(The team on the summit of Mt. Rainier,
L to R Bob Rittenhouse, Greg Kimmel, Linda Soper, Bill Robins
and Paul Soboleski with Peter Rieke upfront on the Snow-pod)

This year's Crank Rainier was a huge success and everyone that helped deserves to be congratulated but especially Pete.  Way to go, you did it.  Everyone is so proud and happy for you.  The whole team would also like to thank the National Park Service for allowing Pete this opportunity to prove to the world just how far the human spirit can take you.

(Peter Rieke cranks over the last little slope as he speeds the tracks toward
the Paradise parking lot in Mount Rainier National Park after spending 13
days on the Mountain.  L to R Linda Soper, Bob Bass and Paul Soboleski pace
Rieke into the parking lot where they meet family and friends.)

Links to Pete in the news:

• Seattle Times
• Seattle Post Intelligencer
• Tri-City Herald
• Tacoma News Tribune
• Spokane Spokesman Review

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Follow the Crank Rainier Expedition day by day through the updates below:

On June 8th, Pete Rieke will once again begin an attempt to summit Washington's Mt. Rainier.  Along with many friends, Pete will climb "expedition style" over the course of two weeks.  Check this page daily to monitor his progress on this epic quest.
 

• June 8 - Pete began climbing late Thursday night and into Friday morning.  There was lots of debris in the Wilson gully making for rough, uneven, soft terrain.  It took the team longer than expected to reach camp 1.  It also snowed 6 inches overnight but the freezing level was down to 4500'.  The team will try to reach the ridge today.

• June 9 - Phil Ohl

"Saturday we (team 2 and team 3A) climbed with Pete from Camp 1 to an itermediate Camp 2 while Team 3B hauled freight and established higher camps.  The intermediate camp is somewhere around 8,200 ft on the lower Turtle Ridge above the east side of the Wilson glacier.  The weather on both Friday and Saturday was really poor.  Heavy snowfall, whiteout conditions with 15 to 50 feet visibility and around 25 deg. F.  The good news was that the snow was fairly cold, the bad news was that around a foot of new snow that fell Friday night made going pretty rough yesterday."

"We had some mechanical “issues” with the pod Friday night but we were able to take care of them Saturday morning with some help from Teams 3A and 3B.  Pete and the teams still on the mountain were all in terrific shape yesterday afternoon when we left him and the going on the ridge up to Camp Hazard (11,500 ft) should be straight-forward depending on the amount of new snow fall."
 

• June 10 - Nothing new other than the team continues to move slowly and the weather has not cleared yet.

• June 11 - Phil Ohl

"The weather today (Sunday) still hasn’t broken.  Pete made ~ 500 feet today in 10” of new snow and 40 mph winds.  They are still navigating by GPS with less than 50 ft visibility.  My look at weather satellites (http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/) doesn’t look all that promising for a big break over the next few days. Yesterday’s elevation estimate was off by about 500 feet.  TONIGHT they are camped at ~ 8,400 feet, about 1/3 of the way up the ridge to Camp Hazard.  The baseline schedule is for Pete to be at Camp Hazard tomorrow, but that is not likely."

"Teams 3A and 3B were all comming off the mountain tonight.  Some had already made it to Paradise by 7:00pm when I received the phone call with a status report.  The others were just crossing the Nisqually.
With the new snow fall and continued harsh conditions, we may be looking at some Team switching and adding more high-mountain climbers to Thur/Fri/Sat/Sun teams."
 

• June 13 - Phil Ohl

"Hooray, hooray - the weather apears to be clearing at least for a little while.  Pete and Team 4 moved up ~ 1,100 ft today to a camp at 9,500ft either just above or just below Turtle Rock.  They were able to move fairly well on wind packed snow slopes and expected keep moving tomorrow."

"At a late update this eveing, Paul Soboleski reported from base camp that two climbers who were 4 days overdue came through Pete’s camp and decided to stay the night.  Pete radioed down to basecamp who contacted the climbing rangers.  Presumably the families have been notified that all is well.  In other news, Team 4 lost a sleaping bag to high winds this afternoon.  We don’t have any more details but I’m sure there’s a terrific story in there somewhere."

"Weather over the next few days actually looks reasonable although Pete is pretty much in the freezing transition zone right now.  The freezing level is scheduled to go as high as 12,000 feet by Friday afternoon."
 

• June 14 - Phil Ohl

"Alright - yesterday was encouraging, today was discouraging.  Pete and Team 4 woke up to howling (read 60 mph) winds and rain/snow/slush.  One tent actually collapsed today but they were able to make repairs.  Team 5 (Robins, Certa, Soper, Carner, Hanson) left this morning and I believe are all camping with Pete at the 9,500 ft camp.  By the time Team 5 arrived, Team 4 decided that the weather was too lousy to move so they are spending ANOTHER bonus night on the mountain along with the two overdue climbers that wandered by camp yesterday afternoon.

The weather looks like it might improve tomorrow with freezing level dropping all the way to 6,000 ft and then climbing to 12,000 ft Sunday with clear and sunny skies."
 

• June 15 - Dave Blanchard

Thursday went well! Peter climbed 1100 ft in clear weather on good snow to reach 10,600 ft. He is just 800 ft below Camp 4 (Hazard). The current goals are: Camp 4 on Fri; 12,600 ft on Sat; 13,600 ft on Sun; SUMMIT MONDAY!!! Team 6 will leave early Friday morning to join Peter. The weather looks pretty clear through Tuesday at least, with the freezing level somewhere around 11,000 ft. Since the assault is taking longer than planned, Mark Easterwood is putting together a Team 7 to head up Sun AM to relieve Team 6.

Sobo (Team 6) was working with the NPS to arrange to get the overdue climbing couple down - no word on the status of that effort.
 

• June 16 - Dave Blanchard

Friday was a good day. Peter climbed 800 ft in clear weather to reach Camp 4 (Camp Hazard) at 11,400 ft. The snow was reported to be good in the morning, but to turn mushy in the afternoon - it took Peter about 9 ½ hrs to climb the 800 ft. The goals are still 12,600 ft on Sat, 13,600 ft on Sun, summit Monday. Team 6 helped Peter climb Friday. Mark Easterwood put together a Team 7A of 3 people who drove to basecamp Friday night and should be climbing to catch Peter this morning. Mark also arranged for a Team 7B to arrive in basecamp today and start climbing Sunday morning. I’ll be putting together a Team 8 that will be ready to climb Monday morning if needed due to any delay.

The National Park Service reports high avalanche danger. However, Peter’s party has not observed anything that appears unsafe. The freezing level has been high (12,000 - 13,000 ft.) and is expected to remain there through this (Sat) evening. A change is expected tonight, with winds building, clouds coming in and precipitation starting, and the snow level dropping to 8000 ft on Sunday. Monday looks cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon, with the freezing level rising to 9000 ft.  Tuesday looks similar (cloudy with clearing in the afternoon), with the freezing level rising to 10,000 ft. The drop in the freezing level bodes well (hard snow for Peter), provided the storm doesn’t dump too much new snow.

The climbing couple from Bishop CA who were overdue came down off the mountain Thurs AM. Evidently they ran out of wands just before making it to the summit crater on one of the bad days last week (high winds, low visibility). They pressed on to the summit, assuming they could find their wands by following the crater rim back around, but were not able to find them again. Given the severity of the weather they began to descend anyway, with the man, Dave German, leading. Before long he went over a small cliff (15 ft) and pulled his partner, Judy Rittenhouse, over (about a 50 ft slide/fall for her). This wasn’t too bad - the snow was deep - so they pressed on. Before long he fell in a crevasse, however, and pulled his partner downslope and OVER the crevasse to the other side. She arrested, and he was able to climb out. At this point, they decided it was time to hunker down in a snow cave and await better conditions, which they did (approx 13,000 ft.). The next few days were still pretty bad, but they were able to work their way down some each day, and eventually made it down to Peter’s camp at about 9,500 ft., below Camp Hazard. (Amazing that they found the chute back up to Hazard!) They were in reasonably good shape - Peter’s team gave them some food, but they were otherwise self-sufficient. The man had some frostbite on his hands and feet. Wreatha, who was (is?) a registered nurse, examined the man’s hands and feet when she arrived in camp. She told him there was good news and bad news, which probably made him rather nervous. But the good news was that the frostbite wasn’t that bad, and the bad news was only that they’d have to walk off themselves. They came down Thurs AM right behind Team 4 (Team 4 carried some of their gear). The Park Service met them on the Paradise side of the Nisqually and escorted them to the parking lot, where they arrived at 11:30 AM.
 

• June 17 - Dave Blanchard

Just got off the phone with Phil Ohl - Peter is doing great! He got down the gulley outside Camp Hazard and is making great progress back up toward the summit. He is reportedly at 12,600 ft! At this rate a Monday summit looks very possible. Teams 5 and 6 will be staying with him all the way to the summit. Teams 7A and 7B will now both be heading up Sunday AM. Team 8 may not be necessary.
 
• June 18 - Chris Coyle
HE MADE IT!!!!

I received confirmation from Phil Ohl at Paradise that Pete summitted Mt. Rainier just after noon today.  Congratulations to Pete and the whole team.  Pete plans on returning to his camp at 12,600 feet on the Kautz glacier today and should return to basecamp by Tuesday.  What follows is the official NPS press release:

Rieke Press Release Sunday June 18, 2000, 12:35pm.

The National Park Service and the Crank Rainier Expedition are pleased to announce the successful ascent of Mt. Rainier by paraplegic climber Peter Rieke.  The 43 year old Dr. Rieke, a research chemist from Pasco, Washington, began his climb on Friday June 8, 2000 from Paradise and reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 12:23 pm on Sunday June 18, 2000.  “Basecamp, basecamp – this is the, summit. . . We have done it!” was his call over the expedition’s radio frequency, as relayed from an expedition team member high on the mountain.

Rieke’s expedition was extremely well organized and comprised of over 40 experienced mountaineers who worked closely with the National Park Service. This was Rieke’s third attempt on Mt. Rainier.  He is the first paraplegic climber to successfully climb to the summit of Mt. Rainier under his own power.  Rieke used a hand-cranked “snowpod”, which he designed and built, to climb from Paradise across the Nisqually glacier and onto the Kautz glacier to finally arrive at the summit.

Rieke is expected to descend the same route and arrive back at the Paradise  parking lot sometime Tuesday evening.  He expects to spend Sunday evening at his high camp at 12,600 ft on the Kautz glacier.  More information on the Crank Rainier expedition and Rieke’s snowpod can be found at www.mobilityeng.com.  A spokesman for the expedition, Phil Ohl, can be reached at (509) 375-3374 or (509) 531-9749, or Chris Coyle at (509) 946-0262.

This information is also available on the park’s auto attendant phone line, (360) 569-2211, option 9, and will be updated as additional information is available.

Randy Brooks
Acting Chief Ranger
 

• June 19 - Phil Ohl

Well today was interesting.  Pete and the 5 climbers at 12,600 ft Camp 5 decided to sleep in until around 10:00am so they got a late start . . . .  which led to moving through soft snow . . . . .  which led to a sheared bolt on one of the crank gears which means slow going until we get a spare bolt to him.  Here’s where it gets interesting - our well organized expedition managed to send the box of spare parts home to the Tri-Cities with Sue Brain (Base Camp Hostess with the Mostess) in the trunk of Pete’s car last night.  We have made arrangements for the spare parts to go back to Mt. Rainier tonight and Dave Blanchard will figure out how to get the bolt accross the Nisqually glacier and up to Pete tomorrow morning.

The sheared bolt isn’t a dead-in-the-water part but it does significantly slow things down.  Current projections are for Pete now to arrive in the Paradise parking lot either Wednesday or Thursday afternoon.

George Waymire, Greg Kimmel, Paul Certa, and Dan Hansen are comming off the mountain late tonight leaving Paul Soboleski, Bill Robins, Linda Soper, Bob Rittenhouse, Mark Easterwood, Bob Bass, and Wreatha still on the mountain with Pete.

The plans for tomorrow (Tuesday, June 20th) are to have a 2:00pm radio press conference from the Paradise parking lot with Pete somewhere on the ridge along the wapowety cleaver.  Anyone interested in attending the press conference should check in with the Paradise ranger station before 2.  You may also want to check ahead of time with basecamp to make sure the schedule has not changed.  Basecamp is located in the Cougar Rock Campground at site B-19.
 

• June 20 - Chris Coyle


Well Pete got the pod fixed and made really good time.  He now expects to reach Paradise tomorrow (Wednesday) by 10:00am.  We will be holding a press conference at that time and anyone interested in talking with Pete should be there.  For more information feel free to contact me, Chris at 509-521-0351 or 509-946-0262.

One other note, it is becoming obvious that Peter's last name has a somewhat troublesome pronuncation.  The correct way to say it is Reike (REEKY), just like a leeky faucet.  Got it!

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Photos: copyright George Waymire