Summiting Mount Rainier

The 3-day loop of the Wonderland Trail was a perfect warm-up before tackling the highlight of the trip and climbing Mount Rainier. We had a permit for Camp Muir which is the most popular and accessible base camp.

One more time we got pretty lucky with a sunny weather and not too windy conditions on top. Altitude was also barely felt. While a little bit busy, it was still manageable and the mountaineering sceneries were out of this world.

At 14,411 feet or 4393 meters Rainier is iconic and can easily be seen from all the Seattle region and can’t be missed when flying.

After a very busy start at the bottom of the Park, the amount of people starts decreasing as the climb gets steeper. The last half consists in glacier walking in slushy snow.

Camp Muir. Slightly tight but with a good atmosphere, pretty protected and an amazing view (opposite side of this photo).

Early start around 2am and catching-up on the ropes preceding us. Clear night thanks to the moon. Warm until the wind picked-up towards the summit.

Amazing sunrise after traversing the crater and going on the actual summit. It got warmer quickly as the sun rose. The last meters of the climb were pretty cold.

The downhill was a good memory. It was warmer and not dark anymore so we could enjoy the fantastic views

Exceptionally beautiful crevasses and seracs when climbing back down the iciest part of the route

Looking around while going down was “distracting”. The early top view, the sun rising as early as 4am and the climb down were my favorite parts of the trip.