friday midnight: spent the last 2 hours packing.. think i'm done and all ready to go! checked the weather forecast, looks like it might rain on sunday - hmm. catching 3 hours of shuteye before climbing partner comes pick me up...

3am: woke up. washed up. had some milo for breakfast. went downstairs to meetup with my climbing partner and ride.

6am: arrived at our meeting place, the white river ranger station. slept in the car abit since we arrived earlier than expected.. eventually everyone arrived (12 climbers in our party), and we registered ourselves with the NPS rangers (i guess in case we go missing or someone gets injured!)

8am: after sorting out group gear (stoves, tents, ropes, pickets, etc..), off we go! did about an hour of hiking (on the wonderland trail), then stopped at some rocks by a river to rest and get some breakfast + water.. after resting, we continue hiking.. the trail's getting steeper!

11am: arrive on the edge of a snow field (summerland). time to put on our gaiters and pull out our iceaxes to prepare for snow travel! our climb leader also leaves the group to assist in the rescue of an injured climber nearby, whom we heard had hit some rock. 15 minutes later, another member of our party also leaves to assist in the rescue.. the remaining 10 of us continue onto the snowfield... (there were a couple other experienced climbers in our party who took over when our leader left)

12pm: we take a break at bunch of rocks halfway up the snowfield. beautiful weather.. we could see mountains all around.. caught the first glimpses of little tahoma, the peak we plan to summit! also saw a bunch of climbers higher up in the snowfield.. prob here either to summit little tahoma, or even mt rainier (big tahoma)? gets tiresome kickstepping up a snowfield with a heavy pack, ha.. but i try to distract my mind by thinking about other things, or the fact that every step brings us closer to the summit..

1pm: we arrive at our campsite - at meany crest, on the edge of the fryingpan glacier. will stay here for the rest of the day, before pushing for the summit at 2am tomorrow morning. we setup camp.. i build a snow wall to deflect wind.. and hike out to a nearby stream to refill our water bottles. we have early dinner - my climbing partner and i share some instant porridge with fried dace and salted black beans, ramen.. and munched on an apple too.. YUM!

4pm: after dinner.. everyone pretty much crawls into tents to rest for summit push tomorrow. discovered that i can get signal on my cellphone! attempts to call out to say hi to friends fail though. i sit somewhere to enjoy the scenery and day dream abit.. ha, or as another climber puts it aptly - "this is when you remind yourself u're doing all this for fun!". climbs are physically demanding, its easy to forget to appreciate why u're doing all this. the wind also gets stronger and dark clouds roll in.. it starts raining shortly after i crawl back into the tent, doh!