The weather was not on our side

The director of the National Parks fund told Shawn and I we had a chance to get on another Rainier climb, but they needed to know the Friday before the Monday/Tuesday climb. It was a hard call. The cost would be somewhere around $1,000, and the weather was not looking good.

From the Mt. Rainier Recreational Mountain Forecast site we were able to tease out the following stats for that weekend:

A storm was moving in: "A STRONGER WEATHER SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO MOVE THROUGH THE AREA LABOR DAY AND EARLY TUESDAY."

Winds were high: Fri 55mph, Sat 45mph, Sun 40mph

Snow was likely: .MONDAY NIGHT...RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL 9000 FEET. .TUESDAY...SHOWERS LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL 8000 FEET.

Shawn and I had a chat with the RMI guides, the director of the National Parks fund, and a few folks who have climbed the mountain numerous times. We then spent some time debating the risks and decided that it was not worth the cost/effort given the high probability of getting turned back.

It turns out that Monday/Tuesday saw record rainfall in Seattle, so the weather was even bad in town. I think Shawn and I made the right call - This will give us a good excuse to stay in shape next year.

Sigh.