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The climb up Mount Rainier is genuine mountaineering on a serious mountain of ice. The special techniques needed to prevent and survive precarious transits of crevasses and ice floes are well exercised here. Read about the special precautions taken in climbing through crevasse fields in the report from the scene ("Summitting Rainier").
For the first several days our excellent guides shrugged and stated frankly "We would love to tell you where we are and how we are going, but we do not have a clue; we are so socked into the cloud fog, we may have to give up most of the ascent from today and dig in on the glacier until it clears so we can see our way along a new route toward the top." This is a wise maneuver considering the deep and treacherous crevasses along which we were hiking with crampons and ice axes roped in according to teams.
When the clouds lifted, the view was magnificent, and we had to proceed in double-time to make up the distance toward a high base camp on Wilson Glacier. The summit was not forgotten, however and the assault began after midnight, "Last Seen Driving Hard for the Top."