Climb of Mount Rainier via the Disappointment Cleaver Route

I successfully summited Mount Rainier via the Disappointment Cleaver route (DC route) through RMI Expeditions from July 19th - 23rd, 2019. Our guides were highly experienced and very professional. Though the winds were elevated on our summit attempt, our guides gave our strong climbers the option to push through the weather to reach the summit even though every other group on the mountain turned around.
My one recommendation is to do the 5-day trip (which I did), not the 4-day trip. The 5-day trip provides 2 potential summit days. Because of that flexibility and the weather forecast, our group chose to summit a day early and that proved the difference-maker. Another group on a 4-day trip that attempted to summit on our originally scheduled day was turned around due to high winds. For one poor dude, that was his third failed attempt!

[@theclimbingcadillac]

This was my first Rainier Climb! Thanks for sharing.

[@coolroad79]

Your videos are super easy to follow. Got back the Rainier excitement. Come 2021 !

[@BHarker75]

Thanks for the comment and good luck on Rainier!

[@stipcrane]

Ha ha! Rainier Beer! I did that 35 years ago. Pretty old tradition. I drank mine earlier, though. Maybe at Camp Muir cuz I absolutely could not get to sleep.

[@BHarker75]

I didn't have it in me to make my pack even heavier by lugging the beer up the mountain! Good on you :)

[@1121gsm]

I really like your videos. I've done Kili, Mt. Everest Base Camp, and Inca Trail to MP. Now I would like to do Rainier. I have a few questions if you have a little time. What do you do with all that gear when you summit? Surely you don't take it all to the summit. Did you use crampons or Yaktrax (or anything else) to go up the Muir snowfield? In your Aconcagua video you mentioned that you joined "the old man's group." I'm 72 and I'm betting I'm a lot older than you (and not in as good shape). Did you have any really old men in this climb (and did they make it)? Thanks for this video and I'll be watching some more of you very informative and entertaining videos.

[@BHarker75]

I just climbed Rainier again a few weeks ago with a couple friends and here's what we did. Regarding gear, the main stuff (tents, pads, bags, stoves) stay at camp. Within the team, however, we want some emergency gear so we bring up 1 foam pad, 1 sleeping bag, 1 emergency bivy, and 1 stove (enough to survive an unplanned overnight). Every team member is carrying crevasse rescue gear (cords, carabiners, microtraxion, tibloc, picket, etc.). We only used crampons after Camp Muir - we didn't use any traction going up the Muir snowfield. On my Aconcagua trip we had one guy in his early seventies who turned around at camp two (18,400ft) where we got weathered in for 4 days. We also had one guy in his sixties who turned around with me at 21,000ft. For both of them, this was their second attempt. Aconcagua is a big, tough mountain. Thanks for the comments and questions!

[@1121gsm]

@@BHarker75 Thank you very much for your comprehensive reply. I'm not too concerned about the altitude--we just went form sea level to 14, 440 in Colorado the next day. But my legs and feet do start to hurt a bit. Thanks again.

[@isaacfox4222]

Great job man!

[@BHarker75]

Thanks!

[@ed8848]

Better to intriduce the summit view around as you did in Adams

[@BHarker75]

I'll try to do a better job with that. Thanks for watching.

[@alexjones4303]

Approximately how much would you say the entire trip, gear, guides etc costs roughly? Thank you!

[@BHarker75]

I would estimate around $3k for the trip, guide tips, and gear rental if you don't have any gear.

[@iswatman]

At the 5:32 mark there is a guy laying face down in his tent with his head out almost touching the snow. What happened?

[@BHarker75]

He was just poking his head out of the tent to hear better. I thought it looked pretty funny!

[@iswatman]

@@BHarker75 I was looking for blood or vomit. LOL

[@Richhays]

Great video! You changed us from a four day team to a five day team. May I ask, what program did you use for the time and alt that shows on video?

[@BHarker75]

Thanks. Good choice switching to 5 day trip. I use PowerDirector by Cyberlink to edit my videos; the time & altitude is just a custom title overlay I made right in the program.