We did this one a few years back. When it first came into view I remember thinking, "that's not so big..". Soon I was reminded that it was still over 200 miles to Mt. Rainier. For a montanan, climbing Rainier felt a bit like joining the circus. It was definitely harder to obtain climbing and camping permits for Rainier than it was to get accepted to MSU. Paul, Will, Aaron and I had all done both and with cliche Russian nicknames, bad Russian accents and hammers and sickles drawn on to each of our 50 wands we were gonna have a go at skiing the 10,000 vertical foot Emmons route. Day one was mosly dirt trail for about 4 miles. We made it real easy on ourselves and took 2 days to get to Camp Schurman. Skinning up the interglacer i began to realize how big this mountain was. Stark contrast to the hills in Montana where ranges dominate, this mountain was clearly a range in itself. At 10,000 feet, Camp Schurman is pretty high for city folk. We hiked up and took fine corn turns while folks from Seattle stooped over, gasping for starbucks. A leasiurly 7:00 AM start to 5,000 ft of cramponing, taking in the view of the top of the clouds, summit day went smoother than hoped. 5,000 ft of 35-45 degree hard pack safety turning brought us back to camp. All geared up we commicly mached down the glacier entirely too fast infront of a dozen or so seattleites. Skiing down the inter glacer was like a ski-majic carpet ride for hundereds of turns. Fog kept visibility at 15 meters, adding to the effect. About 6 hours after the summit, we were at our car. Only then did we realize that we had forgoten to retrieve our lone placed wand. We though the headlines might read, "Unregistered Russian Team Dissapears on Ranier". I had the lowest body weight to pack ratio and had lost 15 pounds in 3 days! Great trip!