By Shannon Appleby
Each year, employees from Microsoft, REI and other area companies and foundations raise funds for Washington’s National Parks by climbing Mount Rainier, Mount Shuksan (North Cascades) or Mount Olympus (Olympics) through a partnership with three amazing climbing guide services – Alpine Ascents International (AAI), International Mountain Guides (IMG), and Mountain Madness (MM). Shannon Appleby, who is Senior Manager, Strategy and Business Development at Microsoft, summited Mount Rainier this summer during the Microsoft team’s climb July 21st-24th with IMG.
Mount Rainier, with its prominence in the Seattle skyline, calls out to the adventure seekers wanting to climb it. Growing up in Colorado, I always had an affinity for the outdoors, but I never thought I’d actually be able to climb Mount Rainier. After attending a meeting at Microsoft with Washington’s National Park Fund (WNPF), I knew it was my chance. Not only would I have the opportunity to climb with amazing guides at International Mountain Guides (IMG), but I could climb Rainier for a great cause – to raise awareness and money for WNPF.
After training for three months, I felt ready for the challenge. I was pleased to find that so many of my friends and family were supportive of my effort and donated to the cause. At orientation, I was excited to learn that Laurie Ward and Denise Wulfekuhle from WNPF were climbing with us and it was great meeting the fellow Microsoft climbers and our incredible guides. I was also happy knowing that I would be climbing with my future sister-in-law, Aubrey.
The morning of the climb, we woke up to rain and my vision of walking up to Muir in the sun quickly faded away. We steadily made it up to Camp Muir in the rain and fog with our heavy packs and, just as we were about to reach the camp, the clouds opened up and the sun came out. While we dried our wet clothes on the rocks, we devoured delicious chicken burritos made by CJ, our lead guide.
After watching a beautiful sunset, I climbed into my sleeping bag in the hut. It was difficult to sleep from both my excitement and the symphony of snores from my teammates. After a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes (yum!), we started our crampon and self-arrest training. While learning how to dig our ice axe into the ground in the event of a fall, I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to actually use this technique on the mountain.
Later in the day, we headed up towards Ingraham Flats to camp out before we summited later that night. Every time I looked around at the beautiful landscape, I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be there. We went to “sleep” at 6:00 p.m. and around 10:30 p.m., CJ knocked on our tent. It was time to gear up and go. I could see a trail of headlights behind us as we set out towards the summit.
I was nervous as I stepped onto the first ladder over the deep crevasse. Our crampons scraped against the rocks as we climbed up Disappointment Cleaver. After hours of climbing, we started to reach the final stretch up the glacier. The sun was starting to crest over the horizon and there was a beautiful red glow in the sky. I’ll remember that moment forever. The sun rose over the horizon just as we were summiting. It was so great to watch everyone on our team summit Rainier – I knew that making it to the top meant something unique to each of us. Watching Laurie Ward summit, someone so devoted to preserving the very mountain that we were standing on, was incredibly emotional and inspiring.
I’ve come back down from Rainier as a changed person – someone that can’t wait to find the next challenging mountain to climb. More importantly, I now have a greater appreciation for those who work to protect our national parks and I want to do more to help. I will never look at Mount Rainier the same way again. I can’t wait to see where this amazing adventure leads next.