Climb for Peace with Justice: Aug 13-15, 2013

Climb for Peace with Justice: Aug 13-15, 2013

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

Photos and Text Credit: Jacob Sperati

Heading out for Mountain School on Day 1: The agenda. Learning how to stop ourselves from sliding down the glaciers. Learning how to stop someone else from sliding down the glaciers. Learning how to walk on the glaciers. Learning how to walk tied to everyone else.

Here's our classroom! 

Practicing the proper self arrest final pose.

And down the mountain we slide: feet first, face first, and head first on our back. — with Phillip Otterness.

 —  With Annie Dahlquist.

We roped up and moved as a team together. — with Allison Stephens, Trey Fouche and Matthew Fullington.

And we also learned how to clip into running balays. — with Trey Fouche and Allison Stephens.

School was done and we headed home.

The sky was clear and blue, the wildflower fields were beautiful. It couldn't have been a better day.

We capped it off with a bunch of drinks around the bar, excited for the climb the following day. — with Trey Fouche, Annie Dahlquist, Maria Krebs, Sarah Ervin, Katie Chatelaine-Samsen and Chris Chatelaine-Samsen.

— With lisa gernand, Phillip Otterness and Matthew Fullington. 

The RMI bus to the top. It was important to get on the right one!

Our beautiful blue sky from the day before had disappeared into a smoky haze from the distant fires and lenticular clouds hovering around the summit. — with Phillip Otterness, Matthew Fullington, lisa gernand and Annie Dahlquist.

We began our slow ascent up the Muir snowfield.

We took a break every hour to eat, drink, and catch our breath. — with lisa gernand, Annie Dahlquist and Sarah Ervin. 

Some sections got pretty steep, but views across the Tatoosh Range were stunning. — with Maria Krebs.

Finally we experienced the Muir Mirage...it looks so close! But is still 45 minutes away. — with Trey Fouche and Paul "Little Paul" Edgren.

We arrived! The box on the right was our tiny bunkhouse.

The clouds opened up a little and we had a great view of Mt Adams, Mt Hood, and Mt St Helens.

— with Sarah Ervin and Phillip Otterness.

In the bunkhouse there were 18 of us lined up along the three tiers. I "slept" right behind the stairs on the bottom level. — with Matthew Fullington. 

We laid down around 6 to get our rest before attempting the summit, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. During the night the wind picked up and the rain began to blow sideways against our hut. At 1:30 we got the word our summit attempt wouldn't be happening. It was the first climb of the season that our guide hadn't been able to complete. — with Sarah Ervin, Maria Krebs and Annie Dahlquist.

Around 6:30 the cloud layers opened up just enough to give us a pretty sunrise.

Though we didn't make it to the summit, the 9 of us were excited that we made Camp Muir, and were able to do so much great work for LVC raising over $30,000! Paul, our guide, told us that there's an old sherpa saying that when the weather keeps you from the summit, it's just the mountain's way of saying it likes you and it wants you to come back sometime. I think many of us took this to heart and are resolved to come back and try again. — with Matthew Fullington, Sarah Ervin, Phillip Otterness, lisa gernand, Trey Fouche, Maria Krebs and Annie Dahlquist.

On the way down from Muir the fog rolled in and out. As we watched the climbers descend out of the fog, we decided that the Muir Snowfield would be a good place to film a zombie movie. — with Matthew Fullington.

We slid down the final few snow fields.

and regained the trail, beginning the long hike back to Paradise. Even with the summit obscured, the Nisqually Glacier inviting us back for more. — with Sarah Ervin and Paul "Little Paul" Edgren.