Day 1 in the books!

Good evening,

Today was an excellent day, probably one of the best Ive ever had in the mountains. I thought Rainier would feel different since it's a mountain in the US, it's only 14,000 feet (and I say that relative to the other mountains Ive climbed), and its not really in a massive range, like Aconcagua or Elbrus. However, that's totally not the case. Ashford feels very much like the Cheget region in Russia - small town, little shops, climbers from all over the place, and people just mingling in general. I feel like I have left the country on a big expedition - one day in and I can already tell I will come back.

I saw the mountain briefly this AM when I left Seattle, but then it turned overcast. Now we are buried in the forest so you cant see the mountain at all - which always keeps the excitement high when you cant see what you will be climbing.

We began the day with introductions (guides and climbers) and as we went around the room of climbers we had to tell about our experience. Five guys on the team have never been on a major climb before, one has done Kili, and the last climber - a man named Willie and my tent mate - has climbed Rainier. So, this leaves me as the elder statesman of the group - kinda weird.

The team has 8 members, including myself, and they are from New Orleans (2), New York (2), DC, Charlotte, and Phoenix. Willie, ironically, is a Java Developer, the other guys are engineers, a golf course manager, finance professionals, and a surgeon.

We had crevasse rescue school this AM and, as I mentioned before, it was probably the most beneficial thing Ive ever learned on the mountain. Its interesting how you self arrest yourself out of "Blue Land," as they like to call it, by creating a bunch of knots and leveraging yourself to the surface. I definitely feel more confident now and that's one reason why I took the class.

After that, we did a major gear check and then did some ice climbing. The ice climbing was fun and much easier than regular rock climbing. We only did a small climb up a vertical wall of about 30 feet.

I got the satellite phone and pocket PC up and running and sent 2 test emails to the site, but they haven't posted yet. Ill try it again tonight, but I did get a "received" message from the satellite, so it may just take some time to hit the site. Ive lost almost all cell coverage, so I have until tomorrow to figure this thing out. If I do get the sat phone system working, the messages on summit day will probably be few and far between. It takes the system a few minutes to boot up and trying to use a stylus in the wind just isn't going to work. So Ill probably just keep making quick calls into Jess and she can post numbers as we get higher because the sat phone works fast. I will be able to post detailed messages though tomorrow night, Sunday night, Monday afternoon, and then after we return from the summit (assuming they post to the site).

So far I have been very impressed with RMI. The guides are very professional, yet flexible, very focused on safety, and have a good order to their program - you can tell they have done this a time or two.

Babu - you are missing a good trip! The mountain isn't the same without you.

We walk from here....

SZ