FKT: Erin Ton - Mt Rainier (WA) - 2026-06-23

I started out with the intention of going for the roundtrip time, but so much of the Rainier FKT is condition and route dependent. The route I took up DC was much longer than Simon's for example. I started out at Paradise around 4:30am and made it up to Muir Camp in around 1:30 I believe, which I knew was ahead of Katie's splits. This was averaging about 3k feet per hour, which I felt good about, but it rapidly declined the higher I climbed, as I had not been to altitude in a bit. I met Chris at Muir, where he had my crampons and additional nutrition. Then we took off. Chris stayed behind me for most of the climb and for the last couple thousand feet of the climb I put a decent gap between us. I reached the summit register in 3:28 and spent a minute or two up there soaking it in. According to Katie's trip report from 2012, she reached the crater rim in 3:30, so I assume it was a few minutes more to run over to the true summit. Then I ran back to Muir still with the roundtrip in mind, but after one of my crampons came loose and I tripped on it, I kinda mentally checked out at that point. Still a great day in the mountains! Learned a lot of lessons for it being my first time up the DC. I'm planning on returning next May when the route is in prime conditions to actually project it because it goes wayyy faster :)