Mukilteo Scouts scale peaks in Washington, Oregon

Published 11:14 pm Monday, July 21, 2008

The summit of Mount Rainier was only 1,000 feet above, hidden behind the cloud Chris Carey was climbing through — but he couldn’t believe it.

He felt terrible.

One step at a time, Carey and his group of climbers battled gravity, the freezing air and their aching bodies as they slowly ascended Washington’s highest peak.

One of the climbers from the Mukilteo-based Scout group had just turned back. The others, Carey included, had thoughts of doing the same.

Carey’s boots were leaking, and his feet felt frostbitten. Beneath his heavy jacket, he was sweating. His sweat was freezing against his skin.

“But my mind said, ‘You’ve got to do this, it’s something you have to do,’ ” Carey said.

He did.

The group of three Scouts and four adult leaders reached the 14,411-foot summit about an hour later, thrilled and exhausted and ready to go home.

The group climbed to the top of Mount Hood, the highest point in Oregon at 11,249 feet, less than two weeks earlier.

“They can do anything they want to, anything they put their mind to,” said John Adams, an adult Scout leader who climbed the mountains with his son, Eagle Scout Bryce Adams. “That’s the whole purpose. It’s not about mountain climbing.”

The climbers were part of Crew 7, a group affiliated with Boy Scouts of America Troop 7 in Mukilteo.

Each year, members of Crew 7 embark on a different adventure. Sometimes it’s hiking, sometimes it’s whitewater rafting. Once the crew paddled kayaks for 100 miles.

To reach Oregon’s and Washington’s highest points was the group’s most ambitious goal yet.

“These guys are an exceptional bunch, and we have people in our leadership who are experienced mountaineers,” John Adams said.

The Scouts trained for months to prepare for their climb up Mount Hood, which they treated as a practice run for Mount Rainier. Crew members went running and hiking, practiced on climbing walls and carried heavy backpacks up hills near their homes. They learned to use climbing equipment, cooked on backpacking stoves and practiced tying knots that could save their lives.

They climbed Mount Hood during two days in late June, spending the night in a base camp at 9,000 feet.

One of the adult leaders on that climb, Brendan Gates, didn’t make it to the top. Gates, 18, of Mukilteo, was struggling with asthma and stayed behind at the base camp.

“Up until that point, I had never really reached a point where I just couldn’t go any further,” said Gates, an avid outdoorsman who has endured 50-mile hikes. “It was something else to me.”

Nine days later, the crew was climbing Mount Rainier. The group for the three-day climb included four adult leaders and Scouts Carey, Bryce Adams, Calvin Jaung and Nathan Jenkins.

The climbers felt the mountain’s might immediately. Altitude made breathing difficult and also made some of the Scouts queasy. By the first night, their bodies felt depleted.

“With Rainier, you just run out of energy after your first day,” said Bryce Adams, 17. “You really have to rely on your friends to motivate you to get up.”

The second day was easier, and the crew made camp that night at roughly 11,000 feet elevation. By 7 p.m., they were in their tents for the night.

They rose at midnight for their summit attempt. Donning warm clothing, crampons, helmets and headlamps, they tied into climbing ropes and carried ice axes.

They trekked around crevasses and blocks of ice the size of houses. Overhead, the stars stood out in the still night sky.

“You’re leaving at 1 a.m. and you can’t see anything, except for what your headlamp shows,” Adams said.

With 1,000 feet of climbing still to go, the crew was hiking through a layer of clouds when Jenkins, who also has asthma, could no longer continue. With help from an adult, he turned back for camp.

For the others, doubt set in.

“It started really messing with our heads,” Carey said. “(Our leaders) were telling us we’re almost there, but we didn’t want to believe them. We couldn’t see anything.”

But soon after, the group emerged through the cloud cover. The edge of the mountain’s crater loomed above them.

Beyond that was the summit.

“I just wanted to sprint and get up there as fast as I can,” Carey said.

Hugs were exchanged at the top. The Scouts snapped photos and signed their names in a log book stored in a small wooden box between heavy rocks.

Back at the trailhead, Brendan Gates was among the people waiting for the climbers with watermelon and root beer floats.

The Scouts were ecstatic and exhausted.

They removed their shoes and socks, stretched out on the pavement and took a well-deserved nap.

They had done it.

Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.