Mt Rainier

Rick and I went hiking on Mt. Rainier over the Labor Day weekend. Mt. Rainier is 14,410 ft tall. Our goal was Camp Muir (the base camp for climbing to the summit) at 10,000 ft. We began at Paradise and it was a beautiful day.







That is Mt. Adams in the distance. We could see Mt. St. Helens for a while, but the clouds rolled in and covered it up.





It is a surprisingly steep hike.





Halfway to the camp. We are headed just below that large rock outcropping at 2 o'clock in the picture. It is called Gibraltar Rock and Camp Muir is right below it. The rock formation just below Gibraltar rock is where some people died on Mt. Rainier earlier this year when a freak storm rolled in. They were only 1/2 mile from Camp Muir.



Almost there!




This is the next part of the route. Another 4000 ft to the summit. Next summer we are going to make it to the top. You can see the group roped up together as they walk between crevasses.



Rick's father stayed in this guide shack when he was a guide back in the 1930's. His name is still carved into one of the beams.



The National Park Service is the best. Even at 10,000 ft, they made sure to have a wheelchair accessible toilet.




We had such a clear and sunny hike up to Camp Muir, but the whole way up we saw the clouds following us. The mountain peaks we could see during the climb, slowly were covered up. While we were at Camp Muir the clouds finally caught up with us. I got sunburned on the way up and we had snow and rain for the trip back down.





It was whiteout conditions on the way down. Thank goodness for GPS.





Finally, we broke through the cloud layer.





After all of that snow and clouds it was wonderful to see life again.