Team training for Mount Rainier

The rest of our climbing team arrived on Sunday, yay!  Leslie, Shaun, and John joined us at our "cozy cabin", an AirBnB in Packwood.  It was wonderful to see everyone, and I was stoked to be part of a 5-person rope stacked with experienced expedition adventure racers.

The group came in with a background in endurance events, climbing mountains, racing as a team, and working with ropes.  Things we needed to work out included the specific gear for mountaineering, roped-up travel, and crevasse rescue.  Oh, and schlepping a bunch of stuff uphill in big packs.  Happily all of us had time to take a couple days to get together and prepare.

On our way up to train in the snow (with some wildfire haze) on Monday - hello teammies!

Happy to take a break for photos along the way:

John trying an on-the-fly selfie:

Goofballs:

I always appreciate the great paths around the park, letting people climb all over the lower slopes for different views and experiences:

We set off cross-country toward the snow slope from my first IMG class a few days earlier:

Joining other groups for some crampon, self-arrest, and roped travel practice:

Steep snow travel practice, trying to remember the different techniques I'd learned (and I would end up using several of them during the climb, for variety to keep my feet happy):

I think this was called the Gorilla Step... or maybe I'm making that up:

Self-arrest practice; I should have gotten some video of John flinging himself downhill and eventually self-arresting, as he seemed to have the most fun during this session:

Gearing up to practice on rope.  We discussed the choice between 2 ropes (2 + 3 people) and 1 rope, and decided to deal with the somewhat awkward nature of 5 climbers on 1 rope based on our level of mountaineering experience.

The next day we spent quite a bit of time at the cabin going through the mechanics of crevasse rescue, but all I got was one photo of John taking a nap...

And now for some photos in random chronological order -

Planning session in the cabin:

Selfie with teammates  :)

Appreciating the waterfalls in the park:

Leslie's view of the mountain when she flew in Sunday morning - it's big!

Shaun and John decided to reinforce the walkway and deck at the cabin, of course if it makes them happy (this is actually after our climb):

A wonderful quote near the Mount Rainier visitor center:

An excellent start to a fun week!