Summit Story

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.	Lou Whittaker & me.	LINKS
-- Chinese Proverb Here it is, the full story of my Mt. Rainier Experience: The story below is illustrated with pictures, but if you want to see the lot of them, and there are some dandies!, click on the Pictures link. To view our route up the mountain, click here for a topographical map and click here for the picture map. Dear friends,	Lou Whittaker & me.	Home Contributors Chad's Journal Related Links Pictures

You may have noticed that at the bottom of all of my email and on my website that it says, "All it takes is all you've got.". Well, it did.... On Wednesday, July 17th, I went down to Ashford with my buddy and co-worker John Hurlbut. He got us a room at Whittaker's Bunkhouse which is right next to RMI (Rainier Mountaineering, Inc.) and about a 15 minute drive from the Rainier Park entrance. We settled in and began seeing others from our climb team arrive. Lou Whittaker always gives a talk the night before an ALAW climb goes up, so we expected most of the climbers to be there. A bunch of us (8) went out to dinner at the Copper Creek Inn. Ironically, 5 out of the 8 of us, including myself, that were at dinner ended up being on the same rope team in the day to come. We had dinner and headed back to the Bunkhouse and RMI for Lou's talk.	Hanging with fellow climbers
Waiting for our table at the Copper Creek Inn	Lou talking to the troops
Lou is an incredible person and he's always got a great story or two. As we went around in a circle introducing ourselves and saying a little bit about how we got there, he told us a couple stories about how he and his team went about funding their 1st Everest north wall expedition. It was funny and interesting as he explained how different outfits tried to outbid, play on politics to get Lou & his team's sponsorship. I remember him saying, "Sorry, I don't go back on my word." to one company who had previous denied him any monetary sponsorship, trying to offer a larger sum than a competitor after the fact. Lou also spoke to us about the forecast, the conditions of the route, and about how successful we were just for being there. As a group, the 3rd ALAW climb team of 4, we raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $96,000 for the American Lung Association of Washington.
Lou giving words of wisdom
My final total was $4,540! As of this past weekend, the four climb teams have raised over $360,000. Lou continued to explain that no matter how high any of us make it, it is a great success and continued to elaborate by telling us of one of his Everest attempts in which only one of his team made it to the summit but it was the team that put him there, making it a success. One thing that he said that stuck in my head about being on the upper mountain was, 'Drink when you don't feel like drinking and eat when you don't feel like eating." After Lou's talk, we received some very nice gifts and a necklace that contained the name of a child that was going to asthma camp because of our efforts. I was climbing with Tessa.

Thursday morning. After a restless night of what some may call sleep, we were up at 6 am, ate breakfast, checked out and walked over to RMI with our packs loaded and ready to go. We met our guides and quickly went over a last minute equipment check. After we loaded all our packs into the RMI bus, we were off to Paradise to start our ascent to Camp Muir where we'd be staying that night before making the summit attempt. We got up to Paradise, unloaded our packs, hit the bathrooms, took a few quick group pictures and we were off by 9:45 am. The trip from Paradise to Camp Muir was a blur (~4 miles, ~5,000 vertical feet). All the excitement and lack of sleep had me somewhat unconscious as I plodded along up the trail to Muir. I did, however, manage to snap some good photos.
ALAW Climb #3 Team A - what a crew	Crossing Pebble Creek at 7,200 ft.
Trucking along through the fog and snow.
I don't remember exactly how long it took for us to get to Muir, but I think we ended getting there around 3:30 pm. We settled into the bunkhouse which is nothing more than a sturdy shack against the mountainside and got our gear organized. Dinner time! We got the gourmet treatment and the guides made us a hot dinner of chili with corn and rice. After dinner we had a meeting to go over the logistics of what was to take place next. The guides showed how to put on and wear our helmets, climbing harnesses, and avalanche beacons.
Head Guide, John, going over the rope teams.	Yummy Chili, corn, and rice!
After the meeting, we were all in our bunks resting (if not sleeping) - quiet time 7:00 pm. Most of us had ear plugs but you could still here the footsteps and the door creak every time someone got up to go to the bathroom. I went 3 times myself, all that hydrating and excitement. I laided there for a couple hours listening to my heart beat in my ears. The last time I got up to go the bathroom it was about 9:30 and boy do I wish I had brought my camera with me because the sunset over the valley with Mt. Adams in the distance was beautiful. I think I just started to doze off into la-la land when our head guide, John came in and said, "Aaaalright cha guys, let's get ready." That was sometime around midnight.

There was lots of scrambling around as everyone was getting dressed and stuffing something into their face. I made myself some maple and brown sugar oat meal with the hot water the guide had brought in. John gave us the clothing recommendation and soon after we were all outside getting our harnesses and crampons on. It was funny to watch all of us scrambling around, blinding each other with our head lamps. I took a moment and deep breath as I looked up at the star filled sky. It was peaceful. We left Muir and started our ascent about 1am. From Camp Muir, we crossed the upper part of the Cowlitz Glacier known as the Bee Hive and then hiked amongst gravel and rocks in our crampons through Cathedral Gap in the dark guided by our headlamps. Walking on rock and gravel with big metal spikes on the bottom of your boots certainly was no treat, but the sparks were cool. From Cathedral Gap, we traversed along the north side of the Cathedral Rocks to Ingraham Flats, (elevation 11,100') for our first break. As we came into the first break I could see the Yakima city lights in the distance behind and below me. My buddy John Hurlbut struggled through the Gap and decided that for the safety of the team and his health that he should not continue on so the guided pulled out a sleeping bag, bundled him up as the rest of us took a breather. I remembered Lou's words, 'Drink when you don't feel like drinking and eat when you don't feel like eating." so I did. It was about 2:30 am. I could see another team ahead of us already on the Disappointment Cleaver. Well, I should say I saw their headlights on the sillouette of the Cleaver against the night sky. It looked pretty high from where we were and that's was the direction we were going. 1st break, Ingraham Flats - John getting cozy in the background.	Amy & Kelly Kimble packing up.
	John Hurlbut and I - Ready to go! (1am - Muir)
A quick 10-15 minutes and we were back hoofing it. We traversed across the Ingraham Glacier past Ice Falls to the base of the Disappointment Cleaver, a rock ridge that separates the Ingraham and Emmons Glaciers. The Cleaver was extremely steep with sections of the trail being exposed rocks cemented together with some ice in places, again tons of fun with crampons. Once we finally reached the top of the Cleaver a little over an hour later at 12,300 feet, the wind was blowing pretty good and it was damn cold. It was about 3:45 am and time for another 10-15 minute break. As soon as we took off our packs we threw on our parkas to avoid chill but it was too late. The sweat had soaked through my long underwear and fleece and as soon as I took off my pack that 30-40 mile an hour wind blew right through me. I began to shiver as I sat there trying to warm up in my parka while stuffing a frozen cliff bar into my face and washing it down with some water. My fingers were numb by the time I stood up to put my pack back on and Adam, the guide on our rope team, told us to swing our arms around and clap our hands together to get the blood flowing and warm them up. It worked and as we began moving again, I quickly warmed up.	1st break - feeling good.
The sky was getting lighter and I could see that the sun was going to try to break it's way through the horizon soon. I was getting really tired, like I just wanted to sit down and go to sleep. As we traversed up to our next break at 13,300 feet, I was having trouble catching my breath, my legs were heavy and began to ache. Those little breaks where I had to stop because there was too much slack in the rope were precious. Not only did they give me a split second to rest and catch my breath, they also allowed me to snap a few photos from my strategically and easily accessible camera.	Sunrise.
Above the Cleaver, somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000 ft.	A crevasse up close and personal.
We began to zig zag up the mountain to avoid and go around some crevasses. Some where small enough that we could walk over them. Was I nuts!?!? Well, if I was, I certainly wasn't alone. We got up to our next break at 13,300 feet and the sun had broken through and was low in the sky. It was beautiful and I felt like crying, not only from the scene of the sun on the clouds and valley below, but also from the fatigue and cold. Another quick snack, some water and we were off for our last leg before the summit. 3rd break, 13,300 ft. - enjoying the sunrise and hanging in there.	Traversing the mountain side, just below 13,300 ft.
It was getting more and more difficult to catch my breath at our slow pace and each step I just wanted to quit, sit down, and go to sleep. I cursed at myself and began making some sort of weird whining sound with every other step. The next thing I knew we were on the rim of the crater, just all of the sudden. We had reached the summit and it had snuck up on me. The wind blew a huge ear to ear grin on my face as we walked down into the crater to take off our packs for a 30-45 minute break. I sat down, pulled out my water, a powerbar and just looked at the crater surrounding me in awe. I couldn't believe it, I was there, at the summit!! The fatigue, wind and cold were out of mind as I posed for pictures with the banners I had brought with me. Before I knew it, the guides were saying, okay, you got about 5 minutes, let's start loading up. We had left Muir at 1 am, taken 3 10-15 minute breaks, climbed 4.3 miles up ~4,000 feet of elevation with about a 30 lb. pack and it was time to head back down. I was so excited, emotional, and dazed when we got to the summit, I didn't even look at my watch and had lost track of time.	The team holding the ALAW banner.
My Bandanna team - you guys came with me!	Me holding Kim's Tae Kwon Do banner on the edge of the crater.
We started our descent and the guides told us that we'd be taking 2 breaks on the way down, one at the top of the Cleaver and one at Ingraham Flats before we got to Muir. We kept a pretty good pace on the way down and the high of being on top lasted almost to the first break. My legs were spent and we needed to be even more sure of our footing on the way down. About 15 minutes short of our first break at the top of the Cleaver my legs began to burn and were extremely wobbly. Just 15 more minutes! The sun was hot and beating down on us by this point and the cold breeze was welcomed. We got to the top of the Cleaver took off our packs and I just fell back on my pack looking a the beautiful scenery that had been masked hours earlier in the dark. I didn't want to get up but remembered to eat and drink, I certainly didn't feel like it. "Chad!" Adam snapped me our of a daze, "get your pack on, time to go."
We headed down the Cleaver. The combination of the steep and difficult terrain coupled with our wasted legs, made me and the person in front of me, Simon, collapse a number of times. Seeing what we had gone up in the dark was a bit of an eye opener too. It was quite spectacular. Walking over rock and gravel in crampons was just as fun in the daylight as it was in the dark, not very, but necessary. We stopped for a few minutes half way down to take off some clothes. The wind had died down and to avoid over-heating, our guide asked us if we needed to stop and take a layer off. We all said yes. Sweat had started to run down into my glasses making it a pain to see out of my right lens. We safely got down to the base of the Cleaver and started to make our way over to the Flats.	Our route up and down the Cleaver highlighted in red.
	Seeing the glacier and Ice Falls in the daylight was pretty amazing. We got to the Flats, our 2nd and last break before Muir and I decided to check my watch. 10:15 am! Holy cow, the day had just begun for most and it felt half over. We got our packs off and downed the last of our water before making the last jaunt through the Gap to Muir. Ugh, the Gap with all that rock and gravel. Just then someone piped up and said, "Hey John, can we take our crampons off now?" John replied, "Yeah, sure, but keep everything else on." YES! I was so happy to go through Cathedral Gap without crampons.
We arrived or I should say, I stumbled into Muir walking like a drunk at 11 am on the nose. My buddy John Hurlbut was there to greet the team with high fives and hugs. Aahhhh, we made it. But the trip was far from over. We still had to trek another 4 miles down to Paradise. Though less difficult inclines, I wasn't looking forward to the rock steps and asphalt at the bottom. The guides told us we had an hour to re-pack our gear, get something to eat and drink, and rest a bit before we left. I was punch drunk and having to think and organize re-packing my gear was a challenge. I changed into shorts and the sun felt good as I rested on a rock.	WRope team L-R: Adam Knoff (guide), Amy Kimble, Simon Giles, Kelly Kimble, and yours truely!
We left around noon for our final leg of the journey, a return to Paradise (isn't that a book or something?). Sliding down the Muir snowfields was fun and I was looking forward to a nice shower, some good food and a long rest but the trek down seemed never ending. With just a mile to I could barely walk down any other rock steps. The impact was killing my knees. My whole body ached and I felt blisters brewing on the bottoms of my sweaty feet. Just as we round the last corner I see my wife and John Hurlbut's girlfriend Teri with big smiles holding a sign. It was great to see them. I don't think my wife has every seem me this exhausted and out of it before, but she was really happy to see me safe and somewhat sound. We made it. We were down in the parking lot at Paradise. I told Tina, "I'm never doing that again, I'm done." One of the guides, Eric, offered me a soda and I gladly accepted. We headed over to Paradise Inn, checked in, took a long bath, had a great dinner and little awards ceremony, a few beers and I was down for the count.
	Lou speaking at the awards ceremony. Rope team L-R: John Hulrbut, Chad Rolfs, Simon Giles, Lou Whittaker, Amy Kimble, Kelly Kimble.

To sum it up that day, I climbed from 1am to 3pm with 5 10-15 minute breaks, a 30-45 break on the summit, and 1 one hour break at Muir. The distance from Paradise to the summit round trip was about 18,000 vertical feet and a little over 16 miles. Ever since Friday, I've been looking at the mountain thinking to myself, damn, I climbed that sucker. Although I said I'd never do that again on Friday, after a good night sleep and a good meal, I was open to the possibility again looking out the window of the Inn up at the mountain. If I do it again, I will know how to better train for it, that's for sure.	My beautiful wife and I enjoying dinner.
View of Rainier from Paradise Inn.
Now time to recover a bit. Thanks again for all your support! Cheers & Thanks again for all your support, Love, Chad Be sure to check out the Pictures!	A Huge THANKS to: Paul Payton and ALAW & Lou Whittaker and the RMI Guides!