Geoff Climbs (on) Mt. Rainier

Yeah, okay, so we haven't updated the blog in six months. We have 4 children and about 4 minutes of spare time each week. But now we're finally catching you up on the last six months, mostly in photos, which is usually the best part anyway. Geoff's supposed to be finishing his big paper right now, so Melody is stepping in to blog. (This is my first blog, so be kind.)

So at last update, we were in the middle of June.

At the end of June, Geoff's father Garry celebrated his 60th birthday by climbing Mt. Rainier. He brought Geoff, two friends from L.A. who flew up for the event, and a newbie climber from Geoff's office. Turns out, no one from the team made the summit--too much new snow made the final assent impossible to all but one ambitious team that weekend. Both Garry and Geoff have summited Mt. Rainier in summers long past (see Geoff's previous blog on Rainier). Another summit would have been icing on the cake, but the views were awesome, and there were only minor injuries requiring just a few stitches. So, all in all, a successful event.

Garry celebrates his 60th birthday by climbing Mt. Rainier.

Allen and Dave, friends from L.A. flew up for the climb.

It's all up hill from here.

Newbie climber, Michael leads the rope team up the slope.

Here, I'll digress. While a marathon runner and thrill seeker, Michael had never been mountaineering. And since he was in Washington on an internship with the JAG office, he didn't have all his equipment with him. So Geoff and I loaned him what we had, my backpack, my harness, my carabiners, my sleeping bag, etc., etc. Geoff pulled all these things out of our basement and Michael stuffed them into my pack for the trip. The first night they camped at Glacier Basin. Garry, Michael and Geoff shared a tent, and while they were setting up, Geoff pulled out his sleeping bag only to find Dustin's orange bag with blue stars and moons. "Um, Michael. Pull out your sleeping bag for me," said Geoff. Michael dutifully pulled out his bag to find Megan's purple bag with hearts and flowers. Now, Geoff's a bit vertically challenged, so he was able to squirm down into the 3/4 length bag (which at least was rated to 20 degrees), but Michael is 6'2" tall and a barrel chested youth. The bag came up to his rib cage. Michael had to sleep in his coat all night, and since the bag was so narrow, he couldn't bend in the bag and had to be zipped in for the night by Geoff and Garry.

Geoff's snowman at Camp Sherman. He and Garry decided to forgo a punishing attempt at the summit in deep new snow and let Dave, Allen and Michael kick steps all day. It was a gorgeous day.

During the descent, the team was met at Glacier Basin by a bear (brown smudge across the lake).

Garry took a nasty fall on the way down and had a large gash over his right eye. Dave is a mountain rescue type, and had the uber first aid kit and the know-how to patch him up for the remaining descent. Michael and Allen ferried Garry's pack down the rest of the mountain, and Geoff stayed with Garry to make sure all was well. Dave had a nasty limp most of the way down--knee pain from kicking steps into new snow for what seemed like hours and hours. So Geoff took all the heavy climbing equipment from Dave's pack to help ease the weight on his knee. Once they got back, Garry's cut needed stitches. Our neighbor, Michael, is a family practice doctor who opened his office on a Sunday to get Garry stitched up.

Everyone else escaped only with sore backs and chaped lips.