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Dawn breaks on Mount Rainier and it’s time for the 6,000-foot climb from base camp to the summit. This is the chance for Greg Hill to summit the mountain that launched him on his skiing career. Now, if only the weather will window will hold long enough.
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Rising 14,000 feet above sea level, Mount Rainier is where many aspiring mountaineers go to test their skills. Crevasses, hanging glaciers, weather that’s not always predictable. At 19, Greg had the climbing bug and set his sights on Rainier. But summiting is not a gimme by any means. When he first saw Rainier, Greg “saw an amazing mountain that scared the crap out of me. There was a lot of fear but no understanding.” After years spent honing skills in the mountains, Greg views Rainier as a mountain of potential. Now, he’s set his sights on two routes in two days.
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Spread across Greg Hill’s downstairs man cave are a series of maps stitched together. The Purcells. Monashees. Selkirks. Adamants. Valhallas. British Columbia’s ranges extend outward from the hub of Revelstoke. Meticulous pencil lines are drawn to mark each route traveled, each successful peak. When we saw it, we wondered what we had just signed up for. After his successful two million vertical feet year, Greg had another idea altogether. This season, Greg wanted to return to the mountain where his career began when he was 18 years old — Mount Rainier.
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In 2010, Greg Hill achieved the unthinkable. He ski toured two million vertical feet. He’d spent the prior decade prior shaping his body into a powder slaying weapon, sharpening his understanding of British Columbia’s sometimes dangerous snow pack and refining his mountain sense in order to travel safely, even on days when the avalanche danger crept into the red. Or as Greg puts it, “I used to be a mountain boy, but now I can grow a pretty decent mustache and I think of myself as a mountain man.” When he crossed the mark on the final day of 2010, everyone was curious– what’s next? Three million? Maybe not, but Greg has a few ideas.
