Climbing on the Tatoosh Massif
Journal entry Friday July 7th, 2006. Our trip begins at the car camp at La Wis Wis campground just outside of Rainier National Park. We stoke up a little fire, enjoy some beverages and camp cooking, and review our gear for the Saturday climb.
Before you know it it's Saturday daybreak and we're trying our best to ingest some coffee and breakfast burritos before we hit the mountainside. Below, Dave tidies up while the coffee pot perks. Myron, center, and Greg, right, forage for actual food - we only had 7 shopping bags or so full of various items. No use starving ourselves!
We drive into the park and start to load up for the boost up the mountain. It will be a warm day so we're actually shedding clothes and gear at this point. Lightening our loads as much as we can to make our day easier.
Beth and Vaqas: Vaqas grew up hiking in the Himalayas and is currently a Mazama. He was an excellent resource on this trip and I can't thank him enough for coming along and offering his expertise!
Up the mountainside we go. We quickly lost sight of any intended trail as most of this face of the mountain was still covered in snow. Here's a shot of me heading up. This picture and several others in this series are thanks to Dave Bourgeois.
Here's a shot of Mount Rainier to the North of us. This is from the same altitude I was pictured at above, not too far above the parking lot. It only gets more spectacular from here.
And up we go:
