Crank      Rainier          1998

On June 6th, 1998, Pete Rieke set out to become the first parapalegic to climb Washington's Mt. Rainier.  Using a Snowpod, a device created by Mobility Engineering to allow individuals like Pete the freedom to achieve their dreams, Pete and friends undertook a nine day journey which ended just below the summit.  After days of hard work and tough weather, the team was turned back at 12,600' (less than 1500' from the summit) by a large crevasse field which was determined to be impassable at the time.  Although the summit was not reached, the trip was a great success in proving what a parapalegic like Pete can do given enough courage and the right tools.

The climb was covered nationally as well as on the world-wide web.
Peters personal story
Some of the many trip pictures
The transcripts from the Crank Rainier web site of the trip follow below:

Saturday (6/6) -  The Crank Rainier climb officially began just before 5am Saturday june 6th.  Pete set out from the Paradise parking lot (5500') along with Wreatha Carner, Chris
Coyle, and Greg Coffey.  There also were two park rangers and two reporters who came along for the first day.  The team followed the standard route towards Camp Muir and the morning weather was perfect. Greg Coffey turned back first so that he could return to his
post as basecamp manager. John Stang, a reporter for the Tri-City Herald, turned back a
short time later in the day. John is continuing to run a story following Pete's return to the mountains which can be found at www.tri-cityherld.com  The first challenge for Pete came when he reached the slopes of Panorama Point.  At this point 3 more members of the climbing team arrived.  Dean Nester, Dan Hansen, and Ray Erbeznik showed up carrying more of the climbing gear necessary to allow Pete to safely climb the roughly 40° slopes.  By noon, Pete was sitting above the slope.  A few more hours of cranking brought Pete to his first day's end.  His camp was set up at about 7200' near Pebble Creek.  So with 10 hours of cranking on the first day, Pete had climbed about 1700', leaving 7200' to go to the summit.  I unloaded the supplies I had been carrying and headed back down to basecamp.
 

Sunday (6/7) -  Pete and the team began at 3:30 am today.  The route took the team up the Muir Snowfield and 1900' closer to the summit.  Camp 2 was setup near Moon Rocks at 9100' around 2pm.  The weather on Sunday was bright and hot, making the snow soft for much of the day.  This made cranking the pod fairly difficult since the tracks tend to sink in. The Muir Snowfield is a very popular route, attracting hundreds of hikers a day, some of which climb while others are out only for a day hike to Muir.  Many hikers found their way over to Pete today, asking questions about the snowpod and wanting to know which route Pete was going to take to the summit.  So after two days the climb is going extremely well. "So far I am holding up well.  My arms were stiff and sore this morning, but feel much better this afternoon."  Tomorrow, Pete and the team should pass Camp Muir.  "Things get exciting after Muir."  Joining the climbing team today was Ira Hickman, Carl Jarvis, and Mike Poole. Sunday's porters were Mark Hoza and Dick Erickson.
 

Monday (6/8) -  After leaving Moon Rocks at 3:45am, Pete and the team reached Camp Muir (10,100') by 10:40am.  The dawn was bright and clear on monday but there were strong winds and some nasty looking clouds near the summit.  A few climbers on the mountain (not from our team) returned early today due to the strong winds.  "While we  could have moved on further, the next logical camp was too far to reach before the snow turned too soft.  Besides, we are getting ahead of our supply lines.  Much of the ropes and climbing gear is on the way and fuel is running low.  Todays porter hauls should solve these logistical problems."  The team took most of monday to rest and eat in preparation for a long day on Tuesday.  Ahead of them lies much more technical terrain, including the steep Cathedral Gap.  Some of the party spent monday scouting the route ahead and planning the technical logistics.  "We plan to reach the base of Disappointment Cleaver and perhaps head up the Emmons Glacier to near 11,000'.  This should put us in a good position for a two to three day summit bid.  Good weather, strong arms, and no mechanical problems should get us there. Tomorrow will be a major hurdle."  Charles Lewinsohn, Dick Erickson, and Mark Hoza were the porters for Monday.
 

Tuesday (6/9) -  Pete and the team left Camp Muir around 3:15am this morning and
headed up through Cathedral Gap.  Today was very warm and the snow started getting soft around 8:00am.  Even with the poor snow conditions, they made it all the way to Ingraham Flats before stopping for the day.  Pete is now at about 11,000' with the Disappointment Cleaver being the next obstacle they will face.  Tomorrow Pete will be taking a rest day.  He is still doing very well but has been "cranking" for 4 days now and wants to rest up a day before beginning the final push to the summit.  He still estimates about 3 more days of work lies ahead.  Today's porters were Dick Erickson and Taylor Woodward.
 

 Wednesday (6/10) - Ingraham Flats, 11,200'.  "Snow pod fixed.  Yesterday:  30 feet from Ingraham Flats, the left rear drive sprocket sheared its drive pins.  After a quick inspection, it was revealed that nothing short of parts from Base Camp could fix it.  The main problem would be to extract the broken aluminum coupler from the bottom bracket spud.  Mike Poole rigged a gear puller from ice pickets and with the application of heat from a stove, a bit of cursing, and a few good raps from an ice axe it came off.  Now all we had to do was to wait a day for the new parts to arrive from Base Camp.  What to do with a crankless, wasted day was a topic of group discussion.  I wanted to send a crew up and establish a camp near 13,000', but folks are tired, supplies are running behind us, and a couple of folks are ill.  We decided to run supplies from Muir and meet the four climbers coming up from Base Camp. The weather was sunny and hot on Tuesday, but turned to fog and snow overnight.  The snowpack never froze hard enough to even consider snow pod travel.  While most of the climbers went to Muir, Mike, Dan and I stayed behind, made water and did odd chores.  Ira and Ray got back from Muir at 2:30pm.  Mike had the snow pod fixed in 15 minutes.  Now we are back in operation but it is still much too warm and snowing.  The weather is supposed to clear up and cool but there is no sign of it yet.  During the late morning, 10 climbers, moving slowly, went up the Direct Cleaver.  Approximately one hour later, a huge serac slumped, its noise echoing off the cliffs, and cut through the climbing route.  It doesn't look like they have a route down now.  The climbers left late in the day and we hope the group leaders can figure out a way to get down."  Today's porters were Scott Freeman, Dave Pfund, Dave Blanchard, and Taylor Woodward.  All but Scott were continuing up to join the climbing party.  Dean Nester came off the mountain today and returned to Base Camp with Scott.  The job of portering was made more difficult today with the bad weather, it was raining most of the time at Paradise.
 

Thursday (6/11) - NEWS:  The Crank Rainier Team was not involved in todays avalanche on Mt. Rainier.  Members from our team were among the first to report the avalanche by Cell Phone but everyone in our party is okay.  Pete left Ingraham flats at 1:00am this morning while the snow was hard and crusty.  The team passed under Disappointment Cleaver, dropping a few hundred feet before climbing up on the Emmons Glacier.  The weather was sunny and hot most of the day and Pete stopped by noon at about 12,000' where camp was made.  The team has been taking avalanche precautions, including checking the snow's ability to slide by digging an avalanche trench and examining the layers of snow.  The team is above the freeze/thaw line and feels they are in fairly low danger from avalanches but with today's slide they are being that much more careful.  Pete plans on leaving camp early tonight, perhaps as early as 10:00 pm if the snow conditions permit it.  If all goes well, we will stay on schedule and summit this weekend, perhaps as early as Saturday.
 

Friday (6/12) - Today Pete made it up to 12,600'.  He began last night around 11:00pm and managed to crank through to about 10:00am this morning.  The going today was really difficult with fairly soft snow and steep slopes.  The team ended at a large crevasse which has a dam at one end they plan to cross tomorrow.  To cross at that point they first need to drop about 100 feet down the mountain and then move back up to the crevasse.  Hopefully, Pete will gain about 1,000' tomorrow and finally reach the summit by Sunday.  Everyone in the team is really tired but is looking forward to reaching the top.
 

Sunday (6/14) - Well I have just returned from being at basecamp all weekend and unfortunately the news I have is that Pete is coming down without having reached the summit. The decision was made yesterday by Pete and the rest of the team to turn back at just under 13,000'.  The team encountered a highly crevassed area which they determined to be too dangerous to continue through.  While they were able to find a path up through the field, utilizing natural snow bridges, they were uncertain that the same path would even exist in 2-3 days time when they needed to return.  The weather conditions had been very warm and the bridges didn't look very stable to begin with.  All of this plus the high winds and general fatigue of the team made continuing too dangerous.  "It's unfortunate that we didn't summit but we proved we can climb a mountain."  Early this morning the team began descending and by 10:00am everyone had safely returned to Ingraham Flats.  The plan now is to resume the descent tomorrow morning and hopefully make it back to Paradise by tomorrow afternoon. While not reaching the summit is always a disappointment, what Pete was able to achieve by climbing as high as he did on his own power made this endeavor a resounding success. Everyone in basecamp was proud of what we had been a part of.  "What's next?  A party of course.  To celebrate the safe return of our friends from a pioneering expedition of human achievement." - Greg Coffey -
 

Monday (6/15) - I have just heard that the team safely made it off of the mountain and held a press conference this afternoon.  I hope to get more details on that later tonight but the important news is that Pete will be featured on ABC's "Good Morning America" tomorrow (Tuesday, 6/16).  Pete will be doing an on camera interview from Paradise.