Since moving to WA, I've wanted to climb Mt Rainier (as seen from the muir snow fields on the right). Not that it is all that fun, but it's Mt Rainier. Lucas' friend also wanted to do it before moving away, so the three of us got on the same page for a relatively early season attempt. Lucas' friend dropped out so we tried to convince Tom to join us, keeping the rope team at 3. Fate was not on his side as he couldn't get a sub the night before so it was Lucas and 
me. We headed to Paradise, and with permits in hand, we sat at the lodge trying to let weather pass. Upon doing so, there was a seemingly bad omen for the trip when an older tourist came in and called us posers. Que!?!?!? On the contrary we hoped, and we were motivated to get going. The hike up to muir was straight forward. The weather that we had at paradise was caused by a classic inversion and we hiked th
rough clouds and mist sweating profusely (Lucas pic'd on the left). Upon leaving the clouds a thousand feet above that pic, gorgeous blue skies awaited us (Me and Mt Adams on the right). Unfortunately by this time we had sweat off the sunscreen and reapplying was futile so we got pretty sun burned. We ended up spending the rest of the trip covering as much of our skin as was possible with clothing, gauze, whatever. By the time we got to Muir we were cooked, tired, and dehydrated. After a little melting water, food, and prepping for the early start, we tried to get a little rest.A 12:00 wake up call and we were up and the first out of Muir. Adrenaline pumping we started running up the Cowlitz and then the Ingraham. It was unseasonably warm - I never donned my down jacket throughout the trip - and was hiking in a t-shirt and shell through the "coldest" part of the night. The Ingraham was in decent shape with easy crevasse navigation. There was only a couple sketch
y areas that were protected by some pickets left by the guiding companies. At the top of the Ingraham there were some impassable crevasses and we traversed far right to the Emmons glacier for the final push. On the traverse and ascent of the Emmons, the sun started rising (pic left). At ~12,000' though we hit a wall (evidently it i
sn't wise to run at that elevation being partially dehydrated and not being acclimated) and were struggling. After slowing the pace substantially, we labored up to the crater and finally to the true summit (pic right). Here we hung out for a few pics (it was quite comfortable temperature wise), took a quick tour of the crater rim, and depleted our water supplies.We were exhausted for the climb down making things difficult, but it was uneventful. Back at camp we hung out, rehydrated with some rainier beer, and then melted water. After several hours, we packed up and headed back to Seattle.
I posted the rest of my pics on Snapfish. Click here for Lucas' account of the extravaganza.
