Climbing Mount Rainier via the Emmons Glacier Route

7/10/07 - 7/12/07

by John Bachman

First and foremost, shout-outs to our expedition sponsors: to Julie and Damian, who not only shuttled us to and from the airport in Seattle, but also let us stay in their house for the better part of a week, and even loaned us their car(! Really, who does that?) To Anna, who picked up white gas, matches and lighters in Seattle so we wouldn't have to make a separate trip to REI, and picked us up at the airport upon our return to Boston at 6:15am; and to Gavin, who generously supplied his tent, stakes, shovel, snow picket, water bottle parkas, and other gear. If you guys had logos, we'd wear them in all the photos. Our sincerest thanks.

For all of John's photos from the trip, go here.

For all of Matt's photos from the trip, go here.

For all of Ryan's photos from the trip, go here.

email me at bachmanjohn at gmail

Prologue

Mount Rainier first entered my consciousness as an image: a poster in Beth Slovic's room at Amherst College, showing Rainier over a sea of clouds, with Mt. St. Helens and other volcanoes visible in the far distance. Beth had worked at Paradise Lodge in Mount Rainier National Park for a summer and had climbed to Camp Muir; something about that image and her stories from the mountain captured my imagination and made me feel certain that climbing that mountain was something I would do someday. While I had always had the idle curiosity about mountaineering and climbing that most people have, I would have to date the beginning of my obsession with climbing to that poster and that mountain.

Fast forward eight years or so. There was some talk among my climbing friends in early 2006 about going to do some kind of mountain expedition at some point and we'd tossed the R-word around now and then, but the idea had yet to achieve critical mass.

Then came the email:

Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 02:25:45 -0400
From: Matt Mendonza
To: John Bachman, Ryan Chaves
Subject: FOR SERIOUS

Yo,

so i jsut had an epiphany that i need to get high, like 19,000 feet high.
rainer is going down and we need to do it together as a team of three

i know the two of you really well and we would make and outstanding group to
climb together, i think rainer as a first and then moving on to harder things
is ideal. We should set our sights on denali, aconcagua, pico de orizaba, etc

much love

matt

To which Ryan responded, "Are you drunk?" (Answer: Yes.)

But it was on. As talk circled, Pete and Gavin signed on along with Ryan and I, making us a party of five. We named our team "Climbing For Serious" in honor of the original email. When I went to Nepal that fall I had custom-embroidered team T-shirts made.

Preparations included ice climbing, winter hikes, CrossFit, and an avalanche course with Chauvin Guides. I took on the task of logistics, making and remaking our gear list, ordering our climbing permits, and making reservations. We settled on the Emmons Glacier route, the second-most popular route, to avoid the massive crowds and rockfall hazard on the Disappointment Cleaver route (RMI guides thousands of climbers a year up DC). While also a non-technical route, Emmons is "longer and more strenuous" than the more popular DC, and the lower high camp (Camp Schurman, 9400 feet) makes for a long summit day. (The summit of Rainier is at 14,411 feet.)

As the scheduled date of the climb approached, Pete and Gavin bowed out, so it was back to the original three. Ryan and I had never met or climbed together (he'd been living in Holland for the last two years), and the gaps in the group gear spreadsheet indicated that he was short a lot of the necessary gear. Matt had nightmares about crevasses and we had a few fervent conversations over beers at the GHG about not dying on the mountain. (There was also a rather unfortunate episode of Grey's Anatomy that ran at this time in which two climbers stranded in a crevasse on Mount Rainier try to kill their third partner by stabbing him in the head with an ice axe.)

And yet somehow it all seemed to come together. Anna bought white gas, lighters and matches for us when she visited Seattle and left them at Julie's house. I ran from REI to EMS to REI buying wands and stuff sacks and 6mm nylon cord and other assorted items. Ryan bought all the necessary gear and had it shipped to his parents' house in Western Mass for his arrival in the States just days before the climb. He came to the GHG the day before our departure so we could meet(!) and pack and do some self-rescue practice at Quincy Quarries. Matt returned from a week of sport climbing at the New River Gorge the day before the trip for some last minute packing. The day of our departure I went to work for a half-day then took off to run some errands, including a quick jaunt to REI to get the plastic anti-theft tags removed from Matt's shell pants, as the REI cashier had forgotten to do it when Matt had bought them (this would have been funnier if it hadn't been at the very last minute). I taped highlighted copies of the TSA policy on camping stoves to our empty fuel bottles so they wouldn't be confiscated by the airline. (FYI: white gas stoves and fuel bottles are allowed on the plane if they are completely free of all vapors and residue.)

Once the baggage was checked and we had our boarding passes, I felt like a free man. No more planning! Time to kick off the expedition properly. We went to Legal Seafood at the airport for a lavish dinner and rapid-fire rounds of Dark and Stormys that left us giddy. I spent most of the flight sleeping and reading Fight Club.

We arrived in Seattle and Julie picked us up at the airport. It was a tight squeeze getting into her Jetta with all of our gear, but we managed it (though I think Ryan was too buried by bags to see any of the ride into Seattle). It was already after 10 when we arrived at Julie and Damian's house, and as we began a few stressful hours of final packing, morale was not good. There was some doubt as to whether our packs, which were already depressingly heavy, would even be big enough to carry all of our gear. It also appeared that a bag of miscellaneous "useful items" of group gear, which included duct tape, an extra headlamp, and chlorine tablets for purifying water, had gotten left behind in the final packing. Though frustrating, it didn't seem like the loss would be a deal-breaker. We finally got to bed after 2am, ready for a 5:30am wake-up.

Tuesday, July 10 - The Climb Begins

The trip began with us getting lost in downtown Seattle at 6am trying to find coffee and breakfast. Every attempt at routefinding seemed to end abruptly with a "No left," "No right," "Buses only," "One way," or similarly abortive sign. After three loops through Chinatown we finally succeeded at finding a Starbucks and got on the road. It was a perfectly clear day and the drive treated us to some fantastic views of the mountain.

We arrived at the park, registered for the climb and got blue bags (for pooping in) and the weather report from the ranger (while trying not to come off as total novices). The weather was supposed to be good until Thursday afternoon with possible thunderstorms afterwards, so it looked like our best chance would be to go straight for it on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. The hike started out inauspiciously: we wandered around the parking lot unable to find the trailhead, and I dropped our blue bags and had to run back to pick them up. We finally asked a ranger where the trailhead was and he pointed it out about 20 yards from where we were standing. We felt pretty much like noobs and I have to say that I experienced some doubt about our success at that moment.

After we started the approach, however, the beauty of the surroundings and the mellow exertion of the hike dissolved most of our anxiety. We climbed over the rubble of the Glacier Basin trail, which had been mostly destroyed by flooding last fall, and eventually made it to the Glacier Basin campsite. We had decided to camp higher up, so after a quick rest we resumed the approach, which led up out of the pine forest into gorgeous alpine terrain. We followed the trail to the base of the Interglacier, where we roped up as a team for the first time. There had been reports of crevasses on the Interglacier, and I kept an especially keen eye as I followed the boot track up the 35-degree snow slope.

We enjoyed the rhythmic plunge-kick-kick for a good ways. At one point I noticed my ice axe was plunging especially deep with each step, and I started probing around to see if I was walking into a crevasse. As I looked around, I saw a small black hole about 15 feet to my right. I kept very still. "Guys?" I yelled out nervously, "I'm on a snowbridge!" I started backtracking so that I could traverse to a newer boot track about 25 feet to my left. Soon we were back on the path and continued up. (It was our first encounter with a crevasse, albeit a tiny crevasse with a hefty bridge; by the end of the trip, jaded by spicier crossings on the upper mountain, we chuckled at our anxiety on the Interglacier.)

We had reserved camping on the Interglacier, but none of us were too keen on camping on this snowfield where now suddenly everything seemed suspect. Plus there was no really flat ground, so we would have had to dig out a tent platform and anchor the tent to the slope. We decided to push on to Camp Curtis, which would make for easier camping and a shorter hike the following day.

Camp Curtis turned out to consist of two flattened-out tent platforms on a narrow ridge of loose rock. It was windy and it took some creativity to get the tent properly anchored, but before long we settled down for some delicious freeze-dried bag food. We ran the stove for hours melting snow and eating ramen. As the sun began to set, we noticed that we'd used more than 25% of our fuel on our first day, which did not bode well: we didn't want to have to ration water for summit day, and we had little room for error. If only we hadn't forgotten those chlorine tablets! It took far more fuel to boil water (to purify it) than it did just to melt snow into water. As we settled in for sleep around 10pm our potential fuel shortage was the only major roadblock we could see on the horizon, but it was a critical one.

Wednesday, July 11 - Glacier Practice and Travel to Camp Schurman

We got up at 7am, made oatmeal for breakfast, and did some training on the glacier: self arrest in all of the four positions, with the axe held in each hand. Experimentation with team arrest and snow picket belays boosted our confidence in our ability to hold a slip on reasonably steep snow slopes. Finally we took turns rigging crevasse rescue systems with the various pulleys and prussiks we'd brought.

While we practiced on the glacier, we used a trick I'd read about but never tried: we put snow in a black plastic bag and left it out in the sun to melt into water. To everyone's surprise, this worked remarkably well, and helped us conserve our fuel. And later, as I was reaching into my pack for some clothing, I put my hand on a plastic bag--I pulled it out and discovered that, lo and behold, it was the "missing" bag that contained the chlorine tablets! It turned out that I had packed it back in Boston and then completely forgotten about it. As embarrassing as that was, it was less embarrassing than having actually forgotten it. And so we were able to use the black bag and the chlorine tablets to make drinking water and dramatically reduce our fuel use.

We finally broke camp and headed for Camp Schurman after one o'clock. It was a late start, but fortunately we didn't have far to go, and we arrived at Camp Schurman after only an hour and fifteen minutes of travel up the dramatically crevassed Emmons Glacier. There were a number of climbers at Camp Schurman, but since it was a weekday and a less-traveled route than DC, it wasn't anything like the mobs I'd read about at Camp Muir. We picked out a snow platform that had been used by a previous party and set to work putting up the tent and melting more snow. Even with Ryan's XGK stove roaring full-time, it took hours for us to melt enough water to cook food, keep us hydrated, and put together the 3 liters of water we would each need for summit day.

Ryan got the weather forecast and some route information from one of the guides at the camp. There was an unseasonable heat-wave passing through the Northwest, and the freezing level was forecast at 15,000ft, above the summit of the mountain, so the snow bridges wouldn't refreeze overnight. The route was still in good shape, but we should keep our eyes peeled for places where crevasses had widened under the existing boot track and be prepared to traverse around them if necessary.

The water-making went on and on, interrupted only by trips to the newly-renovated (with a door) but still foul-smelling outhouse; we were finally ready for "sleep" at 8pm, with a scheduled wake-up time of midnight.

As we were getting ready to turn in for the night, a spectacular avalanche of ice, rock and snow came pouring down the Willis Wall to our right.

Thursday, July 12 - Summit Day

I woke up to the sound of my alarm and started getting dressed in a rush in an attempt to shake off the post-wakeup chill. Bibs, softshell, boots, gaiters; helmet and headlamp; I unzipped the tent door and grabbed my pack to finish stuffing it with my puffy, mittens, and other gear.

We had decided to skip the hot breakfast and just eat bars so we could get an early start. We finally got going around 1am, unfortunately just after the big guided group from Alpine Ascents had started up. As I followed in the tracks of the dozen climbers from various groups who were ahead of us, I felt frustrated. How lame would it be to go to all the trouble of planning an independent climb and then just end up following a guided group all the way to the top?

I wanted to pass, but I didn't know the etiquette of passing on a glacier. Do you just walk up alongside? What about crevasses? How do you keep ropes from crossing at corners? I hesitated for a while, but when I got the feeling that Ryan and Matt were as restless as I was and ready to pass, I ramped up the pace. The AAI group eventually stopped for a break and we used that opportunity to get out in front of them. We took a quick break ourselves and then kept on going. We could see the headlamps of a few more climbers out in front of us on the route, but at least we wouldn't be staring at their feet the whole way.

As I climbed, it was tempting to just focus my attention on the individual steps in front of me, but I reminded myself to pay attention to the route. I periodically scanned from side to side with my headlamp to see if there were any crevasses or snowbridges coming up. Fortunately the part of the route that we would have to cover in the dark was very straightforward and had no major crossings, and we continued up at a good pace.

We passed a few other teams and gained ground on the last two climbers on the route ahead of us, who turned out, to our surprise, to be the chatty old Scotsman we had met at Camp Schurman the night before and his less chatty but even older partner. The Scottish guy had to be at least sixty years old, and we speculated that the older guy could have been close to seventy. They were climbing with a HEMP ROPE, and had no harnesses, instead tying directly into the rope with a bowline on a coil. The one we'd spoken to previously was climbing in shorts(!) and gaiters and the other was wearing corduroy pants, a plaid shirt, and a down jacket that looked old enough to be from the 1953 Everest expedition. We were humbled by their old school hard-coreness. We passed them while it was still dark and were the first team on the upper mountain most of the rest of the morning.

Time flew by, and before long the sun started to glow on the horizon, making for some of the most spectacular views of the trip. The glacier glowed pink with the light of golden hour, and we were finally able to switch off our headlamps.

We had been cruising at a solid pace all morning, but somewhere around 13,000 feet we all started to feel the altitude. Matt in particular hit a wall and said he felt like he might throw up. I knew that Matt throws up every now and then during intense physical exertion (e.g., CrossFit) so it could be that he was just tired, but since vomiting is a symptom of incipient altitude sickness, I said, "...I don't know if I feel comfortable continuing if Matt pukes." We decided to slow down the pace dramatically as we were still the first team on the mountain and had plenty of time to summit and descend. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Matt mini-barfed in his mouth and swallowed it, because "John will make us turn around if I puke." Fortunately though, our slow, rhythmic pace helped Matt feel much better, and he recovered as we continued to get higher, so altitude sickness was less of a concern.

Before too long, the snow disappeared and was replaced by the loose rock and dirt of the crater rim. We took off our crampons and shuffled along the path along with the Scots, who had caught up to us. As we walked, the inside of the crater came into view, and we saw a few climbers crossing through it from what I presumed was the Disappointment Cleaver route.

Before we knew it we were on the summit! But we weren't sure it was the summit at first, and there was a rocky outcrop that looked like it could be higher, so we walked down along the rim to it. Once there, we were convinced that yes, that snowy bulge HAD been the true summit, so we walked back to take our summit photos.

We cheered and hugged and shook hands with the Scots. For me the summit gave me no sudden surge of joy or relief, just a nice warm feeling of having finally gotten there after a lot of planning and a very enjoyable trip. It was windy up there, and we started feeling a bit chilly, so after the requisite photos and video we walked down to the summit register. I had always wondered what the summit register looked like and how the powers that be kept it protected from the elements, and now I finally knew: a regular spiral notebook with some ballpoint pens in a heavy metal box.

We descended back down the crater to the snowline, put our crampons back on and re-rigged for glacier travel. We passed the AAI group on their way up as we descended, and the guide gave us a pound and congratulated us on our first-ever Rainier summit.

As we headed back down we saw that there were a few clouds rolling in. After a little while it started to snow, visibility dropped dramatically, and we began to get very anxious. All the sketchy trip reports I'd ever read had started out this way, and I suddenly imagined ours: "We had great weather on our way to the summit, but early on the descent we got caught in a whiteout, lost the path and had to bivy in a snow cave for three days drinking our own urine..." Granted, the real risk was low, as the route was still very well-defined, wanded, and straightforward, but it was an unnerving turn of events nonetheless. We picked up our descent pace considerably in an effort to get down past the snow bridges to the Corridor; at one point we reached a narrow crevasse that we had done an end-run around on the way up and instead of traversing we leaped over it without hesitation. Fortunately, before too long the snow turned to a drizzling rain and then melted away into blue skies, and we relaxed again. "Remember when we jumped over a crevasse?" we yelled to each other, laughing.

The descent grew wearisome, and the snow got softer and heavier in the sun. We were down past all of the major snow bridges, and it was just a slog at this point. We reached Emmons Flats, stopped to chat with some climbers from Colorado who were planning on heading up that night, and then continued on to Camp Schurman. We agreed that our chances of having a disastrous epic were significantly lessened at that point. It had taken us 7 1/2 hours to reach the summit and a total of 11 1/2 hours to summit and return to camp.

The hardcore old Scotsmen, who had totally outdone us on the descent, already had their tent packed and were preparing to head back to the trailhead, and we bid them goodbye. We spent an hour or two resting, eating, and packing. We were tired, but we all agreed that we should try to make it back to the car or at least get down as far as possible that day. We had no water, but anticipated filling our bottles at a meltwater stream a little further down towards Camp Curtis.

It took us about 45 thirsty minutes to make our way back down the Emmons Glacier to the rock ridge of Camp Curtis, where we stopped to fill our water bottles at the stream. The water was sandy but tasted fresh enough once we put our last remaining chlorine tablets in it. We passed a number of groups coming up the Interglacier on our descent, and decided to glissade the bottom half of the Interglacier, slowly, carefully, and while remaining roped up. Glissading was a blast and made quick work of the steep sections, and before we knew it we had run out of snow again. We packed away harnesses, rope, and shell gear and changed back into our hiking clothes and continued on toward Glacier Basin.

We were running on at least a fifth or sixth wind at this point, and the descent on the rock terrain with our fully-loaded packs was jarring to knees and ankles. The wide, maintained section of trail below Glacier Basin went by fairly quickly, but the final mile of rough unimproved trail back to the trailhead slowed us down and seemed to go on forever. We passed a climber going up who said he had seen us on the upper mountain through binoculars from the Sunrise trailhead that morning. As we passed, he added "Good luck! A ranger told me that the last mile and a half is the mental crux of the route..."

Our socks and boots were chafing with sweat and the relentless downhill plodding was threatening severe blisters. "Do any of you guys remember if this trail actually ends?" I asked half-seriously as we picked our way over the loose rocks, dirt, and tree branches. And then, finally, it did.

At the parking lot, we dropped our packs, took our boots off, and all simultaneously lay down on the pavement. We had been climbing fairly continuously for twenty straight hours, and had been up and active for 32 of the last 36. We were pretty wrecked. Time to drive home!

I was OK driving until we stopped for a hearty meal of Mexican food in a little town on the way back. My suddenly full belly seemed to draw away what little energy I had left in my brain. The last hour of the drive was confusing and stressful, as one of the towns outside Seattle happened to be hosting "Ozzfest" that night, and all the traffic within a 20 mile radius had been diverted onto random back roads. We blasted music and danced and sang and tried to talk about anything just to stay awake. When we finally did make it in to Seattle, I got off on the wrong exit and we got lost in the one-way streets of downtown again, but by Matt's deft navigation we made it back to Julie's house, where I quickly took a shower and passed out.

Friday, July 13 - Monday, July 16: Epilogue

The rest of the trip passed in a relaxed fashion: celebration dinner and drinks ($7 beer and shot combos!) on Friday; a visit to REI, Feathered Friends, and the Seattle sculpture park on Saturday; complete and total sloth on Sunday, and a bit of local sport climbing at Seattle's Exit 32 on Monday, where we had a mellow day on good rock and I onsighted my first 5.10c. On Monday night we said our goodbyes to Julie and thanked her for her hospitality and boarded the red-eye. We arrived in Boston at 6:15am to Anna's generous airport pickup and I actually headed into the office, where I was capable of doing little more than sorting through my email. Ryan caught a bus from the airport to meet his parents. Two days after our arrival Matt and I celebrated with some climbing friends with dinner at Cambridge Commons.

Summary

We did a conservative, by-the-book ascent of Mount Rainier via a non-technical route. We were a bit over-equipped for the climb in summer conditions, which was fine considering it was our first time on a big mountain, our first time on a glacier, and our first time climbing together as a team of three. There were no major incidents or accidents, we were in good physical shape, and we got lucky with the weather and conditions.

We spent a lot of time on the trip discussing how we would refine our gear so as to lighten our loads for a future trip, and how our gear and approach might be different for a technical route such as Liberty Ridge. Lighter packs, lighter sleeping bags, a lighter tent, and more chlorine tablets were high on our list. Our brief encounter with whiteout conditions convinced us that preparing for a whiteout is something you either really do or don't do--you don't just pack along wands and let that give you a false sense of security. If you have any doubt at all that you'd be able to retrace your path from a point on the route, place a wand, mark a GPS waypoint, take a compass back-bearing, or do all of the above.

For me, climbing Mt. Rainier felt like a graduation of sorts, a long-awaited passage that also marks the beginning of bigger things. I feel freer now to undertake mountain adventures with a bit more creativity and originality. Gullies for time, anyone?

Resources

You can find a ton of essential information on the Mount Rainier Climbing Blog, which has information on permits, logistics, route conditions, climbing statistics, and archives of accident reports.

If you're looking for maps of the route, Stanley Maps makes the best ones.

While Mike Gauthier's climbing guide covers the basics, you can get the most detailed information on your chosen route by reading trip reports published on the web. Trip reports can give a good idea of route conditions found at different times of year, and provide examples of different itineraries. Putting "Rainier Emmons" into Google will find you all of the ones for the Emmons route, though you will have to sort through the results a bit. We got a lot of useful information from the MIT Outing Club trip report from 2000. We also used the Alpine Ascents International Emmons gear list.

There is also a DVD, "Mount Rainier Emmons Glacier Ascent," which I couldn't find a website for, but can sometimes be found at Chessler Books.

Here are links to all the trip reports and other info that I could find for the Emmons route at the time of the trip (this will go out of date fast):

http://hbriceno.mitoc.org/climb/rainier2000/index.html: MIT Outing Club trip report from August 30-September 4th, 2000. Gear list, itinerary, pictures, and skills list.
http://www.angio.net/~lukesos/Personal/ScratchBook/Rainier_2000.html: Photos and captions from one of the MIT Outing Club climbers, Luke Sosnowski
http://cascadeclassics.org/MountRainier/Emmons/Fall02/Emmons,Fall02.htm: TR from a one-day ski mountaineering ascent, September 6, 2002.
http://www.doglotion.com/mt-rainier-worty-ski-mountaineering-objective: Ski mountaineering TR
http://www.cascadeclimber.com/the_emmons.htm: Tips on the route and links to trip reports.
http://www.mountainweb.com/mountain-climbing/view-mountain-climbing.jsp?mountain=1120: Basic route information for the Emmons (not a TR)
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~sbohac/rainier.html: Trip report and photos from an AAI guided climb.
http://www.alpenthyme.org/alp/rainier3/rainier3.htm: July 26-28, 2002 brief trip report and photos.
http://www.idahosummits.com/rainier/rainier.htm: June trip report and photos (no year)
http://homepage.mac.com/klkersten/climb/rainier/index.html: June 16-19, 2003 trip report from an AAI guided climb
http://hrcweb.nevada.edu/potts/mountaineering/rainier/2005/rainier.html: Photos with captions from a July 2005 climb
http://imis.mountaineers.org/source/Communities/viewDiscussionTopic.cfm?CmtyId=43&FrmId=125&TopicId=746: Seattle Mountaineers trip report from July 2005
http://www.georgesnelling.net/showpic.php?gal=pictures/climb/2005/Rainier: June 2005 photos, no trip report
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=1778: July 24-25, 2004 ski mountaineering trip report
http://www.mountainguides.com/rainier-tr2006.shtml: 2006 trip report from a Microsoft guided group.
http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/202463/rainier-via-emmons-glacier.html: June 17-21, 2006 Summitpost trip report
http://members.tripod.com/~Schryer/1998/rainier.html: July 10-12, 1998
http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/239995/rainier-emmons-glacier.html: September 2, 2006 Summitpost trip report
http://www.mountainguides.com/rainier-tr2003.shtml: June 2003 guided ascent
http://www.bodyresults.com/A2Rainiere3.asp: July 19-20, 2003 trip report from the people who make the "Training for Mount Rainier" video.
http://www.skimountaineer.com/Trips/RainierSki99/RainierSki99.html: July 1999 ski mountaineering TR from Amar Andalkar's web site.
http://gs164.sp.cs.cmu.edu/pics/Hikes_Climbs_Travels/Climbs/040_Rainier/index.html: Photos from a four-day June 19-23, 2004 ascent (no trip report).
http://danielarndt.com/article/46/Mount_Rainier_climb: July 5-7, 2003 trip report.
http://www.pbase.com/splashphoto/mt_rainier_2004: Photos (no trip report) from a 2004 ascent.

Gear List

Our gear list was based on a combination of the Alpine Ascents International gear list and the gear list from the MIT Outing Club trip report.

Our full gear list is included below.

Ryan Matt John

Climbing Gear
Mountaineering axe w/ leash BD Raven Pro 65 cm, 6mm harness leash BD Raven Pro, 6mm harness leash Grivel Air Tech Evo 66cm with harness leash

Crampons BD Sabretooth Camp 390 BD Sabretooth

Prussiks/Ascenders 6mm waist, foot loop, rescue prussiks TiBloc, 6mm foot loop, rescue prussik Waist, single foot loop, 2 x rescue prussik

Harness (detachable/adjustable leg loops) BD Momentum AL with bag Petzl Calidris Petzl Calidris

Helmet Petzl Elios Petzl Ecrin Roc Camp Silver Star

Carabiners X X X

Locking carabiners X X X

Snow picket MSR Coyote 24" MSR Coyote 24" MSR Coyote 24"

Slings, cordelettes X X X

Pulley Petzl Mini Traxion REI Pulley Petzl Mini (not Traxion)

Belay device (lightweight ATC) BD ATC-XP Reverso BD ATC Guide

Feet
Plastic boots Koflach Degre Vasque Ice 9000 Koflach Arctis Expe

Gaiters OR Verglas OR Crocodiles OR Crocodiles

Liner socks x 2 EMS Sock Liners x 1 - 2 x Fox River

Wool socks x 2 REI Merino Wool Expedition x 1 REI Wool 2 x Smartwool Mountaineering

Clothes
Long underwear top & bottom REI Midweight MTS Long-Sleeve Zip T-Neck + Bottoms REI Powerstretch Smartwool

Exp. wt. long underwear top Odlo WARM l/s 1/2 zip t-neck Multiple layers EMS Techwick

Fleece or softshell jacket MH Tech Fleece MH Tech Fleece Arcteryx Gamma MX

Shell jacket w/ hood MH Epic MH Manticore MH Ethereal FTX

Shell pants Marmot Precip Full Zip Marmot Precip Full Zip Arcteryx Alpha SV Bibs

Insulated parka w/ hood MH Sub Zero SL MH Sub Zero Feathered Friends Icefall

Soft shell pants or fleece pants - MH Conduit Powerstretch

Head
Warm hat OR Alpine REI Windstop Fleece MH Dome Perignon

Balaclava GoLite MH OR Gorilla WS

Sun hat and bandana OR Sun Runner X OR Sun Runner

Glacier glasses Julbo Advance with case & Cat Crap Julbo Advance Julbo Advance (non-prescrip)

Goggles Matt's extra goggles X X
Hands
Liner / Lightweight gloves OR Omni MH Powerstretch Polypro

Medium weight gloves BD Ice Gloves BD Ice Gloves

Shell mitts w/ insulation OR Cornice MH Absolute Zero OR Expedition Modular Mitts

Other Personal Gear
Backpack (min 5500 cu. in.) Wild Things Andinista Daryl's Backpack EMS 5500

Sleeping bag (0-20 degrees) MH Phantom 15 deg down REI 10 degree down, WPB shell Marmot Pinnacle down 20 deg

Sleeping pad ProLite 4 full length 3/4 thermarest 3/4 thermarest Ultralite

Headlamp (preferably w/ detachable battery pack) Petzl Myobelt XP BD Polar Star BD Polar Star

Extra headlamp batteries 3AA 3AA 3AA

Water bottles (3 liters or more--some say 4 liters for summit day) Nalgene x 3 Nalgene x 3 Nalgene x 3+ 1L platypus

Water bottle parkas x 2 (Gavin's) OR OR

Mug/Cup REI 12oz insulated Cathedral Cafe insulated 16oz REI 12oz insulated

Spork Lexan Titanium Lexan

Contact lenses Disposables x 14 X Disposables

Trekking Poles (optional) Life-Link Guide Ultra-Light - Leki Ultralite Ti (x 1?)

Sunscreen X X X

Lipscreen X X X

Toothbrush/toothpaste X X X

3 Trash compactor bags X X X

Lighter and matches X X X

Camera Casio EX-P600 X Canon Powershot S70

Duffel bag X X X

Book (optional) X X -

Space bag? - - X

Food
Clif bars, gels, and snacks for activity X X X

Mountain House dinners for 6 days (personal) X X X

Instant oatmeal 12 12 12

Ramen Noodles, assorted 6 6 6

Drink mix (group) - - Lemon-Lime Gatorade

Group Gear
Tent - Gavin's tent -

Tent stakes (pvc) - Gavin's stakes -

Tent stakes (aluminum flukes) - - SMC Mini-flukes

Shovel x 2 - Gavin's shovel BD Deploy 7

Stove MSR XGK Expedition - -

Fuel (4oz / person-day) (80oz) X X X

Stove accessories (windscreen, base, repair kit) Trillium base, windscreen - -

2-3 quart pot - - MSR Stainless 2L

Pee bottle - - Gatorade bottle

Rope - Gavin's 9mm 50m half rope -

Ice screws x 3 - X -

Snow fluke - - DMM Deadman

First-aid kit (moleskin, gauze, advil, bandaids, tape) - - X

Duct Tape - - X

Iodine/Chlorine Tablets - - X

Map X X X

Compass(es) - - Suunto MC-2G

Wands - - Bamboo Wands x 30

Avalanche Probe (for probing)? X (see Trekking Poles) - BD Carbon Fiber

Utility Cord - - 1.5mm and 3mm

Extra headlamp & batteries Ion + 6V - Tikka XP + 3xAAA

Toilet paper - - 1 roll

Contact lens solution - X -

Alarm clock (see GPS) - X

Mini-tripod? - - X

GPS/Altimeter Suunto X9 - -