Mount Rainier-Self Accomplishments
by Nick Daily

As we flew into Seattle, I could see this huge mountain standing tall and proud like a loan oak tree in the middle of a field. I was extremely impressed with Mt. Rainer's size and beauty. It was like nothing I'd ever seen.

Our first day on the mountain consisted of orientation and basic training to determine if we were physically fit to make climb. That day we couldn't see the mountain because of the thick cloud cover. In fact, if you were the last man on the rope team, you could barely see the first man. The guides covered the basics such as rest steps, walking on a rope team, and self-arrest. Self-arrest is extremely important for stopping yourself or others on your rope team in the event someone starts to fall down an incline. All of these steps were vital to know in order to successfully reach the summit.

One of the hardest things for me to learn was how to pack a weeks worth of supplies into a backpack. Let me tell you, it's not as easy as one would expect. The first time took me three attempts to get all of my gear, food and tent into the huge backpack. I literally had to sit down and ram the supplies in with my foot. The guys on my team thought it was funny seeing me stuffing my pack, sort of like trying to shove an oversized jack into the box and hoping it doesn't come popping out at you before you close the lid.

On the next day we started up this little rock that stands about 14,410 feet high. That day we did a lot of walking, but were still on the part of the mountain tourists could get around on, not super steep. But, when you have about 65 pounds on your back, it feels a lot different. Even if you have trained three times a week for the past nine months with 50 pounds of sand in your train pack.

It was interesting to note that when we started there was no snow at all. Then there it was SNOW everywhere. Back at home in Kentucky, people were enjoying 80 and 90 degree temperatures, and I was tramping around in snow boots and carrying an ice axe...WOW!

After numerous rests, we finally stopped to pitch camp for the night and get something to eat. That night our guide continued our training. We were taught important knots and rope techniques, as well as, how to rappel. When our lead guide John asked who wanted to go first, I couldn't have run to the rope fast enough. We rappelled off a snow cliff down to a ledge that was below, and then hiked back up to the group.

The next morning we awoke, broke camp, and continued farther up Rainier. That day the trail got a lot steeper than the previous day, but there still was much ground to cover before we reached high camp. Since we started out earlier than the prior day, we definitely covered much more ground. I saw many things I had only seen on The Discovery Channel, like ice falls, glaciers and deep crevasses. Crevasses are really quite scary. These deep cracks in the ice sometimes seem to have no bottom. To make it worse, we had to walk over them.

After what felt as if we had walked forever, we finally stopped to place our high camp. First we had to level the ground. Remember, we were on the side of an unlevel mountain. We had to break out the shovels and dig out where we wanted to place our tents.

We spent much of the next day learning rescue techniques, such as setting up a pulley for pulling someone out of a crevasse, prussic climbing, and my favorite ICE CLIMBING.

That day we turned in around 6 p.m., because we were going to start for the summit at 11 p.m. that night. I went to bed unsure what to expect. When we started out, I wasn't sure if I could make it or not. All I knew was that no matter what, I was going to make the effort to get to the top.

When we started, I was thinking to myself that it was 11:00 p.m. on a Wednesday night, and I was climbing Mt. Rainier while my friends back home were probably going out to a club. But I liked what I was doing better, not everyone could do what I was getting ready to attempt. Later that night I definitely wondered why I was doing this, climbing in the dark with only a headlamp to light my way on the side of an ice-covered mountain. I was doing it because I wanted to know if I could do it. I wanted to know if I could make my body endure what it would take to get to the top of this giant, frozen rock that was challenging me...trying to frighten me. Yes! I had made up my mind that I was going to get to the top of this mountain, and was going to do it the first time. So, I sucked it up and concentrated on all that was taught me over the last few days.

Once we reached the ice falls, there was no stopping for a rest because of the danger of falling rock and large pieces of ice. This was one of the steepest parts of the climb and seemed to be a long section as well. Because it was still dark, I really couldn't see how steep it was until we came back down. It was Really Steep! After a couple of hours climbing, we finally reached a point that was safe to stop and rest, drink some of the nearly frozen water, and chew on a few Power Bars that are really hard to eat when frozen.

After sitting about ten minutes, we decided to push on. This section was a bit more enjoyable, as it was starting to get light and we could see the terrain. It was really a beautiful sight to see the sun starting to come up over the horizon.

By this time I could feel the altitude taking its toll on my body, along with the little sleep I had gotten, and that we had been climbing all night. There was no way I was going to let any of this stop me from reaching my goal of reaching the top. While on the last stretch, I thought of many things while I climbed, how I had never done anything remotely close to this. I thought how proud I would feel, and what my family would think.

Finally we stopped for our last rest before making our last shove to the summit. On this rest we set a bit longer than before. I could tell we were close to the top. The wind was extremely strong, but nowhere near as strong as it was on the summit. As we made our way up on that last stretch, you could see the rope between each person blowing straight out in the wind. This part was very difficult the steep incline, extreme wind, and not to mention, fatigue. But finally I could see this crest where the guy in front of me stopped and just looked around. At that point I knew we were there. I was only 20 steps from summiting Mt. Rainier. Just 20 more steps was what I was thinking. Then, all of a sudden, I was the guy standing there in the wind looking around with this overwhelming feeling of accomplishment. I thought to myself, I knew you could do it. We sat on the summit for what felt like an hour. I was in a world all my own for that time. I felt as if I could do anything I set my mind to.

When I first said I wanted to climb Mt. Rainier, I wanted to do it to prove to myself that I could. Then I wanted to do it to prove to my wife and father that I could do it and make them proud of me. Finally, I realized I did it for me, to prove to myself that I could, and did!

Special Thanks To our Guides
John Lucia, Justin Merle and Ben Clark (the Chef)

EXTREMZ MAGAZINE is copyright © by Extremz, Inc. All Rights Reserved