Dave Hahn - Rainier, July 31 - August 1

The moon was blood red, coming up through forest fire smoke, at 11:45 PM when the climbing team woke at Camp Muir.  There wasn't any wind and the stars were spectacular overhead.  There were surprisingly few climbing teams around us as we set out across the Cowlitz Glacier at 1 AM.  Conditions on the Cowlitz are still excellent and uncomplicated and so we quickly reached Cathedral Rocks and then the Ingraham Glacier.  With just six climbers and three guides, we took a quiet rest-break in the dark at Ingraham Flats.  Getting on Disappointment Cleaver was a snap and although we were on our guard for falling rock, nothing moved.  Twenty minutes of careful steps on the boulders and busted lava of the lower part of the Cleaver brought us up to a good track in the snow along the southern flank.  Around 4 AM we were sitting on our packs at 12,300 ft talking about how smoothly the Cleaver had gone.  We set out on the the steep switchbacks of the upper Ingraham Glacier and, as expected, came to a difficult crevasse with a rickety ladder.  It took perhaps twenty minutes of chopping and hammering to get the ladder level and safely anchored to the mountain.  With that chore being done, the team was anxious to climb hard in order to build up heat in the pre-dawn shadows.  During the 13,500 ft rest break, the sun came through the smoke layers and life got a little easier.  We made it into the summit crater five hours and forty-five minutes after leaving Camp Muir, took a few minutes to eat and drink and then trudged on up to Columbia Crest.  There we found our only breeze of the day... about ten miles-per-hour... and a view of low clouds smothering Tacoma and Seattle.  We still got big views of Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens, despite all of the forest fire smoke (reportedly drifting in from BC)  Our descent was smooth and easy -even the ladder with its deep crevasse- and we made it back to Camp Muir by 12:30 PM.  At around 3:45 we were gulping ice-water as we boarded the shuttle in Paradise and an hour later we were gulping tastier beverages in the summer heat down in Ashford.

-Dave Hahn