Travis, Saundra, Michele, Jason and I all headed towards Mount Rainier for a backpacking trip. Travis and I hoped to climb Little Tahoma while the rest of the team hiked around Summerland. It's about a 3+ hour drive to reach Mount Rainier from Seattle and we had a much later start than hoped (breakfast at Pesos with friends). We made it to the park quit late, stopped at the White River ranger station to get climbing permits and eventually made it to the trail head at 3800 feet.
We drove up here in two cars because Jason was only doing a day hike to summerland, the rest of us were planning on spending the night up there. After spending way to much time packing we eventually hit the trail with heavy packs. The first 2 miles of this trail gains little elevation as it meanders it's way through the thick forest. The occasional view of the creek provided great break points.
At about 5,000 feet the trail became more and more snow covered. For some reason I was not expecting snow until above summerland, I should have known better considering I lived at Paradise for 4 years. I guess it has been awhile since I have really visited this beautiful part of the park.
Before we started the short and steep bit up to summerland Jason decided that he needed to get back to Seattle. Michele decided to turn around as well so we said our goodbyes and we headed up and they headed down. We now had a bunch of extra food which was great for the human garbage disposal (AKA Travis).
The final push up to our camp drained our energy so we broke out the food and started eating. The sun was slowly setting behind Mount Rainier and the temperature was dropping fast. We could tell it was going to be a chilly night.
In the morning Travis and I headed up towards Meany Crest and Saundra headed towards Indian Bar. The way up to Meany Crest was more difficult than I remember from previous trips. The snow was really hard from the cold night so we had to strap on the crampons and front point up much of it. We were starting to feel comfortable with the front pointing when I hear Travis cussing behind me. I turn around just in time to see his ice axe sliding down the steepest part of the slope and towards the moat. We both watched knowing that our trip was over. All of a sudden, the axe stops about 10 feet above the cliff!
After careful down climbing we retrieve the axe and continue up the mountain.
The sun soon warmed the mountain and we were discovering a problem. Every other step that we would take we would sink into the melting snow about a foot. This was draining our energy really fast but we continued on.
By the time we reached about 9,000 feet the sun was so hot that it was dislodging rocks down the faces of Little Tahoma. This made us make the difficult decision to turn around and head back to camp.
