My Mt. Rainier Gear List


All packed up for Camp Muir/Summit Day!
One of my favorite parts, and one of the hardest, about life-changing trips is coming home and attempting to process everything that happened. For me, that's still in the works. Until that process is complete, you're stuck reading about my gear!
Between test packing at home with a scale close by, packing to board a plane to Seattle, repacking at Tiffany's house, unpacking at Mesdag Basecamp, repacking for climbing school, repacking for our trek to Camp Muir, unpacking at Camp Muir, and repacking for our summit bid, I could get everything in its place in my backpack in my sleep.

(When Melissa woke us at midnight for summit day, that's basically what we did!) But all of the packing, unpacking and repacking served a much greater purpose - ensuring we had all of the proper gear to stay safe on Mount Rainier.

Big City Mountaineers and RMI provided the Summit for Someone climbers with an extensive gear list prior to the start of our 4-day program in Ashford. The first day served as our gear check, the second day was climbing school, and the third and fourth days made up the summit attempt. We had to have the proper clothing and gear for each of those days. Given the varying weather and temperature changes, that meant a lot of testing different layering systems.

Below is a complete list of my clothing and gear for climbing school, our trek to Camp Muir, and summit day. My biggest issue was finding bottom layers that were long enough; I discovered some of my favorite gear companies produce pants with a 32" inseam and call them "long." Thanks to help from our wonderful guides, I managed to figure out exactly what to wear and was, for the most part, pretty comfortable with what I chose!

All geared up on the descent from the summit of Rainier.
 Key: used just at snow school | used just to Camp Muir | used just on summit day | used on all 3 days 

Top Layers
Patagonia Women's Active Classic Cami, Mountain Hardwear Wicked Lite Short Sleeve Tee, Mountain Hardwear Advance Zip Tee, Smartwool Midweight Crew, Eastern Mountain Sports 6 year-old crossing guard yellow fleece, Mountain Hardwear Cohesion Jacket, First Ascent Peak XV Down Jacket

Bottom Layers 
REI Midweight Polartec Power Dry Long Underwear Bottom, Mountain Hardwear Yuma Convertible Pant,
Mountain Hardwear Winter Wanderer Pant, Marmot PreCip Full Zip Pant

Head, Feet and Hands
Petzl Elios Helmet, North Face Wool Beanie, Petzl Tikkina Headlamp, Julbo Colorado Glacier Glasses, La Sportiva Women's Nepal Evo GTX Mountaineering Boots, Black Diamond Sabretooth Crampons, Smartwool Liner Socks, Smartwool PhD Outdoor Heavy Cushion Sock, Outdoor Research Crocodile Gaiters, Mountain Hardwear Women's Powerstretch Gloves, Burton Gore Tex Gloves 

Other Gear
Black Diamond Primrose Climbing Harness, North Face Badlands 60 Backpack, Black Diamond Raven Ice Axe with Awesome Summit for Someone Logo, Leki Khumbu Trekking Poles, Back Country Access Tracker D.T.S Avalanche Beacon, Granite Gear Compression Sacks, 1L Nalgene Bottles, Green Superfeet Insoles,

Things I Brought and Didn't Use
Marmot Safari Hat, Eastern Mountain Sports Mittens, Smith Optics Ski Goggles 

Stuff I Wish I Had or Remembered to Bring
Buff, lip balm with actual SPF, trail shoes for the base of the mountain