Climber almost reaches the top

Crystal Smith along some of the mountain's rugged terrain.

The summit of Mount Rainier is hidden in the clouds. It is the highest mountain in North America, elevation 14,311 feet.

Crystal Smith with all her gear. Note her left ankle is wrapped. The 'shin bang' and minor blisters she developed on her feet kept her from the summit.

Crystal Smith in the sleeping area at one of the lower camps. The climbers slept in tents high up on the mountain.

Climbers sleep in permanent tents at higher elevations.

The difficult route to the summit. Crystal Smith climbed on the route called the Disappointment Cleaver route.

Crystal Smith with son Connor, 4. Photo by Susan Shinn, for the Salisbury Post.

Crystal Smith at Mount Rainier's high camp.

Crystal Smith, bottom right, with some of her fellow climbers.

By Susan Shinn

For The Salisbury Post

When Crystal Smith flew into Seattle as a flight attendant, she remembered seeing Mount Rainier looming on the horizon.

She kept that image in the back of her mind.

“There’s something to be said for standing on top of a mountain,” says Crystal, 46, who lives near Kannapolis.

Beginning July 30, Crystal spent three days scaling Mount Rainier, logging 11,500 of the mountain’s 14,311 feet.

It was a goal that evolved over the years, beginning in college when she started backpacking with her father.

She realizes now he carried most of the stuff.

Years ago, before her two children were born, Crystal climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa.

“It’s a hike, it’s not a climb,” Crystal says.

Last fall, she “finally bit the bullet,” and committed to climb Mount Rainier.

Crystal and her husband, Gary, 50, have two boys, Weston, 8, and Connor, 4. She asked her husband to go. Even though Gary owns Nautilus Fitness Center in Kannapolis and at Lake Norman, he declined.

“This is not his thing,” Crystal says. “He’s not quite the daredevil I am.”

But Crystal spent a lot of time at both gyms, preparing for the climb.

“I am not a workout queen by any means,” says Crystal, who admits to being in “decent shape” before she started training.

At first, the key was to build up her cardiovascular strength, and combine that with strength training. She began running an hour a day, two to three times a week, adding weight training.

She chose to climb with Alpine Ascents, and followed a workout video they sent.

“I’m pretty much a rule follower,” Crystal says.

Not surprisingly, the workout added incline work after the first few months. She had one day of hiking where she would wear a pack loaded with 20 pounds, working up to the 45-pound pack she’d carry on the mountain.

She spent her weekends hiking but didn’t get to the mountains as much as she’d have liked.

And yeah, she wore a backpack on the treadmill at the gym.

“By the end, you were supposed to be hiking six hours at 3,500 feet elevation once a week,” Crystal says. “That sounds great, but it’s so boring on the treadmill.”

So at the height of her training, she was doing cardio work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, weights on Tuesday and Thursday, interval training on Wednesday afternoon and a long hike on Saturday — with Sunday off.

She worked out on her neighbor’s treadmill. She climbed steps at the N.C. Research Campus.

As for her diet?

“I didn’t lose weight while I was training,” Crystal says. “I was hungry all the time!”

No wonder.

She did go to Mount Mitchell one weekend with her family — and forgot her hiking boots.

She returned alone after that, hiking for eight hours one day.

“I was able to do it,” she says, even in humid conditions.

“Looking back, I was in good shape,” Crystal says. “I don’t think anything I could have done would have prepared me more.”

What she couldn’t prepare for were the blisters and “shin bang” she’d encounter on the mountain, caused by the ski boot-like boots she wore.

Crystal went to Washington alone, meeting up with a group of seven fellow climbers and four guides. Their ages ranged from 30s to 50s. The head guide was a woman, and Crystal was really excited about that.

She was one of three solo climbers. There was a young couple in the group, and three guys from Canada who knew one another.

Meeting people, she says, is part of the adventure.

Crystal had received a detailed list of what to bring, which included a list for lunchtime and snacks. The other food was provided by the expedition.

“You can eat anything you want on the mountain,” says Crystal, who favored Snickers bars for snacks.

She also learned quickly to add electrolyte pills to her water so she wouldn’t cramp from dehydration.

The weather was beautiful for the climb, with highs in the 70s and temperatures which dropped to freezing at night.

Layered clothing was key.

Crystal stayed layered up the entire trip. She did take a toothbrush but didn’t take a shower. She carried blue bags to “leave no trace” of waste on the mountain. She found that a female urinary device — in pink with attached extension tube, no less — was just about the coolest invention ever. After all, when you’re hiking in the middle of a snow field, well, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

The first day of the hike went well, although Crystal’s feet and ankles were sore by the second day.

“It was not bad enough to keep me from hiking, but it hurt,” she says. “Things always get so magnified when you’re lying in your tent at night.”

Crystal considered the blisters on her ankles and heels and the pain in her shins. She considered the fact that not only would she have to hike 3,500 feet to the summit, she’d have to hike all the way back down the mountain the same day — a total of 9,000 feet.

She got dressed on summit day — climbers start out at midnight — and hobbled to the kitchen tent.

“It’s midnight, it’s cold and my feet hurt,” Crystal remembers thinking.

She decided not to attempt the summit.

After all, she had to get down the mountain, and she had to get back home, stopping in Kentucky to pick up her children.

“I was praying,” Crystal says. “I said, ‘Just give me some strength.’ And this voice in my head kept saying, ‘You don’t have to go.’ I’ve never turned around from anything. You get out there, and it’s fine. Maybe I’m getting more mature — or chicken!”

Her guides felt she’d done the right thing, and Crystal was proud of the fact she got down the mountain on her own power, carrying her pack.

Crystal, who worked in pressurized planes for so long, says she had no trouble with the altitude.

The fact that she got to 11,500 feet, she says, “was not high to me.

“But it was high enough.”

• • •

Freelance writer Susan Shinn lives in Salisbury.