Mt. Ranier Basecamp

This year we have had a string of badluck when it comes to weather.  We had many planned trips over the course of spring or summer that had to change course due to weather.  But as always, you can't rely on the weather til July 5th around these neck of the woods.  But that hasn't always deterred our group. On july 1st a group of us were all set for a conditioner on Mt. Adams when the stormy clouds descended on Seattle.  Not wanting to drive the 5 hours to get rained out, this years group decided to get our first taste of the Mt. Rainier itself.  We arrived to Paradise to socked in weather that appeared to blanket the whole mountian. 

It appeared that it might not clear up, but after ascending into the abyss for several hours we broke out and got our first glimpse of the mountain itself.

As we ascended higher we were treated to amazing views and could see the tops off all the surrounding volcanoes.  Standing above the clouds that engulph the northwest is an experience in itself, and doing it while staring at the intimidating nisqually ice cliffs makes the whole experience surreal.

The whole group made it to Camp Muir, standing over 10'000 tall, which is the basecamp for many routes on the south side of the mountain.  In mid august we will be taking the emmons route up from the White river and seeing completely new terrain.

To get to muir you need to travel around 10 miles roundtrip and ascend almost 5000'.  This was certainly an eye opener for us all as next time we will be traveling with full overnight gear and need to conserve energy for the summit attempt.

About half of us opted to bring our skis up to enjoy some July skiing!

The weather seems to have turned and we have reschedule our Mt. Adams climb and also plan to climb Mt. Baker before the big ascent.

The Ascent

Foster is a special place. Each class and individuals has the chance to shape their experience and the experiences of classes to follow. This year I was a part of planning many firsts: the inaugural Foster Cup, pitting first and second years students against each other in activities ranging from flag football to chess; the birth of the Foster Foodies Club, with the mission of bringing students together through a love of food; the first annual Pacific Northwest Case Competition that brought together numerous MBA programs to compete in a 24-hour case competition; and, lastly, my own brain child – the Challenge for Charity Mt. Rainier Fundraising Climb.

            I spent the last 5 years dedicating most of my free time to climbing and mountaineering. It is a deep passion of mine, and I honed many of my leadership and teamwork skills in that environment. Coming into the program, I was determined to make an impactful change, and this was the area where I really felt I could add value. Many other MBA programs have guide run outdoor leadership opportunities; my vision was to create an organically grown Foster experience. What evolved was the chance to add a new fundraising avenue and develop business skills, while also attempting a climb of the lower 48^th most heavily glaciated prak and Washington’s tallest – Mt. Rainier. My idea quickly gained support from the administration and the rest was a matter of gardering a will from within the program to form a dedicated team and prepare a fundraising drive. The team was easy in that it self-selected itself. Once the climbing team was assembled, I set-up small committees to help with all aspects of the climb. The biggest challenges were in marketing the climb to get donations, and in creating a training plan to prepared the novice climbers for a physically, mentally, and technically challenging climb.

            Over the next 6 months, everyone in the Foster community was essential in helping the plan come to fruition; classmates that weren’t on the climb supported in countless ways including setting up fundraising happy hours and helping to teach mountaineering skills, and everyone on the climb sacrificed weekend after weekend for conditioning work and to learn the technical skills required. These months of hard work was set to culminate on July 4^th weekend, as we set forth to conquer Mt. Rainier.

            Until that weekend, the greatest parts of the journey had already happened: we formed close bonds with classmates, collaboratively incubated a stretch goal into something teal, and raised $7,000 for the Special Olympics and Boys and Girls Club that will help Foster in the upcoming year’s Challenge for Charity Competition.

By 6:30 pm on July 4^th, all eleven of us had reached the Mt. Rainier Summit. That intense moment of realization of what my extremely ambitious and slightly crazy idea combined with the Foster Community’s passion, determination, and collaboration had and could accomplish stands as my greatest moment out of the countless I have during all my mountaineering feats. This was far more than just a climb.