BronkasBlog: 2013-07-14

After months of preparing for the summit, the day finally arrived on Tuesday, July 16. Our climb was to begin about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday then summit on Wednesday, July 17. Our guides met us at the Paradise parking lot at 7:00 a.m. Seth and Solveig were our guides.   They are a wonderful couple. They were so gentle with Bronka as they led us up the trail to Camp Muir.   We arrived about 1:30 p.m. Our guides showed us the tent we would be staying in. After putting all of our stuff in the tent, Bronka immediately rested and fell asleep.   She did not even want to take her boots off, but I had her take them off and put out her sleeping bag so she could sleep better.   Right before her nap, we had a pleasant surprise as her doctor's husband, Gordon, came over to give Bronka a note from her doctor, Jane Olson.   It was an encouraging note.   Bronka was surprised to hear that Gordon was also planning to summit, with with another guide company, but not until Wednesday night to Thursday. This really made Bronka happy so see him and to receive the note, that was so encouraging. What a wonderful doctor she has.

About 4:00 p.m. Seth and Solveig brought us a nice warm dinner.   They also brought us hot water, which Bronka loves to drink. So thoughtful of them. After dinner, I read a story to Bronka from Guideposts, which she enjoyed.   Then I told her she needed to get some rest and sleep.   That about 11:30 a.m. we were going to get woke up for our climb. Later in the afternoon the clouds started to come in. Before going to sleep for the night, I headed to the restroom, there were many climbers coming into Camp Muir after summating Mt. Rainier.   Friends of theirs were cheering for them.   Then it started to shower. I was surprised as I did not think there was going to be any rain. By the time I got back to the tent it was raining. That was a surprise.   Bronka and I went to sleep and about 11:00 p.m. it really started to rain, with wind and thunder and lightening.   Our guides came to see us about 11:30 p.m. and told us that they would wait for the rain to stop as they would not lead a climb in the rain, as it would be too dangerous. Bronka and I agreed.   There was a lull in the weather, so our guides told us to get ready about 2:00 a.m. We could also hear a group of climbers getting ready to leave. Seth was helping Bronka put on her crampons, then the rain started.   Bronka came inside the tent when we then heard the thunder and saw the lightening.   We heard the climbers come back.   The wind picked up as well as the thunder! It was really scary. It seemed as if our tent was going to blow away.   It also seemed as if the lightening was outside our tent it was so bright and thunder so very loud!   Seth and Solveig would come over to check on us and tell us that we would have to wait for the storm to stop.   Well it did not stop until 4:00 a.m. which was too late to start the climb.   Bronka and I were okay with it as we wanted to be safe.   No group climbed the mountain, it was too dangerous. Those group of climbers started again after 4:00 a.m. when the weather got better, but came back an hour later as the thunder and lightening began higher up.   They were from Washington D.C.

I was sound asleep when I heard Bronka wake me up about 7:30 a.m. to ask if I was asleep. ha! I told her I was, We chatted.   The sun was out, but when I went out of the tent it was still windy.   So Bronka decided she needed to go to the restroom, so she left and did not come back for quite awhile.   I thought she was visiting as she loves to meet people.   When she came back, she said she got lost and could not find the trail back to our tent. She had asked a guide how to get to the tents and she misunderstood and started down a trail near the tent we were staying and and finally found it.

We got all packed and left to go back to Paradise about 9:00 a.m.    It was still pretty breezy, but sunny. We could see the cloud cover over the valley. As we descended, Bronka ran into many people who recognized her. She truly is the queen of the mountain! And highly admired. Bronka is such an encourager.

Bronka also ran into her dear friend, Elaine and her daughter and a friend. Bronka was so happy to see her.

After giving our wonderful guides, Seth and Solveig big hugs we left for home.    We were met at Bronka's home by Ken and Bill.   There was a nice dinner at the Wild Berry Restaurant with her friends. Bronka was happy to see many of her friends there.   Bill gave her a wonderful picture of her and her attempt to summit Mt. Rainier. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful two day attempt of Mt. Rainier.   Bronka said she was retired! Ha! we will see!