Rainier is a world class mountain standing at a massive 14,410 feet. It's part of the Cascade Mountain Range, and is an active volcano. Almost any town within a 50 mile radius, at least, has an excellent view of the glacial peak on a clear day.
Our day was not so clear. In fact, it was cold and cloudy, and for a lot of the beginning we were in a fine mist. Our hike started at about 5400' in Paradise.
This Saturday Matt accomplished the goal of skiing at least once every month this year. An incredible feat, and something I was happy to be alongside for the month of October. However, since I have not skied every month this year, and have no experience skiing on a glacier, I joined him on foot :)
Every once in a while we would get glimpses through the clouds and mist. This is a gorgeous view of the mixed environment of volcano and glacier. See the waterfall in the distance?! Incredible.
As we got higher the terrain changed from rocks and dirt to glacial ice. This was kind of difficult at times because the pitch was steep and the ice, well icy. More than a few times I lost my footing and in a split second was flat on my stomach, or sliding back down on my hip. This was my own dumb fault, because Matt had offered hiking poles to me at the beginning of the day and I rejected them. Luckily, he had pity on me struggling up the slope and lent me one of his ski poles to hike with. It made such a difference! All I needed was some crampons..
The wind picked up and it started raining, but we pushed on toward our goal of 8000'.
Matt got geared up, I took a quick break, then started down. And by started, I should say, slipping down...
The rain and the wind got a little more intense, and soon enough we were pretty damp. For the most part, my rain jacket kept my core dry, but by the end my arms and legs were soaked! We had to laugh, because at the beginning of the hike, when it wasn't raining, I gave some stupid little speech about, "you know, we could have slept in on our day off, or we could be at home just watching TV, but no, we chose to take advantage of the beautiful day.." blah.blah.blah. When we were shivering and faces going numb from the cold, Matt said something to the extent of, "you still think it was better to come out today instead of staying inside?"
Of course! :)
Matt skied down the glacier until it turned back into the trail. By this time the wind was starting to make being cold and wet a little miserable. We actually started jogging on our descent because it felt better and made us a little warmer. We passed a couple other people, some even had skis and boards like Matt. One group in particular was the huge bus load of tourists, wandering off of the trail onto the fragile tundra (a big no-no). Someone from the group asked Matt how long it would take to "get to the top" flabbergasted we both asked "the top of the mountain?!" This crew did not look prepared to climb to the summit. They were wearing jeans, UGG boots, converses, and other totally inappropriate clothing. Matt and I were shocked they even made it that far without turning around or succumbing to the cold. One chick in the group had an umbrella that the wind kept flipping inside out.
Clearly they didn't really know what they were in for, so Matt made an easier suggestion for a shorter and much safer hike than aiming for the peak. Then we said "good luck" and continued our jog to the car.
Let me tell you, sweatpants have never felt so good. I seriously kept thinking about the dry change of clothes I had waiting for me in the car as we were in the blustering wind. After we changed we looked through the museum and then Matt heated up water to make us warm drinks for the way home.
Sitting in the car with the heat on, in my cozy sweatpants, and a coffee at hand after a cold morning on the mountain, I felt so warm and content :)
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