July 15, 2014
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- A fresh and ready DC Team.
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- DC Team Showing off their packs.
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- A fresh and ready Emmons Team.
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- Emmons Team on the trail.
For over 40 years now JanSport has had a presence on Mt. Rainier, and this year is no different! The annual JanSport climb is in full swing right now with one team over on the Emmons Route and the other on the DC route.
Austin Shannon is at the helm of the Emmons team and after a nice (hot) day on the Inter Glacier yesterday, they decided to wake up nice and early today to beat the heat. They did and are already at Camp Schurman. They’ll enjoy some R &R for the next few hours, eat an early dinner, then get to bed. They’ve got a long day ahead of them tomorrow. Camp Schurman sits at 9500ft which makes for a ~5000ft uphill summit day… and if you’re doing the math right that’s ~5000ft downhill as well!
On the other side of the mountain is the DC team led by none other than George Dunn. These guys enjoyed a couple nights at the Paradise Inn, a mountain day school yesterday and a nice buffet breakfast before putting the packs on this morning for their hike up to Camp Muir. George reports from the Muir Snowfield that all is well. Once at Camp Muir they’ll have one of the best burritos on the planet in the IMG Weatherport, then get a good nights sleep. Tomorrow they’ll move up to the flats and summit from there on Thursday.
If all goes as planned both teams will arrive here at IMG Thursday afternoon for a celebratory Rainier Beer with JanSport founder Skip Yowell!
Tye Chapman