Day 1 - Base Camp

We arrived at “Base Camp” in the early afternoon after a pretty drive from Seattle. It is unusually hot with highs in the 90s. We have several incredible views of Rainier on the way in. To say it is imposing would be a massive understatement. It is hard to believe that we might be standing on the top of it in a few days.  After checking in to the bunkhouse, we picked up all of our rental gear, grabbed lunch and then waited for orientation at 3:00.  The orientation involved meeting the other climbers on our trip, an explanation of the route, a slide show and a talk through all of our equipment. In addition to the four of us, we will be joined by the Hoff clan, two brothers and a sister from New York, and Tom from Washington. Everyone seems reasonably nice. No one has too much experience. Our guide has climbed Rainier over 100 times and has done Everest twice, so we should be in good hands. Fortunately this year the route to the summit is in excellent shape. We can take the normal course over Disappointment Clever instead of the longer route that got Bill in trouble last year. There shouldn’t be many crevasses. The biggest issue will likely be falling rocks which sounds like a lot fun. After orientation we settled into our rooms and headed out for a great dinner up the road a piece. Now we are having a few beers on the porch before we hit the hay. Tomorrow is a full day of training in a snow field which should be fun but very hot. I am staying in the bunkhouse with 5 other strangers. Its a bit a like staying in hostel in Europe. Good times. More on that tomorrow.