Gannett Peak: Like Mt. Rainier, Only Better Different
By John Martersteck, HAMS Co-Director Navigating the summit ridge, shortly after sunrise. Photo by John Martersteck
For years the High Altitude Mountaineering School (HAMS) of the Colorado Mountain Club has headed up to the Cascade Range during the week of July 4th to climb one of the standard routes on Mt. Rainier, usually Emmons Glacier, as a HAMS graduation test piece. Although only a “Fourteener,” Mt. Rainier is a massively glaciated volcano in the Pacific Northwest that much more closely resembles a big mountain in Alaska than do our local Fourteeners here in Colorado. In recent years, we have also added an option of tackling the more technical Kautz Glacier route on Mt. Rainier. We feel that if our students can competently, confidently, and safely climb almost 10,000’ from the trailhead to the summit of a heavily glaciated and crevassed peak such as Mt. Rainier, they will be ready to take the next step and attempt bigger and higher mountains in Alaska and the ranges of South America. The Denver HAMS group typically chooses the week of July 4th to climb Mt. Rainier, not only to take advantage of the Independence Day holiday and thereby save a day of vacation, but primarily because the weather tends to be clear and stable, which has been a key factor in the long string of summit successes that our HAMS groups have enjoyed over the past years. Apparently, that strategy has become increasingly popular, and unfortunately this year our streak ended—not because we were unable to reach the summit, but because our camping and climbing permit application was rejected! To 34
Trail & Timberline
quote from the National Park Service (NPS) website, “Requests received in March, April and May could take up to six weeks to process because of the large number of applications. During this initial two week period (March 15-31) the Park will receive around 1,400 or more reservation requests.” Apparently this year the NPS could not accommodate our relatively large group of climbers during the week leading up to the July 4th holiday. With “Plan A” no longer an option, we had a few “Plan B” alternatives: 1) re-apply for a Rainier climbing permit later in the summer; 2) climb a different peak (or two)
in the Cascades, such as Mts. Baker, Hood, Adams, or Shuksan; or 3) climb a different peak somewhere else. Several HAMS students opted to join a 4th of July trip in the Cascades, led by senior HAMS Instructor Dave Covill, to climb Mts. Baker and Shuksan, while another group of six students decided to try something completely different and backpack into the beautiful Wind River Range in Wyoming to tackle the state high point, Gannett Peak. Although this high Thirteener—at 13,804’ it is 34’ higher than its more famous neighbor, the Grand Teton!—is not as glaciated or as crevassed as similar mountains in
