Pebble Creek

It doesn't look that hard to climb, right?

This past Sunday I had my first experience with climbing on Mount Rainier. I had a chance to join the Climb for Clean Air group in climbing to Pebble Creek at 7,600 feet up the mountain. The weather at the base of the mountain was overcast and raining, with snow flurries and fog at Paradise. Once we reached about 6,500 feet we ascended through the clouds into pristine blue skies. I very much enjoyed the experience which had the feeling of  climbing a mountain more than hiking a trail. I was caught off guard with a couple of the inclines, more because of my expectations of the climb to Pebble Creek were that it would be more flat. I would compare it to climbing from the bottom to the top of a blue run at Steven's Pass - with 30 pounds on your back. Interestingly enough though, it wasn't the steep inclines that gave me trouble, it was the seemingly never ending gradual slope near the top. Perhaps it was the thinner air, or possibly I picked up my pace, but I was wiped out. All in all, I learned a valuable lesson: I need to get in better shape. In fact, when I got home yesterday, I unpacked and went out to run hills near my house. That will now be my routine. Get home from work. Run hills. I don't want to have that feeling I had at Pebble Creek again, looking up at Muir with a sense of dread. This is supposed to be fun! Sunday was fun. If we would have been continuing to Muir I would collapsed. I have procrastinated enough. I have until July 19th (I am officially on the 2nd climb now!) to get my butt in shape. Plenty of time.

Here are more photos from Sunday:

Just below "The Chute"

Just above the clouds

Looking down towards Paradise which was socked in by fog

The trail towards Muir

My home computer crashed, so I haven't had as much time to blog, so to update everyone that is following my progress (BTW: Thank you to all half dozen of you!) I reached a major milestone last week. I eclipsed my minimum donation amount of $3,750! As I have never been one to be satisfied with the minimum, I have now upped my fundraising goal to $4,500. If you are interested in making a donation, please visit my personal page at www.tinyurl.com/keggert. Also, we have dropped the price of our CFCA t-shirts to only $10! I also have 5 shirts signed by legendary American climber Jim Whittaker that I am going to be selling for $50. All donations for the shirts will be matched by Microsoft, so the total donations will be $20 and $100 respectively. The website to buy shirts is www.chari-t-shirts.org.

Thank you for all of your support! I am starting to get very excited!