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Final Preparations
As we are winding down to out departure date,
much of the final planning is now in your hands. We have
worked hard to fulfill the team needs with our equipment,
travel plans, course selection and physical preparations.
Now we must work in pairs to finalize tent pairing needs.
As I have previously mentioned, we should
be working to find ways to reduce weight with our partners.
In Vol 9, I covered some ideas for
partner planning. Excess weight is a real factor as we plan
our packs. Often we will take more than we need, I am guilty
of that same practice. Of course there are the essentials we
can not leave home without. But when you have a partner, do
you need to bring two of everything? Such things as sun
blocker or single serving foods should be reviewed to see if
sharing can reduce the weight. I'll leave it up to you to
work with your partner, or tent mate, to identify extra
items.
Camp Muir, Summit Day and Team
Structure
There has been much discussion regarding
our schedule for arriving into Camp Muir and when we make
our summit push. I guess it is time to voice my opinion
based on my experience.
I want to take a cautious stance on
forming a static schedule. We need to ensure the schedule is
flexible to accommodate weather, physical conditioning and
mental preparedness. My number one goal is to get 12 VFTTers
onto the summit of Mount Rainier. That does not ensure we
stand on the summit together. There are four miles and 4,400
feet elevation gain between our home at Camp Muir and that
summit. All of us have done much more than those numbers in
our climbs in the Northeast, and this should be well within
out reach.
However, we are a diverse group of
experienced climbers and we can not work as a unified group
of 12 climbers. There are varying speeds and varying
experience levels of endurance at elevation. I have been
building, or suggesting, members that match within the team,
not trying to balance team-to-team performance.
My original basis for team structure was
built around three primary individuals. These individuals
demonstrated the most experience based on the survey form
originally completed when joining. For team 1, I choose
Bruce, Team 2 was Guy and team 3 - Ed.
I still feel comfortable with my choices,
but I will suggest a change in team 2. Not because of any
lack of confidence, but our newest member, Arm has much more
experience than Guy at altitude. Bruce and myself have
Glacier experience and Guy has rope work skills. That is
what I originally had to work with. Arm has altitude
experience but not Glacier experience. That puts team 2 in a
unique position to have two potential leaders.
The balance of the team members was built
around personality and expected or perceived performance
levels. As the months have passed, I now feel we have the
proper team structures in place. My only question is placing
Jay on team 1, with all due respect, he is an animal and
probably our strongest climber. However, I need at least two
guys on each team and Jay has demonstrated his ego is not
part of the climb and that he can fit in on any team.
On August 1st when we depart for Camp
Muir, we are pretty much on our own. I would like to leave
no later than 10:00 am. The stronger climbers will move
ahead from the pack. Since we do not rope up we can travel
at our own pace toward Camp Muir. I do ask that we stay in
pairs, preferable our tent mates. This ensure if we have to
stop, there will be no issues with finding someone with a
tent. Weather will be our only potential problem on the way
to Camp Muir. If we get hit with snow, or white out
conditions, I want everyone to move off trail (climber's
right on the ascent) and setup a camp. There is a rock
formation on climbers right that offers protection for a
camp.
Arriving into Camp Muir is often a
bewildering experience. Depending on current population,
there can be as many as 150 climbers all wandering around.
RMI is located on the left and the public shelter, services
and tent sites are on the right. The first group to arrive
should start staking out tent platforms for the groups to
follow. If the public shelter is open, you may elect to stay
there. Just bring your ear plugs!
The push for the summit will be determined
while in Camp Muir. The rangers will update us with current
weather conditions daily. Should we have excellent weather,
we should consider pushing on that same evening. However, if
the weather is expected to be good the second day, then we
need to look at moving toward Ingraham Flats on day two, or
sitting in Camp Muir and enjoy investigating the surrounding
area. I have always done the summit push from Camp Muir. The
Flats are featureless and much colder since it is in the
afternoon and evening shade. However, it does save about 1.5
hours on summit day.
The DC has a reputation that is often
overrated. Yes there is a scree scramble to get up it, but
it is not as bad as reputation makes it out to be. The route
going through the scree is not well defined since it is
destroyed by passing climbers slipping and knocking rocks
loose. The main section is only about 20 minutes for a good
moving team. The overall DC is about one hour to pass
through. Don't be too alarmed by its reputation. After the
DC it is a series of switchbacks on a moderate to steep snow
field and the summit is yours.
Each team must consider the real
possibility that a "bag 'n' tag" just might happen. If it
helps, on my three trips up there I have only seen one
person that was tied off. I have seen several teams that
turned around and in all cases it was poor planning or poor
conditioning. I know we are better than that. Should a team
member become unable to go on, we should plan on cutting a
perch and sinking an ice picket to tie them off. Unless a
team loses two members, they should continue on. We will
discuss these issues at greater length over the next few
remaining weeks and at our class training.
Mount Hood is Calling My Name!
Yes...I am starting to get the bug. I have
been too busy to be thinking about it until now. The picture
I posted really brought back memories, of course all good.
T-Shirts and more....
I have been holding off placing the order
for shirts. This is to take into account team membership
changes. If we find ourselves committed with Arm joining, I
will proceed with the order.
When you are making your final
preparations, please include me on your emails so I can
monitor the progress or add my comments and suggestions. It
has been quite and I don't want a final week panic
happening. That is how we forget something. I'll start
asking questions about final planning to monitor progress.
Ed
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