1988-1995: The Training and the Test
The mountain’s changing conditions, technical terrain and unpredictable weather make it a far more serious objective than the Lower 48’s other “Fourteeners.” It’s no wonder Mt. Rainier has been an invaluable training ground for generations of mountaineers who plan to climb higher and harder.
Climbers like Ed Viesturs, the first American to climb all fourteen 8000-meter peaks, climbed extensively on Mt. Rainier. The mountain played an important role in the early careers of other famous alpinists such as Mark Twight, Conrad Anker, Willie Benegas, Melissa Arnot Reid, Willi Unsoeld, Lou and Jim Whittaker and countless others over the years. For me, Mt. Rainier was both the training and the test…. My most memorable, and indeed most life-changing, ascent of Mt. Rainier was my third, which, I’m embarrassed to admit, is also a survival story.
