Safety comes first, even during charity climb

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By Denise Whitaker

Summary

The "Climb To Fight Breast Cancer" on Mt. Rainier did not produce a summit this time as hoped. With our weather in Western Washington, you never know what might come your way next.

Story Published: Jul 23, 2007 at 9:30 AM PDT

Story Updated: Feb 17, 2010 at 1:59 PM PDT

Safety comes first, even during charity climb
MT. RAINIER -- The "Climb To Fight Breast Cancer" on Mt. Rainier did not produce a summit this time as hoped. With our weather in Western Washington, you never know what might come your way next.

There are many things to watch out for when you're on any mountain, whether you're just out for a day hike, or trying to summit.

During our summit attempt on Mt. Rainier we took plenty of safety precautions every step of the way, from drinking enough water and eating enough food to keep our energy level up, to constantly remembering to 'pressure breathe.' And we did all of that, on top of carrying the right safety equipment with us.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day during our hike up to Camp Muir, and needed no more than shorts and a light shirt, most of the way up. As we moved up in altitude, we added layers.

Overnight, however, the weather rapidly changed. There was an incredible lightning storm that just lit up the skies. At least one team of climbers got up in the middle of it to make their way to the summit, but the weather worsened with high winds and forced them back.

After the overnight storm cleared we still had some low clouds hanging over us, but we continued up, to our high camp at 11,200 feet. We took some time to learn more about the safety equipment we'd need for our next leg of the trip and we also learned how to handle different situations from our guides.

Checking her climbing harness, Katie says, "It feels good. Nice and snug."

Putting safety first means you might have to carry a little extra equipment, but that might also be what gets you back home safely.

Climbing harnesses are one example. If one person falls, the others on your rope team will snap into action to keep everyone from going far.

Guide JJ Justman explained another piece of safety equipment.

"This is an avalanche beacon, that we have the climbers wear," he said. "It's just one of the safety measures we use on the mountain. There isn't fresh snow that we've received like you would in the winter time with skiing, but it is a park mandate that we do wear these and you know what, anything extra, safety wise is going to be a good thing."

It is required by park rangers, so we all strapped one on under our coats, so that if we got warm and peeled off a layer the avalanche beacon would not be in the way and still be on us.

"We'd be able to find a person, so just another safety measure, plus, if you get lost going to the bathroom or something like that, we can find you," Justman said.

During our ascent, we encountered windy conditions, but no rain! We made it up to high camp with ease and even enjoyed some beautiful views of a large crevasse along the way.

After a warm, late afternoon meal, we all hit our tents to try to get some sleep before waking around 11:30 p.m. to get ready to make our way to the summit.

After a good hot meal and drinks, we donned all that safety equipment again, but this time, we just sat and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. JJ, our lead guide, kept going out to check the weather, but things weren't going our way.

"And I wish it were snowing but it's pouring rain right now," he said. "And definitely worried a little bit about how people are going to do, so they don't get hypothermic. The last thing we want to do is injure someone."

We sat together until 2 a.m., but a definite lack of activity left some of us with cold toes, so JJ told us to climb into our sleeping bags in our tents and wait it out there. Again, we waited, and waited and waited and waited and waited, until 7 a.m.

"I mean, here it is the middle of July and you'd think it'd be beautiful weather in Washington, but it literally is like it's winter time here," Justman said.

"It's always unfortunate when the weather's so bad you can't even leave your tents. The visibility is nothing, you don't have much to see today, but hey, that's mountaineering. You can't always get them all, you have to deal with the adversity and take what it throws at you and we got thrown a pretty good curve ball, so we're just going to head down."

Even that decision to turn back is yet another safety consideration and sometimes, the most important one.