RMI Winter Expedition Seminar - Mount Rainier - April 18 - 23, 2004
First night we made camp at 6,500 feet and got a clear view of the summit
One of our guides, Jeff Ward
Snow walls help stop the wind
Guides dug in our cooking and meal tent
On second day we reached the Camp Muir hut at 10,050 feet were we would live the next 4 days
The first four days of the trip were all stormed out with no visibility
Sun came out briefly while guide Jeff shows us snowpack analysis to predict avalanches
Wednesday afternoon the sun came out. Our home, the hut, in background
Trip leader, Paul Maier, shows us crevasse rescue techniques
Jeff does rope tricks in hut to teach us how to climb out of a crevasse
Our outhouse, next to hut, and it's well worn path
More scenes of Camp Muir. We would climb above the highest large rock, Gibraltar Rock, the next day
Me with a pal
My orange boots kept my feet warm
Above the clouds at camp
5 am on climbing day, Thursday, after no sleep for more than four days
Going up to try for the summit
Getting higher
Climbing scene
We climbed a ridgeline. Here we had to rappel down a cliff face
Interesting geography along the way
Views kept getting better
When we reached 12,000 feet, this chute was determined to have
unstable snow that halted out ascent due to avalanche danger.
This would be the turn back point of the summit attempt.
Trip leader, Paul Maier, talks via radio to climbers higher up, who have assessed the danger as too great
Me at the 12,000 foot level
On the descent, at around 11,500 feet, three of our guys climbed this rock
Good view of the ridge we climbed and the path
Our route up
My rope team leader, Mike Horst, lead me and a buddy up and down the mountain
Our home, the hut, is the tiny square dot in the center