Cameron and Doerte huddled out of the wind just below the summit at the register. It was hard to get out of the wind and stay warm while resting.

The Summit! 14,411'   Everyone is way too tired to celebrate too much!

Slowly we neared summit. The wind was like ice. We could only stop for a few minutes at a time to catch our breath, and then had to start again to ward off the cold. Finally the crater rim came into view! We were all silent as we focused on making the last few hundred feet, taking a breath for every step. At the crater, we crawled in below the rim to get out of the wind! There are several steam caves in the crater. Climbers that are forced to spend the night on the summit can crawl in one and stay warm. Cameron's orange was the hit. We all had slight altitiude sickness and weren't very hungry. The orange went down easy and revived us.

The true summit lies on the other side of the crater. Some parties come all this way and then don't make the true summit. The crater is large and as flat as a football field, and easy to cross. We enjoyed the summit and then signed the climber's register. The views were amazing! We could pick out all the big ones! Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson in Oregon. Mount Adams, St Helens, Glacier Peak, and Mount Baker were all easily seen. Seattle and Puget Sound were under a low blanket of marine clouds.

In the early days a party of Mazama climbers, upon reaching Mount Rainier's crater rim, noted a large black bear disappearing over the crest on the opposite side of the crater.

What a view! A short rest stop looking toward Leavenworth and Mount Stuart!

Things haven't changed much since John Muir stood on the summit 100 years ago! The view we enjoyed from the summit could hardly be surpassed in sublimity and grandeur; but one feels far from home so high in the sky, so much so that one is inclined to guess that, apart from the acquisition of knowledge and the exhilaration of climbing, more pleasure is to be found at the foot of the mountain than at their frozen tops. Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain-tops are within reach, for the lights that shine there illumine all that lies below. John Muir

The way down is long and tough. Climbers try to be off the summit early to avoid afternoon avalanche danger, open crevasses, and weak snow bridges. We arrived back at our camp on the Ingraham Glacier about 2 p.m. where we tried to get out of the hot sun, rest, and rehydrate.

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