Mount Rainier

Working this weekend, so no training hike for me. Thought I'd put out a description of Mount Rainier instead. Love this one from Peakbagger.com

"Mount Rainier is perhaps the single most impressive mountain in the 48 contiguous United States. It ranks fifth in height, a tiny bit lower than California's Mt. Whitney (14,494'/4418m) and three Sawatch Range peaks in Colorado. And it ranks second to Mount Shasta in total volume for a single peak, and second to Mount Baker in volume of glacial ice. But no other peak has the combination of high elevation, massive bulk, and extensive glaciation--and Mt. Rainier stands alone in splendid isolation, with only 40 miles separating sea level at Puget Sound from its glacier-clad summit. No other peak nearby even remotely challenges its supremacy.

In most of the United States, a hike of 3000 vertical feet to the summit of a peak is considered about average; 4000 to 5000 vertical feet is considered a very long and extremely tiring trip, and anything above 6000 vertical feet is rare and devastatingly difficult. However, Mt. Rainier, by its easiet route, requires ascending 9000 vertical feet! (That's 2740m for you non-Americans.) This distance is the same as for the climb from advance basecamp in the Western Cwm to the summit of Mt. Everest."

Sounds awesome! 

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