Mt. Rainier Climb - Part III - Carolyn Power Tells All


I continue to interview Carolyn Power about her climb up Mt. Rainier.

Jerri Brooker: Did the mountain gradually or suddenly get steeper at some point?

Carolyn Power: From Paradise to Camp Muir the trek up is like climbing 10,000 stairsteps. The worst part is when we have to go over rocks and pumice, kind of a switchback effect - up and over and over until it seems like it will never end.

The snowfield is straight up.

During our climbing school we were able to master the rest step (a famous step by Lou Whittaker, the renowned mountaineer - and the owner with son, Peter, of Rainier Mountaineering, Inc., (RMI)).

Using the rest step is using the least amount of energy and muscle strain to achieve a single, elevated step. Instead of pushing off the ball of the left foot while lifting the quadricep muscles at the front thigh as in a normal step, the body's weight is shifted to the forward leg while the back leg lifts up to the next step using the momentum of the weight shift. Your trailing foot barely clears the ground and the lower half of your leg kicks in.

We looked like the "Glacier Monsters" were trying to hold our boots in the snow. The story of the "Glacier Monsters" goes like this:

Everytime we are going up on the snowfield, for some reason you put your pole into the snow. Sometimes it's as if somethings grabs the pole and won't let go. One has to use force to pull it up.

So to break the boredom up while taking step after step I made up a story and said that there were millions of little hands trying to grab our treking pole tips. It was as if little hands kept reaching up and said, "I'll get you!"

That always seemed to bring lots of laughter, except at about 9,000 feet when the oxygen is really thin. I started to scare myself thinking it was really true.

So, everytime we are headed up to Muir and someone's pole gets stuck they yell out, "There goes another glacier monster trying to get my pole!"

Humor is vital when you are taking a risk.

Cathedral Rock was very steep, almost a 75-degree angle at times. Stepping on that rock and pumice was soooo hard. Beyond, In Ingrahm Flats, it really gets steep. Nothing like we have ever trained for.

JB: How did the dark effect you while climbing?

The copyright of the article Mt. Rainier Climb - Part III - Carolyn Power Tells All in Washington State is owned by Jerri Brooker. Permission to republish Mt. Rainier Climb - Part III - Carolyn Power Tells All in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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