Cascade Lodge owner and employee climb Mount Rainer—50 years apart!

 

Cascade Lodge owner Thom McAleer recently climbed Alaska’s 14.410-foot Mount Rainier. Cold and wind suspended an earlier attempt to climb Rainier in June. “We ran into 70 mph winds and snow. We had to turn back,” he said. The guide service he used called and said there was an opening in August and Thom jumped at the chance to make a second attempt to summit Rainier.

The August climb took three days and is a pre-requisite for Thom to climb Mount Denali, at 20,310 feet, north America’s highest mountain peak.

“I spent seventeen years working in hospitality management in Denali National Park. I hiked hundreds of miles in the backcountry and climbed smaller unnamed mountains in the park, but I never climbed Denali. Instead, I did a fair amount of ice climbing and climbed Mount Whitney, the continental U.S. highest mountain peak in California. But I figured I owed it to myself to put a fine point on my career by climbing Denali. I was going to climb it next year when I turn 50, but a friend is summiting the world’s seven highest mountain peaks, and he asked me to wait until 2024 and climb with him, and that’s what I am going to do. In the meantime, we will climb a volcano in Peru next summer.”

 

When asked about training, Thom replied he hikes up and down Lutsen mountain with a 75-pound backpack or climbs Lookout Mountain up to three times in one day. “I have climbed Eagle Mountain a couple of times. There aren’t places around here with high altitudes. I train with Uphill Athletes and get one-on-one training from Leif Whitaker, the son of Jim Whitaker. I started with Leif last November. I do a lot of strength and cardio training.”

The August climb was no picnic. Once again, there was a high wind. A group that left ahead of Thom’s group had to turn back because of 70 mph winds and cold. “We waited and finally hit a “wind window” and began our climb. The winds were still blowing, about 50 mph per hour, but we made it to the top and back down in 13 hours. I spent five minutes at the summit, called my wife to tell her I made it, and then took a short video with my phone before heading down. On the way down, the wind was at our backs. A group coming up ended up turning back and returning to base camp.”

Since 1887 it is estimated that 500,000 people have attempted to climb Mount Rainier with 200,000 successful attempts. Over that time around 100 people have died mostly from falls and avalanches. About 10,000 people each year attempt to make it to the summit with half of them achieving their goal.

When Thom mentioned he would climb Mount Rainier to Scott Benson, now a part-time employee who does lawn maintenance for Cascade Lodge, Benson smiled and recounted his adventurous climb of Mount Rainier 50 years earlier. And while both made it to the mountain top, their experiences were anything but similar on their journey to get there, and the length of time they stayed to enjoy the view from the mountain peak was also drastically different.

In August 1972, Scott was a 16-year-old Boy Scout in Troop 129, located in North Minneapolis. Along with six other Boy Scouts, Scott participated in the Boy Scout High Adventure Program. “It was an experimental program,” explained Benson. “This was the first and last climb for that program.”

One he was lucky enough to take part in, he added.

Scott said his “training” consisted of running a few miles a few times a week. “I didn’t actually train for the trip, not like people think of training. I really can’t think of anything special I did to get ready. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Once the Boy Scouts arrived at the mountain, Benson, an Eagle Scout, explained, “We spent three days doing snow and glaciers training. Part of the training included canvass rescue. Scouts were lowered into a glacier and then practiced climbing out. It was pretty rigorous.”

Scott was one-and-a-half months shy of his 17th birthday. There were seven guides along to help the seven young Boy Scouts. During the climb, Benson said, “There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was perfect weather. At the summit, one of the guides carried a watermelon with him, and we ate watermelon. Some of the guides carried lightweight lawn chairs with them. We decided to camp for the night, which is very rare to camp on Rainier’s summit. We spent 18 hours on top of the mountain and enjoyed the weather. When we climbed down to base camp below the tree line, we met Jim Whitaker, the first American to climb Mount Everest. This meeting had been arranged. I remember being in awe of him. We spent about half an hour talking to Jim, which was a great experience.” Fifty years later, Benson’s eyes shone with appreciation as he talked about his meeting Whitaker. Today Thom gets training and climbing advice from Whitakers son. It seems fate brought the two climbers together at Cascade Lodge, and Thom celebrated their shared success by buying matching shirts for the two friends to wear.