Mount Rainier and Mount Adams
In July of 2009 Team Sight Unseen gathered to climb Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier. These climbs were training climbs designed to advance the team's skill, both on an individual leve, and as a group overall.
Kyle was unable to join the group in Washington, because he was in the process of training his new seeing-eye dog.
Mt. Adams
First up for the team was Mt. Adams. The team took two days to climb the mountain. The first day pushed up to the Lunch Counter, the high camp from where they would launch their summit bid. The push to the lunch counter, although long, went farily smoothly, and the team set up camp at the Lunch Counter. The next morning, the team set out at 6:00 AM for the summit. They reached the Piker's peak, the false summit, at 9:30 AM. After another hour and a half they were on the true summit snapping pictures and basking in the amazing views. Just after the team started descending, Peter found a golf ball, and had some fun with it (see the video below). After the golf ball was out of sight the team downclimbed to Piker's peak and hopped in the glissade shoots for a nice long enjoyable glissade back to the high camp at the Lunch Counter. The team rested for a few hours, ate the remaining food they had, broke camp, and descended back to the parking lot after a successful summit.
Mt. Rainier
Following the summit of Mt. Adams the team took a day and a half of rest before driving to Mt. Rainier. Once there the team camped at the base before heading out for a long push to Camp Schurman early the next morning. The hike into the mountain was washed out by a recent flood so the team was forced to do some boulder hopping and path finding over tricky terrain before the original resumed 3 miles into the hike. Shortly after that the team was at the base of the interglacier. After a quick break for snacks and water, the team roped up and pushed up the Interglacier to Camp Curtis. Here, the wind started to pick up, and the team took one last break before the final push to their high camp, Camp Schurman. When the team arrived the wind had picked up and the team wrestled with their tents getting two of them set up near the ranger's station, while they put their last one down on the snow.
The following day was a rest day as the team prepared for the summit push. Members slept, relaxed, refueled, rehydrated, and did some practice in crevasse rescue techniques. The team set out that night at 12 midnight for the summit of Mt. Rainier. After safely negotiating the various seracs, crevasses, and other dangers on the mountain the team stood on top at 7:30 AM, after more than seven hours of climbing. Everyone was able to get lots of pictures and enjoy the nice sunny view from the top. A little after 8:00 the team started their descent, and arrived in high camp at 12:30, totalling more than 12 hours of climbing team. After a few hours of rest the team descended the mountain, ending a very successful trip for the team!
The team on the summit of Mt. Rainier
