The hot water was already sitting in the hut. Downed some oatmeal, and yes, another Clif Bar. Drank almost a full liter of water and hit the bathroom. The night sky was littered with stars. I don't recall ever seeing so many stars. I'm pretty good a picking out a few constellations, but I must say I had a hard time. One image I'll never forget. After gearing up, we got separated into our rope teams and away we went across a glacier with only the light of our headlamps and billions of stars. We climbed up through Cathedral Gap, which lies between two large rock ridges. The upper mountain climb was much like the trek to Muir with regard to climbing about 1000 feet followed by a rest. Here, our rest included getting our large parkas on to maintain body temperature in addition to eating and drinking.
The second leg of the climb is known as the Disappointment Cleaver and it was difficult. It was steep the whole way and rocky in many places. The steel of the crampons scratched the rock and made terrible sounds, and it also made for difficult footing. Looking up made the situation worse as I saw how close (but much higher than me) other headlamps were. It meant more climbing. "Just keep your head down and keep going." Another break after the Cleaver was welcomed.
Sometime after the Cleaver, perhaps around 13,000 feet, the sun poked out. Borrowed this picture from a friend. My hands were cold and I couldn't convince myself to get my ski gloves off to find my camera. The views were remarkable.
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| Sunrise at 13000 feet: I knew I could steal a picture from a friend while trying to warm my hands up in my thicker gloves. |
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| The crew at High Break. |
Our last break to the summit was at 13,500 feet. My appetite was pretty suppressed from the altitude. I didn't have problems drinking, but my 7th Clif Bar in two days was too hard to get down. I switched to half a Snickers and a PowerBar shot a colleague from work gave me. The slope ahead was steep and daunting. Again, "just keep your head down and keep going." Aside from my loss of appetite, I felt good and strong.
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| On the false summit |
After several switchbacks the route went to straight up the hill. The luxurious footsteps from people ahead of me became few and far between, which meant digging my crampons into the ice and snow became required and climbing became more strenuous and awkward. In order to dig all my crampons into the slope, my ankles had to bend accordingly. I tried to avoid having my toes point straight up the slope because it causes calf and hamstring strain, instead, I sort of walked up the hill sideways crossing my feet over one another, a technique learned on the training day. Disregarding the voices in my head, I kept sneaking peeks uphill and I could see the 'top' of the mountain. After another 10 minutes or so, my rope team reached the "false summit", or the crater rim. Rainier is a volcano, and I was standing in (on) the crater.
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| Will and Joey |
Once my team reached the crater rim, I had a choice to make. I could either rest for an hour, or make the 40 minute round trip to the true summit, and break up the remaining 20 minutes as rest however I'd like. It didn't take me long to make the choice. On the way up to Columbia Crest (the true summit), the logbook is stashed near several large rocks. The guides were all over us to just write our names to conserve time, but I wrote "Joey Ott - alz". Another quick couple of minutes and I reached the true summit of Mount Rainier, 14,410 feet above sea level. Broke for a couple individual pictures, then I got the banner out. Here's the same picture from the earlier post.
As I unrolled it and while rolling it back up, I read each name aloud. I did pretty well on the unroll, but while rolling it back up and speaking the names, the whole culmination of effort and preparation, memories of my Grandmother Wilma, and knowing that all others who submitted names feel the same as I do about this disease hit me like a ton of bricks. I was on one knee when I put the rubber band back on, and I stayed there, sobbing and remembering and praying all at the same time. I'm not sure how many minutes I was there, but for those moments I was frozen in time. Josh the guide came over to me and told me that we did a great thing. Much later that day, I had to apologize to him for "Tebow-ing" on the summit. : )
Those who know know that climbing a mountain is only half the battle. There's a cliche in mountaineering that summiting is optional and getting down in mandatory. The mandatory story will be shared soon.
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