Review: Rainier Mountaineering Inc.

If you’ve ever thought of climbing Mount Rainier, chances are you’ve heard of Rainier Mountaineering Inc. (RMI). The company has been guiding clients up the mountain since 1969 and until somewhat recently was the only game in town. Even today, the company guides the vast majority of the people that climb Rainier every year.

Figuring the most experienced people were the ones to go with, we signed up for RMI’s 4 day summit climb. The name is a bit of a misnomer since the climb itself is really only 2 days. One ‘day’ is taken up by a 2 hour meeting at the RMI base camp. Another day is spent at a ‘mountaineering day school’ learning basic glacier travel and safety.

So what exactly do you get for your $926 at RMI? Well, you get a guide to lead you up the mountain and a night at RMI’s hut at Camp Muir. The guides will also provide a rope and their own technical gear, but you’re on your own for the rest. You are on your own for transportation from the airport, 2 nights accommodation in Ashford, WA, all the food you’ll need to eat, and all the equipment you’ll need to bring.

The equipment list is fairly standard for a mountaineering expedition aside from the recent addition of an avalanche transceiver and RMI’s relationship with the people over at Eddie Bauer’s First Ascent line. If you don’t want to buy anything yourself, RMI is more than happy to rent you all the gear you’ll need ($598.29 including tax to rent everything + ~$10 for rental insurance), or any articles that you don’t have yourself.

If you don’t want to bring your own food with you to Ashford, they’ll also prepare bagged lunches for the climb and meals in town for an additional $125. Unsurprisingly enough, the company also has a ‘bunkhouse’ as part of their base camp for you to stay. If you want your own room, rates were $115/night as of this review. If you just want a bunk, they’ll charge you $35/night.

So all told (if you want RMI to do everything for you), the total cost of a 4 day climb is about $1900. Certainly not a small chunk of change, but the price does come down if you bring at least some of your own gear. Fortunately for me, I have all my own climbing gear, brought my own food, and live 2 hours from Ashford. So, I paid for just the trip itself.

Day 1:

What RMI considers the first day of the trip starts at 3pm at the RMI base camp. You meet inside the ‘summit haus’ for quick introductions to the rest of the people on the trip, one of your guides, and a quick overview of what you’re going to be doing for the next 3 days.

In my case, Brent Okita was the head guide for our trip. Brent is about as experienced as it gets on the mountain. With over 400 summits of Rainier under his belt, he can probably climb it in his sleep at this point. This also doesn’t include ascents of Denali, Everest (’91), Vinson, and a multitude of other mountains. Needless to say, he’s an established mountaineer.

Brent took us through a fairly quick slide show of pictures on the mountain and a 30 second overview of the route. He briefly mentioned that we may have to use a ladder to cross one crevasse but it was wide enough for you to stroll across and that it was about 3 feet wide and spanned a 2 foot gap. He also talked about what could cause us to turn back or call off the climb all together. The trip that was attempting to summit the day before had turned back due to wind. Brent said that the maximum they would operate a climb was 50mph winds.

After introductions and the slide show was out of the way, it was time for the gear check to make sure everyone had what was on the list. This was the point that it became fairly apparent that the company tried to push their First Ascent gear whenever possible. Brent asked everyone to pull out their down jackets so that he could check them out. I pulled out my Marmot down jacket, which passed his apparent test. Brent didn’t like Sarah’s Mountain Hardwear Sub Zero SL jacket, claiming that it was too light and that she should rent one of the First Ascent jackets they had in the shop. Two other men on the climb had the Male Sub Zero jacket, which for some reason passed his test.

Later on Brent didn’t like that we wanted to climb in hard shell pants; saying they were too hot and were dangerous on glaciers since they’re ‘slicker’ than softshell pants. I personally like to climb in hard shell pants and tend to vent the top half of my body. This way if the weather turns I don’t have to awkwardly put on hard shell pants while trying to stay clipped in to the rope. Additionally, my Arc’Teryx bibs have fairly generous vents that allow me to climb in pretty hot temperatures. This was apparently completely unacceptable. Over the next 2 days, Brent would bring up this issue a total of 5 times. To keep the peace, we eventually relented and rented the First Ascent hard shell pants he insisted on and said we would do the climb in our soft shell pants.

After a few more incidences of Brent not liking gear that met the requirements on RMI’s list, the gear check eventually ended. We all retired to our respective hotel or drive home and would meet again in the morning.

Day 2:

The second day starts at the RMI base camp where the 9 people on our trip met for the shuttle over to Paradise where the class is held. Brent came over and introduced the second guide that would be on our trip, Thomas Greene. He’s fairly new to guiding in general and this was his first summer at Rainier. However, he seemed to be on the ball and was very personable.

After the second round of introductions were over, we all piled in the bus and headed over to Paradise. From there we put on our packs and Brent led a march about twice normal hiking speed out to where we would take the class. From what I heard later on, this was a test to make sure everyone was fit enough for the climb.

The class itself went over most of the standard material. Brent went over a basic introduction to mountaineering including basic steps, rope travel, self arrest, crampons, etc. Really the only things I could complain about the class itself is that there was no mention of knots or crevasse rescue (aside from mentioning to avoid them), and an extreme over-reliance on the nonsense that is pressure breathing. The guides did however cover self arrest quite well.

The one thing that did piss me off though was during the rope travel section. Brent was having us demonstrate how to manage the rope during switchbacks and said that the rope should never stop moving. Sarah asked if this also included if we were going over a crevasse, since we were probably going to have to cross over the ladder he had mentioned the previous day and she probably would have to slow down for that. I said that since you’re roped in, you can really only go as fast as your slowest member. So, we’d probably have to slow down. Brent replied “Well, that may work for The Mountaineers, but that’s not how we do it at RMI.” This was only one of several times I would realize that Brent or RMI may be sacrificing at least a bit of safety for getting as many people through their trips as possible.

After the class was over, it was back to the RMI base camp and we were on our own again for the night.

Day 3:

The third day is the first actual day of the climb. RMI has the group meet at their base camp at a relatively late time of 8:15 AM, meaning it’s around 9:30-10AM by the time you actually start hiking to Camp Muir from Paradise. This is also when you meet the third and final guide on the trip. In our case this was Chris Bamer, a math and science teacher in Issaquah, WA that has been guiding during the summers for the past 6 years. He’s also a pretty accomplished climber in his own right. This was to be his last guided trip for the season, after which he was leaving to climb in the Tetons with a climbing buddy.

After a third set of introductions, we headed up to Paradise again to begin the actual trip. We started the hike up to Muir in the middle of the clouds and hiked for the next hour to RMI’s first scheduled stop where we would rest for 15 minutes. Come to find out, thanks to the large group size, late starting time, and massive number of people the company puts up the mountain every year, there is zero flexibility in the schedule. We were only allowed to stop for water or clothing adjustments during the scheduled stops and since Brent had yelled at us for including an insulated Hydration bladder in our packs during the equipment check, there was no way to hydrate more than hourly.

This wasn’t a gigantic issue for the first two hours of hiking since we were deep in a cloud and the weather was fairly stable and cool. However, this became a gigantic issue as we started to get out of the clouds. Right before you get out of the clouds, it tends to get extremely hot and humid since the UV rays can penetrate the cloud and the humidity is already extremely high. Since I was still wearing my soft shell jacket from earlier, I began to overheat quite a bit. We were told that we could step out of line if we had to, however they weren’t going to stop the group so we’d have to catch up. This meant that unless you were already at the front of the line and could stash your clothing in an already full pack extremely quickly, you had no choice but to continue the hike. One woman on our team got so desperate she started eating snow, which Brent yelled at her for, but still refused to stop the group to hydrate. Sarah was also having some dehydration issues at this point.

We eventually made it to the next stop where I immediately shed my soft shell and drank about a liter of water. We continued on and started coming out of the clouds. Thanks to the required pace though, no one really even got a chance to look around since you had to watch the person in front of you for where to your own feet.

This entire day was completely different than a previous mountaineering trip I had taken to the Cordillera Blanca with Skyline Adventures. RMI’s large size and maximizing the number of people they take up Rainier comes at the severe expense of the experience for their clients. Frankly, RMI has taken all the fun out of Mountaineering for the sake of the dollar. I truly feel sorry for those whose introduction to the sport is through an RMI climb of Rainier. All they will see is a grueling day up hill that is far more uncomfortable than it need be. There is no reason RMI can’t adjust their schedule to accommodate a bit more leeway in the timing of the climb to Muir.

After another hour of hiking we stopped for our final stop. This was the first time in the climb that I actually had any time to take a picture. We all packed back up and made the final push to Muir. At this point we were joined with another group of climbers on a 5 day climb and their guides for a total of 18 climbers attempting to summit from RMI the next morning. We were given about 45 minutes to get settled in and unpack before Brent came in to talk to us about the next day. He spent an hour going over what we would need in the morning and assigned rope teams.

Brent also mentioned that the weather forecast wasn’t looking great, but that they’d monitor it for changes. I asked how high the winds were expected to be and Brent danced around the question without answering it. I specifically asked again, how many miles per hour the forecast was but he wouldn’t answer my question. Later on I asked another guide and they told me that they forecast for the morning was 55mph winds at the summit. That at least explained why I couldn’t get an answer out of Brent.

After the meeting we were given about an hour and a half to eat our dinner and pack up for the summit attempt the next day. At around 6pm, it was lights out and we all attempted to sleep a bit in the hut before our 12:15am wake-up call. That night winds at Camp Muir were around 30-40 mph sustained. So, it was a bit of a loud night.

Day 4:

Wake-up time eventually rolled around and Brent came in to wake everyone. He said the winds had died down up top and we were going. I spoke to another one of the guides and they told me the winds had died down a bit, but it was probably going to still be 55mph on top and not a lot less during the rest of the climb. At that point I decided to stay at Muir and wished the rest of the climbers luck on their climb.

A couple hours later a guide and one climber came back. She said the winds were too high for her, so she stopped at the first rest break and turned back. A couple hours later, several others showed up having turned back at the second stop.

Apparently the 2ft long ladder Brent had mentioned the first day was really about 6 feet long and not even wide enough to get both feet on side by side. One of the climbers showed me a picture they had taken of the ladder and it didn’t look any better than they had described.

Once others had returned they mentioned that several had fallen to their knees due to the wind. One said she had to self arrest at one point due to the winds. They did eventually make it to the summit, but didn’t spend more than a few seconds at the top due to the high winds. Brent’s rope team by the time he got back consisted of a total of 6 people. After everyone got back, they had an hour to pack all their stuff up and we’d head back down to Paradise

Wrap Up:

After this trip, would I recommend RMI? Probably not. If you’re just looking to summit Rainier, have decent weather during your attempt, and don’t really care about how you get up, RMI is going to be the cheapest way up the mountain. However, if you’re looking for a pretty decent vacation and actually want to see what mountaineering is like, run away from RMI. The other two guide services on the mountain provide a much better experience for a minimal amount more than RMI charges for their climbs.

IMG and AAI both guide people up Rainier for a bit more than RMI charges. Both companies provide food on their climbs which means a much lower weight pack for you to carry up the mountain. In the case of IMG, they say you can expect a 30-35 pound pack instead of a 40-45 pound pack. Both companies offer client to guide ratios of 2:1 instead of RMI’s 3:1. Ultimately this means you won’t end up with 6 people on a rope team like what happened with Brent on my climb. Additionally, IMG and AAI both start their summit attempts from about 1000 feet higher up the mountain meaning a much easier summit day.

While I wouldn’t say RMI is unsafe, I did see some things that didn’t make me happy with one of their guides. Considering he’s one of their most senior guides, I can’t imagine that this is unique to him though. Brent comes off as wanting to be the person with the most summits on Rainier and the clients are just there to pay for his way. The other two guides on my trip were the complete opposite though and seemed to genuinely care about the clients. However, they all had to stick to the schedule RMI dictates.

This schedule comes primarily from the massive number of people RMI pumps through their program. On the way down the mountain, we passed the team that was going to be in the RMI hut that night. RMI simply has too many people going through their programs for any variability in the schedules they have set. While this is great for their bottom line, it’s not what I want when I go mountaineering.

So with this all in mind, I’ve made an exception for RMI to our internal review policy here at Daily Hiker. We normally will not review anything that we don’t like and will only offer feedback to the manufacturer for improvements. However, RMI has forced me to alter this policy specifically for them. To put it bluntly, I’m mad that this company has taken the joy out of what is among the most wonderful experiences someone can have in the outdoors purely for the sake of extra money.

It personally insults me that RMI has turned people off mountaineering entirely just because the company wants to get as many paying clients as possible. I saw more than one person on my trip that didn’t like the experience and didn’t plan on doing it again because the pace that RMI chose to keep. What’s worse is they think the rigid pace RMI forces its clients to follow is required in mountaineering in general and it has soured their experience.

Additionally, RMI’s relationship with First Ascent is conflicting at best. At one point I actually got what amounted to a sales pitch for their products with the guide going over how great their products were. Also, when you tell me to rent a First Ascent down jacket because a Mountain Hardwear Sub Zero SL jacket won’t be warm enough on the mountain (even though they recommended the Sub Zero on their gear list for the trip), I have a serious problem with your priorities. Judging by how many former RMI employees we’ve seen that now guide for IMG, their staff may think the same thing.

If you’re thinking about climbing Rainier, keep driving past the RMI base camp and go to either AAI or IMG. You’ll have a better trip with a better chance of summiting for about the same price that you’d pay through RMI anyways.