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The Saga of Kings Peak

Night river crossing

Notice how each mountain is getting its own story?  We grow mountains big and complex here in the west.

Just means more hiking

Kings Peak was a bear of a mountain. The hike started as a a 28 mile round trip which ended up being 30 miles due to high rushing rivers. The team considered taking it in two days, but really needed a day to recover post Ranier and Hood. So the climb started at the crack of 11:00 pm at night. Summit was 10:30 am and finished at 6:00 pm. That’s over a marathaon of hiking in the time span of an ultra-marathon. 

A few quick winks here and there

The team is resting in Pinedale, WY today with plans to tackle Gannett Peak  at the crack of dawn on Thursday.

Tags: US 2010 by sarah_hassell
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Peak #46

The final countdown is on – today, the team summited peak #46, Kings Peak in Utah. Kings Peak stands at 13,528 ft.

Then it is off to finish out the west with Wyoming, Montana and Utah. The last peak will be Hawaii.

Tags: US 2010 by sarah_hassell
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Mt. Hood

On the summit

With today’s summit of Mt. Hood, the team is finally done with the Pacific Crescent – Denali, Rainier, Hood and Whitney. It is day 30. Peak #45. 

Check out all the snow - in July!

The team is off to Salt Lake City for a day of rest before tackling Kings Peak at 13,538 ft.

Tags: US 2010 by sarah_hassell
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The Story of Ranier

Matt and his dad, Mike, at the summit

First and most importantly – the team safely summited Mt. Ranier yesterday (June 2) at around 10:00 am and were back in Seattle by the evening. The team is currently on their way to Mt. Hood for an attempt tomorrow.

The view

The team started up Ranier on Wednesday. They made it safely to Camp Muir after about 8 hours of climbing, were turned back less than a 1,000 feet from the summit. Holed up at Camp Muir for night, they decided to try again on Thursday morning.
In the blizzard
After an alpine start and after a long, slow morning at about the 13,400 mark, the snow and wind had turned into a full-on blizzard. It was time to call it for Ranier. The team went descended back to Camp Muir to prepare to leave, but the storm had effectively trapped them in. Nothing to do but to wait it out.
Above the clouds

Sleeping is tough under those conditions and on Friday when the team awoke – early again – the weather had broken and the winds had died down. It was, after all that, a pretty good summit morning. What a difference 12 hours makes. So they took off about 6 am and by 10 had hit the summit. As the pictures show, they had the summit pretty much to themselves. Then it was a quick descent and some very big sighs of relief.

Tags: US 2010 by sarah_hassell
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Mt. Ranier Summited

At about 11:00 am MT, I received a SPOT that shows the team at the top of Mt. Ranier. I’m sure there is a story here and I’ll update this post as soon as I’ve had a chance to talk to the team.

Tags: US 2010 by sarah_hassell
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Ranier – Day 2

The team left Camp Muir this morning at 12:00 am and finally had to cry uncle at about 8:30 am – less than 1,000 feet from the summit. The weather on Ranier this spring/summer has been a bear - and this morning the winds had picked and the snow was flying.

The team is back at Camp Muir where they will huddle up and, weather willing, make another attempt tomorrow. If this weather pattern continues to hold, they will move on to Mt. Hood and return to catch Ranier on the flip side.

As expected, the team is disappointed but safety always comes first. On a mountain like Rainier, it pays to play it on the cautious side.

Tags: US 2010 by sarah_hassell
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