Summiting Mount Rainier

​After months of dreaming, training, and preparing, it was hard to believe the time had actually arrived. It was 5:45am, on a cool summer morning in Seattle, WA, and there I was, standing outside the Alpine Ascents headquarters on West Mercer Street, tossing my Osprey pack with everything I'd be carrying for the next few days, into the back of a decked out van that would serve as my transportation to the Mount Rainier National Park...