strider said:
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Don't stay at the public huts (Muir or Shermann). You won't sleep a wink with twenty other people cooking, snoring, and rolling into you all night. Use a good, 4-season tent and anchor it with deadmen. Be sure to probe your camp area for hidden slots before setting up, and don't leave this "safe area" without roping up. Despite what someone else wrote, there are ALWAYS hidden crevasses. It all depends on how much snow is covering them. Sometimes it's ten feet, and sometimes it's ten inches.
I'd agree with this. I used the public hut at Muir once on my first climb ever of the mountain. No sleep at all. On the Emmons route the Shurman hut is not public anyway, its used by the rangers. You can camp nearby or continue to Emmons Flats which is only a few more minutes.
On another trip in September or early October we had the Muir hut to ourselves. It may also have been a weekday. The season generally lasts until sometime in very October but traffic slows down a lot in September.
strider said:
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Don't carry any more than you need. If your pack weighs more than 55lbs, you're carrying too much, imho, even with all the climbing equipment.
This will vary with how many are in the group and the time of year. Be sure to be fully prepared for anything realistically possible given the weather forecast. But don't take anything extra either. One of the challenges of Rainier is that it is a multi-day high altitude endeavor and requires overnight equipment, climbing gear, and safety equipment.
strider said:
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Learn how to set snow anchors and practice crevasse rescue and the standard knots (figure eight, butterfly, Muenter's hitch, etc.). Learn how to set up a snow belay. You probably won't need this, but it's good to know in case you do. "Freedom of the Hills" is a good reference.
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Learn how to visually discern and probe for crevasses.
If you start to feel sick or dizzy, let the team leader know at once. A guy in our group collapsed in the crater. Found out later he was dizzy nauseas all the way up. Turned out ok, but could have been a very bad situation.
You shouldn't have any trouble on Hood, if you take the standard South-Side route. Gets a little steep above the bergschrund, but not too bad.
Ken
A decent class on glacier travel and crevasse rescue is adequate for climbing the standard routes on your own. But its best to have at least three people, many climbers underestimate whats involved in a party of two when one has to rescue the other single-handedly.
Reactions to the altitude are one of the common reasons not to make it, along with fatigue and weather. Don't push yourself too far - remember its also a long trek back down and even though downhill is easier it can get miserable if you have pushed too hard. And continuing despite feeling sick from the altitude can be dangerous.
Its easy to get hung up on all the potential problems, but its a pretty safe climb as climbing goes. Its good to be aware of possible problems but the number of people who are rescued, let alone die, on the common routes is very low considering the number of climbers. However, the success rate is probably about 60% or so. Guided or not.
Hood is much easier than Rainier and can be done in one trip from the parking lot. But in most years it goes out of condition by early to mid July. This depends on the snowpack. The snow and ice are the only things holding the "rocks" in place on these volcanoes and once it's gone the rockfall danger goes way up. On Hood the standard route has significant rockfall exposure later in the season. On Rainier the Emmons has very little and D.C. has some below and on the cleaver. The Emmons sometimes becomes impassible around mid-August when the crevasse openings make it too lengthy but in one recent year at least it remained climbable all summer and met the DC route up high.
You can get helpful information which is current just before your climb from the clmbing ranger. Most are pretty good and pretty helpful, especially on the Emmons.