As I mentioned before, it was going to be cold! And it was. There ended up being 17 who summited very early Wednesday morning. The wind was blowing pretty hard as we left Portland, even harder once we hiked past the tree line about 4500' . As of November 1st you don't need to pay for a permit, just record yourself and take a permit. We slept for an hour once we got there and started hiking @ 1am. It's very different being guided by your own headlamp. There are posts to mark the "trail" but they aren't easy to spot inthe dark. I think the group of four i was with ended bouldering a little more than necessary, but it was fun. Once past the false summits, we could see the top and first light was appearing. Even at 8000' breathing became more laborous. We made it to the top before sunrise. Awesome sight being up there watching the sun come up behind Mt. Adams. Mt. Hood to the south and Rainer to the north. Cool shit. There was no snow up there, but since it was below freezing the moisture that was on the ground made the scree hard, which is good for the climb, bad for the descent. Check out the photos.
