This is the real deal...Jeff Salantai (in photo with RED COAT on Mt. Rainer) and I set out with a mission to climb Mt. Rainier. For those of you who don’t know Jeff he is an account manager for us living in Austin Tx. Jeff works with BioRx’s hemophilia group. After more than 7 months of training and prep work we attempted to summit the mountain this past week. In fact we got home late last night.
We received tons of thoughts and prayers from many of you and we just wanted to say thank you to everyone who called or wrote wishing us luck.
We summited the mountain at 7:20am on Saturday at 14,410 feet….so wiped out we could barely function (only to realize we had about 7 more hours of continuous trekking to get back down) but we did it.
I’ve attached three pictures and below are some snippets about what we did if you are interested.
1^st picture (047) – this is a picture of the sunrise we took from the side of the mountain at about 12,500 feet. It was taken around 5am (although I’m not sure exactly when it was). At this point we had been on the mountain for about 21 hours (we started at about 8 or 9 the previous morning) with just one rest brake at 10,000 feet to grab a couple hours of sleep. It was breathtaking (literally) being above the clouds looking down at huge peaks below us and seeing the sun pop through the clouds. It was my favorite moment. At this point I would say we were both thinking “holy crap we still have 2 more hours to go and 2,000 feet of vertical elevation to the top…the hard work is still ahead of us!”.
2^nd picture (050) – this picture was taken from about 13,600 feet near the top of Emman’s glacier. We were about 1 hour from the top. You can see the peaks and other mountains around us more clearly and the cloud layer that was thousands of feet below us. In the bottom left of the picture you can see a climber heading back down and a little bit of the ice trail. By now we are having to force food into our body. I was feeling sick and trying to eat frozen energy gels, power bars or anything was horribly nauseating to me but our guides were berating us to eat. We were both wiped out by this time and were sort of on auto-pilot. I think we knew that by now with only 1 hour to the top we were going to make it. Everyone who was going to wash-out of the climb had already been taken off the mountain by guides.
3^rd picture – (065) This is a picture of Jeff and myself along with our lead guide, Dave Hahn. This picture was taken on Columbia Crest at 14,410 feet…the summit…the glory shot!. Jeff is in the red coat on the right, Dave is in the middle and I’m on the left. As it turns out our guide is a famous mountaineer legend who has summated Mt. Everest 11 times and still counting. He has summated Rainier 252 times. He has led expeditions to find the bodies of some of the early climbers on Mt. Everest and has filmed and been in numerous TV documentary’s about it. He guides Rainer trips now once or twice a summer for fun and we drew the lucky straw. The banner we are holding is a summit flag that Jeff had made. It has the BioRx logo on it and says “Summit for Someone” which is the charity we were raising money for. We got to rest for about 20 more minutes after this picture was taken before starting back down.
If you are interested here are a couple of snippets about what we did.
1. Mt Rainier is the tallest mountain in the lower 49 states (only
Alaska has a higher mountain). It is located just outside of
Ashford, WA..
2. About 30% (5 of 18) of the group that started with us did not make it
3. Jeff and I raised about $9,500 for at-risk youth in a program
called Summit for Someone. We additionally raised some money (we
don’t know how much yet) for Save One Life which provides factor
and financial support to people with bleeding disorders in 3^rd
world countries. BioRx is going to match the funds for Save One Life.
4. We both agreed that this is the hardest thing we’ve ever done.
I’ve run a marathon, done 4 more 23 mile runs, completed 5 Olympic
length triathlons, climbed 2 other 14ft mountains (no glaciers)
and raced in 100k road bike races Jeff likewise has done some
pretty spectacular physical challenges like climbing the 2^nd and
third largest mountains in the US, rock climbed some amazing
cliffs, and competing in 100mile bike races on a routine basis. We
both agreed that they all paled in comparison to the effort and
mental trial of this experience.
5. We were blessed with good support, great guides, lots of friend
and family like you wishing us the best.
Most spectacularly – we are 99% sure that Jeff is the first person living with hemophilia to summit Mount Rainier. There are certainly other higher mountains (Denali, K2, Everest) but Jeff is in a very elite group and who knows he may now hold a record for the highest summit in the world by someone with hemophilia …who knows….he almost certainly is the first to summit Rainer. We are going to try to fact check this and if we can confirm it we’ll publicize that fact. We know of one other hemophiliac who attempted Rainier two years ago but was taken off the mountain at 12,500 feet in an unsuccessful bid.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. This was a great experience that we’ll never forget and something I’m proud that our company participated in.
*Eric Hill*
We received tons of thoughts and prayers from many of you and we just wanted to say thank you to everyone who called or wrote wishing us luck.
We summited the mountain at 7:20am on Saturday at 14,410 feet….so wiped out we could barely function (only to realize we had about 7 more hours of continuous trekking to get back down) but we did it.
I’ve attached three pictures and below are some snippets about what we did if you are interested.
1^st picture (047) – this is a picture of the sunrise we took from the side of the mountain at about 12,500 feet. It was taken around 5am (although I’m not sure exactly when it was). At this point we had been on the mountain for about 21 hours (we started at about 8 or 9 the previous morning) with just one rest brake at 10,000 feet to grab a couple hours of sleep. It was breathtaking (literally) being above the clouds looking down at huge peaks below us and seeing the sun pop through the clouds. It was my favorite moment. At this point I would say we were both thinking “holy crap we still have 2 more hours to go and 2,000 feet of vertical elevation to the top…the hard work is still ahead of us!”.
2^nd picture (050) – this picture was taken from about 13,600 feet near the top of Emman’s glacier. We were about 1 hour from the top. You can see the peaks and other mountains around us more clearly and the cloud layer that was thousands of feet below us. In the bottom left of the picture you can see a climber heading back down and a little bit of the ice trail. By now we are having to force food into our body. I was feeling sick and trying to eat frozen energy gels, power bars or anything was horribly nauseating to me but our guides were berating us to eat. We were both wiped out by this time and were sort of on auto-pilot. I think we knew that by now with only 1 hour to the top we were going to make it. Everyone who was going to wash-out of the climb had already been taken off the mountain by guides.
3^rd picture – (065) This is a picture of Jeff and myself along with our lead guide, Dave Hahn. This picture was taken on Columbia Crest at 14,410 feet…the summit…the glory shot!. Jeff is in the red coat on the right, Dave is in the middle and I’m on the left. As it turns out our guide is a famous mountaineer legend who has summated Mt. Everest 11 times and still counting. He has summated Rainier 252 times. He has led expeditions to find the bodies of some of the early climbers on Mt. Everest and has filmed and been in numerous TV documentary’s about it. He guides Rainer trips now once or twice a summer for fun and we drew the lucky straw. The banner we are holding is a summit flag that Jeff had made. It has the BioRx logo on it and says “Summit for Someone” which is the charity we were raising money for. We got to rest for about 20 more minutes after this picture was taken before starting back down.
If you are interested here are a couple of snippets about what we did.
1. Mt Rainier is the tallest mountain in the lower 49 states (only
Alaska has a higher mountain). It is located just outside of
Ashford, WA..
2. About 30% (5 of 18) of the group that started with us did not make it
3. Jeff and I raised about $9,500 for at-risk youth in a program
called Summit for Someone. We additionally raised some money (we
don’t know how much yet) for Save One Life which provides factor
and financial support to people with bleeding disorders in 3^rd
world countries. BioRx is going to match the funds for Save One Life.
4. We both agreed that this is the hardest thing we’ve ever done.
I’ve run a marathon, done 4 more 23 mile runs, completed 5 Olympic
length triathlons, climbed 2 other 14ft mountains (no glaciers)
and raced in 100k road bike races Jeff likewise has done some
pretty spectacular physical challenges like climbing the 2^nd and
third largest mountains in the US, rock climbed some amazing
cliffs, and competing in 100mile bike races on a routine basis. We
both agreed that they all paled in comparison to the effort and
mental trial of this experience.
5. We were blessed with good support, great guides, lots of friend
and family like you wishing us the best.
Most spectacularly – we are 99% sure that Jeff is the first person living with hemophilia to summit Mount Rainier. There are certainly other higher mountains (Denali, K2, Everest) but Jeff is in a very elite group and who knows he may now hold a record for the highest summit in the world by someone with hemophilia …who knows….he almost certainly is the first to summit Rainer. We are going to try to fact check this and if we can confirm it we’ll publicize that fact. We know of one other hemophiliac who attempted Rainier two years ago but was taken off the mountain at 12,500 feet in an unsuccessful bid.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. This was a great experience that we’ll never forget and something I’m proud that our company participated in.
*Eric Hill*
