Buttress of Willis.

 

I've always said the whole rescue thing would be cleared up in a heartbeat if you knew you were going to be charged like they do in Europe. Why don't we establish professional rescue teams and charge for rescues? I'll tell you.

First, the inter-agency squabbling would make the toubles in the Middle East look like a Rotary meeting.

Two, all those goombahs who make up the volunteer rescue teams would have to actually go do some climbing on the weekends and you know that would not be a pretty sight. Sorry if I've hurt anybody's feelings but I was on NW Rescue for a good while so I have some 'cred'. Most of those goombahs are challenged by climbing out of bed in the morning. :fahq:

Edited by Reilly
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