On Sunday July 6th at approximately 8:25 am I reached the top of Mount Rainier. After climbing through most of the night I was exhausted and it was taking every ounce of strength I had to lift one foot after the other. I could hear Jeremy, from behind, shouting encouragements at me and doing his best to get my mind off the task at hand and onto something else. Simply breathing becomes a laborious and challenging feat at that altitude. Once on top I took off my pack, laid it on the ground, laid my head down on it and just about passed out.
During the three days, from July fourth to the sixth, I experienced and learned so many things. To attempt to write them all out in this post would not only create the worlds longest blog post but it would not do them justice.
Today I will start with a basic overview of the trip and later I will share some of the personal insights that came to me as I experienced this journey with some great friends.
We started out on Thursday July 3rd. The seven of us met up at Del's parents house in Puyallup. His parents are amazing and would not stop serving us. Del's father has been climbing for years and was full of great tips on packing our pack and preparing our bodies for what we were about to experience.
We went to bed late and got up at 4:30 the next day to head out to the White River Camp Ground in the Mount Rainier National Park. We were required to check in with the ranger station which was manned by a youthful and less than speedy young man which we will simply call Ranger Bob. Well, RB was a little overwhelmed because three group showed up at about the same time and the first one in had not yet mapped out their itinerary. He proceeded to pull out some maps and give them a hand. After many patient minutes our lead guys started encouraging Ranger Bob to expedite the process.
OK, let's pick up the pace a little here. 
Once in the designated climber's parking lot we packed up our gear and set out on a six mile 5,000 foot hike. Oh yeah, and this was with 55-65 lb packs on our backs. We traveled by 
trail to Glacier Basin, then onto the Inter Glacier which we climbed up to the Emmons glacier. After getting onto the Emmons around Camp Curtis it was just a short hop up to Camp Schurman where we would spend the next two nights.
We got into base camp and got our tents and kitchen area all set 
up and got busy melting snow to purify drinking water and cook up some meals. Right in the middle of setting up our tent Robby got hit with the altitude hard. His thinking went fuzzy and his body just started shutting down. So once the tent was up we got him in bed with some food and water and he slept on and off for almost 12 hours. Thankfully, once morning came he was feeling great.
The bulk of Saturday was spent resting, acclimating and gathering route info from other climbing teams. No team had reached the summit in days and most teams were having a tough time finding a route. We decided to give it our best shot around 11:30 that night.
We got up at 10:30pm on Saturday night and got geared up for our summit bid. We were the first team to leave base camp, around 11:45pm but soon a following team caught up to us. This team was being led by a climber who had reached the summit a number of times on this route so we dropped in behind him. We followed his team all the way to the top. There were a number of crevasse crossings and some cool climbing experiences. I will have to tell you more about the route to the top in other posts.
A big part of our climbing effort was to raise awareness and support for the fight against human trafficking. So far we have raised over $15,000 for the cause!!!
Thanks to all of you who gave generously to Climb for Captives. Keep checking www.climbforcaptives.com for pictures and video of our adventure.
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