[pct-l] Psychorama Rainier Guides

[CMountainDave@aol.com (CMountainDave@aol.com)]

Man, Mad Monte, you hit the nail on the head with that one! On my first climb 
of Raindeer in 1980 we got intermingled with the Rainier guides. As we 
approached the summit, two guided rope teams began racing to see who could 
get on top first. One passed below us, the other above. The upper team's rope 
kept falling into our path and I had to keep pushing it out of the way to 
keep from stepping on it with crampons. Now getting up at midnight with no 
sleep and trudging 4000 feet up in the dark and cold doesn't really put you 
in a good mood. Finally, I got exasperated at the rope in my way and blurted 
out, "if that rope gets in my path one more time I'm just going to step right 
on it, crampons and all" The guide said, "If you do you'll be in big 
trouble." I said "if you had any common courtesy at all you'd pass below us 
like the other team so your rope wouldn't fall into our path." The guide, who 
was probably twice my size, got right in my face and said "We put this path 
up here and we'll go where ever we %$@@& feel like." I said "*&%$#@ you!" He 
pulled back his fist to hit me and literally had to be dragged off by his 
clients and fellow guides shouting obscenities at me and straining mightily 
to get at me. When I think back on it, I realize just how close I came to 
having a great lawsuit with all kinds of witnesses to back me up. To their 
credit, though, the other guides apologized for his behavior. The episode was 
soon forgotten when at the summit one of the guys on my rope team pulled out 
a 20 pound watermelon and I got a great summit picture of all of us eating 
it! Most of 20  subsequent climbs have been by the Camp Shurmann or Kautz 
glacier routes. The Muir route is way too crowded anyway.