Primed and ready to go for the summit!

The Madison Mountaineering Mount Rainier team practiced glacier travel skills in preparation of the summit push ahead! Walking in crampons, traveling as a rope team, self arrest and more are essential skills needed for traveling on any glacier, and ones that the team will certainly put to use when they start their climb soon. After finishing up class, the team packed up camp and headed for Ingraham Flats – the next stop on their way to the summit. The team has had beautiful weather so far, and more of the same forecasted for the days ahead! Team leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from Mount Rainier:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Rainier (4390m/14,410ft) climb with Ed Viesturs – today is August 20.

Today, we did a little bit of snow school at Camp Muir (3105m/10,188ft) after we woke up. We practiced crampon technique, rope team travel, self arrest and other essentials for glacier mountaineering. Then, we hiked on up to Ingraham Flats (3383m/11,100ft).

The whole day the weather’s been really nice! Last night, there was no wind at Camp Muir. Today, we have clear skies above a broken cloud layer. And yeah, really beautiful views!

So right now, we’re just relaxing here at the flats. We’ll have dinner in a bit, and then we’ll wake up early in the morning for our alpine start for our summit push. It looks like good weather in the forecast tomorrow – low winds and ideal temperatures.

So, all is well here on Mount Rainier! We’ll be in touch tomorrow.

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

• Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1
• @terray_s