The morning of the 22nd started around 7am as everyone began to stir from the morning sun heating our tents into mini-bake ovens. The night had been remarkably warm, never even below freezing. The early-morning snow was still slushy from the day before, even!

Today was to be a short day in preparation for a long summit day tomorrow. After a hearty breakfast of hash browns and oatmeal (lotsa carbs!), the group assembled on the slopes beneath our tents for some quick review of glacier-travelling fundamentals; rope work, movement on snow/ice with and without crampons, self-arrest, self-belay and crevasse rescue. After that, it was packing time for the short move from Camp Curtis to the Emmons Flats.

The actual route for the day was a little less than a mile distance and about 1100 vertical feet. We hiked over the lip of the Wedge and down on to the Emmons Glacier, one of the most massive glacial formations in the lower 48 states. Travelling in 3 rope teams we hiked up the glacier, trending to the right around Steamboat Prow and evenually to Camp Schurman. Unlike Camp Curtis, Schurman has some real substance to it...a live-in shelter for a park ranger plus that rarest and most prized of attributes in the mountains...a bathroom! Moving off the snow onto the rocky outcropping where Schurman sits, the group un-roped for a quick bathroom break while the guides chatted with the ranger about the route, crevasse dangers, the local weather forecast and everything else we'd need to know. The toliet facilites were, well, pretty ripe, but certainly a welcome break from using a blue bag (for those who don't know, climbers are required to pack out everything...and I do mean everything! 'nuff said).

Looking inside the Camp Schurman shelter, it's a cozy affair...a bunk, a kitchen, and a radio are the prominent features, along with a small telescope (for watching the route) and a lot of books. I'm not sure what the length of a shift is at Schurman for the rangers, but from the looks of it, several days or more.

Finally, the last move to Emmons Flats, just a couple hundred feet above Schurman. Schurman is the traditional staging area for summit days, and the rocky shoulder is replete with camp rings as is the snowfield just north of the camp. However, many people opt to get that couple extra hundred feet of climbing in the day before. The Emmons Flats area is simply a large, flat platform in the middle of the Emmons Glacier. So flat only a minimal amount of work is needed to flatten space for tents. The real work is in building windbreaks around your tent.  There's nothing at all up here to break the flow of air, so a few feet of snow built up around the tent goes a long way towards keeping the winds down, especially at night.

After the short move to the Flats, camp was set up in no time, and we gathered 'round the kitchen (ok, a bunch of MSR stoves) for hot drinks and lunch). As the afternoon wore on, groups of climbers could be seen descending from the summit. The east side of Rainier took up 180 degrees of our view, and it wasn't too hard to see the route most parties were using...lots of traversing around crevasses and heaves in the glacier. Our guides shared with us the information that they'd gleaned from the ranger at Schurman, and that our route would be pretty much the same as the one we were seeing. It wasn't the most direct path to the summit, but certainly the safest. Our departure time the next morning would be 12:30am, with aim to be on the summit by mid-morning and back to camp by early afternoon to avoid any potential weather that might move in. Weather around Rainier (and most big peaks, in fact) can be unpredictable and violent, especially as the day wears on and weather patterns develop. Early climbs and descents are the key. Our team of guides also made suggestions for which gear to take, clothing selection and food selection.

Around 5:00pm it was time for dinner...a huge bounty of mac & cheese & turkey. Despite the fact it was broad daylight, everyone was in their tents by 6:00 and ready for an 11:30 wake aup call for summit day...

...on to Day 3