On July 9 10 11, 2004, a Bushwhacker team climbed Mt Rainier via the Kautz Glacier. The outing was led by Chad, and included Katie, Frederic, Philip, Carla and John. Frederics story follows.

I finally made it to the top of Mt. Rainier on Saturday. As many of you know this has been a goal of mine for several years. This year all the pieces fell together and my friend Chad Hoggard (born in the same town as myself) was able to put together a team to make the attempt via the Kautz Glacier route.

On Friday we climbed through the clouds to our camp at 10,500 feet. This took about eight hours and we didn't see much because we were in the clouds most of the way. There was an exciting time climbing through the "bowling alley", which is a narrow chute between to rock buttresses that large boulders occasionally fall off and roll down. Fortunately we didn't see any of that. About 1000 feet below our camp we poked through the clouds and could finally see the top of the mountain - we would have to wait until Sunday to see what the bottom looked like.

After setting up camp on the rocky Wapowety Cleaver we finally went to bed around 9:00 PM for our 1:00 AM wake up time. I don't think that I slept more than an hour, but at 1:00 AM the excitement really began. The first thing that I saw when I got out of the tent that early morning was a beautiful quarter moon and the entire Milky Way. I probably haven't seen the Milky Way since I was a young boy. That alone was worth the 8 hour trip to camp.

We left camp about 2:20 AM and hiked over the rocks to the top of the Wapowety Cleaver. From there we rappelled 50 feet down to the Kautz Glacier. This was the first time I had ever rappelled off of a cliff in the dark. The ledge that we rappelled to at the bottom seemed to be on the edge of an abyss. Once we returned to the spot in full daylight I could see that it wasn't as dangerous as it felt in the dark, but still dangerous enough to kill you if you fell. Once on the Kautz we ascended about 500 feet through a narrow break in the Kautz Ice Cliff (see attached photo uptheicefall.jpg). The ice cliff, made of giant seracs was fascinating to see. Looking at the ice cliff gave me a better understanding of the glacier and its sublime qualities. The passage we climbed was on a forty-five to sixty degree slope, but wasn't too hard to climb with our crampons gripping the frozen snow.

Once above the ice cliff we had a long, arduous walk to the summit. There were spots where the wind was relentless. The air was so cold that my water bottles kept freezing shut. I had to bang them on my ice axe to get them open then I couldn't get them closed all of the way. This is how I broke my camera. My water bottle slowly drained out onto the camera and froze it. The hardest part was the low oxygen at that altitude. I never had a problem breathing, but I was always sleepy. I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep. I probably would have if the wind had let me.

Finally about 10:30 AM, eight hours from camp, we reached the summit crater. Some clouds high clouds were moving in and the low clouds from the previous day were still hanging over the lowlands, so I didn't get much of a view. We stayed at the crater for about ten minutes before we turned around for the four hour trip down.

Naturally, the trip down was much easier than the trip up, but we had to place lots of protection on the lower Kautz where the pitch was so steep. I had plenty of time to look around at the ice cliff. By this time the sun was blazing on it and melting it. Small pieces of ice were falling off every few minutes. There were large bus size blocks of ice that looked like they were ready to go at any moment. I was glad to get out of there when we did.

Just as we got back to camp we got hit with a snow storm that lasted several hours. I wasn't too concerned about a snow storm because I just wanted to get in my sleeping bag and sleep, which I did for almost twelve hours. I did wake up once when a mouse came in the tent and scared my tent mate when it bit her finger. The next morning the whole team had a relaxing morning except me. After I packed my sleeping bag into it's stuff sack it rolled off of the cleaver and down the Turtle Snow Field about eight hundred feet. I had to climb all the way down and back up before breakfast. Fortunately the stuff sack came open and the bag popped out or it might have been lost for good. The trip back to Paradise was pretty quick once we decided to glissade a couple a slopes. Glissading is basically a controlled slide down the slope on your butt. This really speeds up the trip and is a lot easier than down climbing. After about four hours we reached the car.

The last obstacle we encountered were swarms of tourists at Paradise. They looked at us like we came from another planet. In a strange way we had come from another planet. The wilderness experience in the mountains, especially the glaciers of Rainier, is so starkly different from civilization that it feels like a different existence. I was forced to live and recognize each moment. Although only three days the trip felt like it lasted three weeks. In the end I came back with a broken camera, sunburn, swollen and sore feet, head cold and an unforgettable experience. I can't wait until I get to do it again.