>>1600212Spent a month at Ft. Lewis, WA (milfag) with two close friends for training during August ‘18. Grabbed a gang (5 Floridians, an Arkansan, and a Coloradan) and decided to hike up Mt. Rainier and back in a day on our last weekend. Packed our backpacks with snacks, water, and beer, and drove up to the welcome center. We all drank a can of beer before starting up. Trip up was relatively uneventful, great weather and not a cloud in the sky by the time it was late morning. Going from sea level to altitude fucking blew though, but we made it to Camp Muir at 4pm. Finishing the beer at the camp and stopping to eat it started snowing. The skies had immediately grayed and the temperature plummeted to well below freezing. We were the only ones at the camp in basic denim jeans, no hats, and wore only two layers (t-shirt and some sweater over it). We began to head back down the mountain, essentially mini-skiing on our worn out standard issued boots in white out conditions where we constantly had to stop and yell for others to make sure they didn’t go too far. It took us about 3hr or so to get down. On the way we met a Russian ski group that we saw heading up, also now descending on foot and they passed us by. Finally reaching greenery, we couldn’t find the trailhead back, but did find the Russians who were equally lost. Using my broken Russian skills we were able to communicate enough to find the trail and head back to the welcome center.
Looking back at it, shit easily could have hit the fan hard. We were often well off the tracks on our descent and were blessed enough that one of us had a working phone with GPS.
Pic related is on the descent. After spending my entire life in the suburbs, I finally found out what it was like to live.
