Training for Rainier

[Dad Jokes]

This advice is GOLD! Thanks

[climbingcue]

We did Rainier June of 2024. I think the best training is on 13ers and 14ers in Colorado with days of 5k vertical. If you can do 5k vertical in a day at the higher elevations you should be in good shape to make a summit bid. Good luck and look forward to hearing about your trip.

[TheRealRooster]

On avy safe days in the spring/early summer, recommend some snow climbs. I haven't done Rainier, but some climbs I think would apply would be:

Whale's Tail (Whale Peak)
Cristo (Quandary)
Boudoir (Horseshoe)
Box Creek (Elbert)
Lost Rat (Grays)
Dead Dog (Torreys)
Snow Lion (Jasper)

These will get you on moderate to steep snow. If you're doing Disappointment Cleaver, Dead Dog and Snow Lion may be a bit harder, since those get close to 50 deg and summitpost reports that DC is only 35 deg.

And caution, a fall on these routes would be high consequence, and you should have avy training/gear. Rockfall is a risk...helmets.

There's also the glacier travel aspect, which you can only simulate in Colorado. St. Marys "glacier" could be a good place to demo that.

Are you doing Rainier guided or unguided? If guided, check with your guiding company about what training climbs they'd recommend in Colorado.

Done the DC twice and several of the routes mentioned. Cristo is a spot on recommendation, particularly given the vert you can get there. As noted, Dead Dog (and Lost Rat) are quite a bit steeper - particularly since you'll very rarely be bootpacking straight up the DC in the same way you might tackle a couloir climb. The route changes, but is generally set to be very friendly. They'd be perfect training though, as I'm sure the rest of these routes that I haven't been on would be as well.

My two cents - don't skip training the downhill. Stair steppers are great for the up, but completely neglect the down. 9,000' of descent never seems to end, and you don't have the option of turning around at that point... Most folks I've been with have been fine physically getting up, about half (maybe more?) were really regretting their training choices by the time we were leaving Muir for another 5,000' of descent! Make sure your boots fit and take care of your feet...

The other thing that people find difficult in my experience is the Cleaver itself, which is about 1,000' of scrambly climbing on mostly rock, sometimes snow covered, while wearing crampons. If you're with a guided group, you will not be given the option to remove crampons, and I wouldn't recommend it regardless. If that sounds uncomfortable and you have an opportunity to do some training going up and down class 2/very low 3 rock in wintry conditions in crampons, you'd probably appreciate that experience. I can't think of a great route or area though I'm sure someone else can. Much of Kelso Ridge would be pretty good since I'd say it's mostly class 2 really, but the cruxes and the knife edge are way more than anything you'll encounter on the Cleaver. All that said, it seems like that section is many folks first experience with crampons on rock, and everyone does fine. It's a comfort thing.

Last, running is great but make sure you spend some time carrying packs if that's not part of your normal activities. That gets a lot of folks who are in otherwise great shape.

Should be a great experience and would love to do it with my kids someday - enjoy!

[Ptglhs]

Which route are you taking? DC is shorter but that means more gain in fewer days. I went up via emmons. That was a moderate day, an easy day, a hard day, and then a long day.

Will you be able to use the boots to train that you are using to hike the mountain? If so, breaking them in, or breaking your feet in, will be useful. Try to put in days on spring snow with those boots and crampons. Direct gullies with low avalanche danger as has already been mentioned in this thread.