Route Information

From what I can tell, the climbers are taking the Emmons Glacier route. This is the second most commonly used route to summit Rainier. You can find information about it and see maps of it here: link

The most common route is the Paradise route, and although I've only done a few hours on the mountain, that's the way we went. As a result, I can do very little of the filling in of details here, and we'll have to hope for emails from the climbers.

I do know this (from bits and pieces during dinner yesterday). Short day today. Long day tomorrow, with the steepest climb of the trip (and with most of their weight from food and fuel still on their backs). Wednesday is mostly a rest day. They'll wake up to summit around midnight on Thursday morning, get up there and back down to camp by midday-ish. The good news about Thursday is that since they'll come back down to the same camp for the night, they'll travel very light. They'll mostly travel with camel-backs and food. So they'll sleep the night Thursday and descend on Friday.

From what I can tell, this plan provides a ton of time so that they can pace it slowly if necessary. It's in the realm of possibility that they'll get down a day ahead of time if things go swimmingly.

That is all, because I really know nothing. Also, I'm painting the house this week, and I've quickly decided that I hate house-painting.