The Emmons Glacier route

Mt. Rainier from the Emmons Glacier side

It's also perfect route for a slow ascent with an absurd amount of equipment. The glacier's even pitch and relatively straightforward nature provides more options for camping sites than the other more varied routes. It's still a glacier though, and likely heavily split with crevasses in the late season.

Whereas most climbers carry camping gear to about 10,000 feet then make a light, fast run to tag the summit, this group will carry all of its gear all the way up. This will slow the pace, forcing a longer ascent. That'll be important for this trip since the team hopes to camp at the summit. A gradual ascent will allow more acclimitization in preparation for a more extended stay on top.

But the slow pace would also make using the standard route from Camp Muir a problem, because it has a number of narrow sections where only one party at a time can pass. The last thing the summer hordes of lightly-packed climbers want is a bunch of heavily-laden yahoos plugging up the route. The group's likely to see some of this even on the Emmons Glacier, but certainly much less. RMI, the guide franchise, runs the majority of its clients up the standard route.

The Emmons route begins at the White River trailhead (4,200 feet), a popular groomed campground. An easy 3.1-mile hike from there gets climbers to Glacier Basin, a beautiful backcountry campground at the base of the Inter Glacier. The route ascends Inter Glacier to Camp Schurman (9,500 feet), where the route meets with the Emmons Glacier. From there climbers follow the route along the upper Emmons Glacier.