In 2001, I set my sights on climbing the Matterhorn. As a prep for the climb, I decided to climb Mount Rainier. I opted to do a guided climb of the less crowded Emmon's Glacier Route with Alpine Ascents (Class 4).

One of my guides was the sirdar of my Everest trek Lakpa Rita Sherpa. Lakpa is amazing. He has summited Everest 7 times and is the first Sherpa to climb/guide the 7 summits--not a bad climber to have on your rope!

The climb went really well. I learned a lot about glacier travel and negotiating crevasse fields. At 14 hours, It was also by far my longest summit day, and it gave me confidence that I was beginning to get the skills and stamina I needed for some of the climbs I had planned in the future.

We were blessed with perfect weather, and the view from the summit of Mt Hood and Mt Adams made me hungry to return someday to climb some of the other Cascade volcanoes.

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