[pct-l] RE: PCT-L digest, Vol 1 #859 - 10 msgs

[Bighummel@xxxxxxx (Bighummel@xxxxxxx)]

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Jared,

Do not underestimate Mt. Rainier, even the standard guided overrun route.
Just a couple years ago 11 people on this route were crushed in the Ingraham
Glacier "Icefall" area when a serac fell over on them.  Others perish almost
annually, albeit, many at more foolish times of the year than in August.

Typical required gear is an ice axe (long enough to provide self arrest and
belaying), 12 pt. crampons,  harness and ropes, and a head-lamp.  The only
requirement for your shoes is that they are capable of holding onto your
crampons securely.  A friend of mine has climbed Mt. Adams in New Balance
trail shoes and rigid crampons to the amazement of others on the mountain in
full plastic boot gear.  The rigid (non flexible) crampons provide the
stiffness that you need to climb steep ice, provided that you can strap them
to your shoes securely so as to not loose one at an inopportune moment.

By the time that you arrive there you will have walked about 2,000 miles and
be in fine shape to summit in a two day detour from the trail.

In 1977 three of us hitched from White Pass to Paradise Lodge and found a
friend that we had met in Sth Calif. on the PCT earlier in the year.  He had
told us to dig him up and that he would outfit us and school us on how to go.
 The next day we hiked up to Muir Hut at about 10,000 feet and tried to sleep
from about 5 PM until the start at midnight.  We donned our gear and headed
out into the dark, fully intimidated by the deep, dark crevasses we were to
jump across and cross over on ice bridges.  We summited at about 7:00 AM
beating all of the other parties without really trying.  One commented that
he had never seen anyone climb on Rainier as fast as we had.  He, of course,
didn't believe that we had walked 2,000 miles in order to get in that kind of
shape!

We were back down and in the Lodge by noon or so and back on the trail the
next morning.

IT IS A GREAT CLIMB!  Especially when you are in the kind of shape that a PCT
hike puts you in.

I recommend that you try to find someone local to Mt. Rainier that can do
what our friend did, or, send the gear to yourself at the Lodge and just
follow another guided group up.

Check ahead on the cost and reservations.  They charge quite a bit now and
allow only so many people on the mountain at one time.  Appealing to them
that you are hiking the PCT and will have only the opportunity of those few
days when you arrive in order to do it, MIGHT help, depending upon the ranger
that you talk with.

Monte Dodge can provide more local knowledge and details as he has climbed it
in recent years.

Best regards,

Greg Hummel