Mount Rainier

Mount Rainier NATIONAL PARK, Washington, 14,411 FT

The mountain that inspired it all for me over 20-years ago.  I was an Army ROTC cadet at the time and got a call from my commander asking me if I wanted to go to the US Army Northern Warfare Training Center in Alaska for a military mountaineering course.  I jumped at the chance for any and all training opportunities and this was no different.  Up to this point in my life, I had never been west of the Mississippi River.  I had to in process at Fort Lewis, WA and I was standing outside the barracks when the clouds cleared and "revealed" the most amazing thing I had ever seen.  I vowed one day I would climb it.  Of course the next day I was in Alaska learning the skills I would need to do just that, but it would be nearly 20-years later that I would summit the massive volcano in the cascades. Mt. Rainier is not even the tallest mountain in the lower 48, but it is the most impressive with more active glaciers than any other mountain outside of Alaska.  Simply an incredible place.  The year we summited with Alpine Ascents had been one of the warmest and driest years in decades and it made the climb significantly harder and more dangerous with falling ice and major crevasses all along the route.  We stayed at Camp Muir instead of going to high camp due to weather and woke up at 10PM for our "alpine start".  We walked up throughout the night and were within 300 feet of the summit when the sun came up.  It was absolutely stunning.  Walking down from the summit we could see everything we didn't see in the dark.  Actually quite beautiful and scary at the same time.  The video is on its way and will show the seen better than I could ever describe them.