As we get closer to our Mt. Rainier summit attempt on July 18th, we wanted to share our story with you…
Everyone in our group works for Tideworks Technology, a Seattle tech company specializing in container terminal operating systems solutions for growing marine and rail terminals worldwide. We are programmers, managers, business analysts and quality assurance engineers.
In the spring of 2018, a group of us decided it would be cool to do an overnight hike to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier in July. The group for that hike included Steve Albert, Larry Jackson, Mark Barry, Rich Firman and Hugh Gallagher. Hugh ended up with a scheduling conflict and was not able to join us for the hike but helped us get prepared by sharing his previous hiking experiences as well as tips on gear choices. We were all excited to get together outside of work and share what we all had in common: The great outdoors!
When we were planning that first trip to Camp Muir, I don’t think there was much discussion about each of our aspirations of someday summiting Mt. Rainier. But maybe that thought was in the back of our minds even at that time.
The weather for that first trip to Camp Muir was fantastic. The hike itself was tough. It took us about 8 hours. I’m guessing there were about 50 others camping overnight. But our group was the only group not preparing to summit the next day. Do you know what that felt like? It was kinda like being the only kid on the bench while the rest of your friends are out on the field. There was really a feeling of anticipation among everyone… except us! It was interesting to talk to some of the people who were about to summit. I think that experience really provided some of the fuel for the work we have had to put in this past year.
After sharing our experience with some of our coworkers, we discovered that, for many years, our sister company SSA Marine had been a corporate sponsor of a program called Climb for Clean Air that raises funds and awareness of lung health issues for the American Lung Association by climbing Mt. Rainier. And in fact, many SSA employees summited Mt. Rainier in years past with that same program including our chairman Jon Hemingway who summited Mt. Rainier twice. Well, this was too good to be true. After we looked into some of the details of the program, Mark Barry did some of the early leg work of getting us all signed up as part of a team to climb Rainier in July 2019. This meant not only committing to getting in shape but also raising $20,000 for the American Lung Association.
In January, Mark Barry had to back out of the program for this year. But he continues to be a great support by following our progress and helping any way he can such as through fundraising efforts and sharing gear.
A few weeks later, we discovered another like-minded employee who had just joined Tideworks a few months earlier. His name is also Mark… Mark Pengelly. We often ran into Mark at the gym and talked about what we were doing. So, when we had an open spot on the team, it was a no-brainer to see if he wanted to join.
All of us share a great love for getting outdoors, hiking and camping. Another thing we have in common is that we all work behind a computer monitor for most of our workday. So, committing to climbing Rainier has meant really upping our game when it comes to getting more hiking mileage in as well as increasing our workouts. We’ve had two people who have really helped us out in that regard… Cara Bonsen was our Yoga instructor for weekly classes and Arlene Patton who is our fitness instructor for weekly Bodypump and HIIT classes that involve combining weights and cardio in an intense workout. Both have volunteered their time and we are so grateful for their contributions to our overall readiness for this climb.
Steve Albert has been a great leader for our team. He has done most of the coordination with the American Lung Association and has initiated much of the fundraising efforts including a collaboration with local breweries Pyramid Brewing, Optimism Brewing, Ghostfish Brewing, and Machine House Brewery as well as raffles. He has also done a great job reaching out to other people at Tideworks, SSA Marine, and Carrix to ask for help. In early May, Steve’s Mom passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. We hope this climb will be therapeutic for him.
We have all been participating in weekly hikes with the larger Climb for Clean Air group which consists of about 65 people. There are usually about 30 people at each hike. There is also a group of several volunteer trainers that accompany the group on these climbs to provide support and information to the group. Most of the hikes have been along the I-90 corridor and have included Mt. Si, Rattlesnake Ledge, and Mailbox Peak. Our last large group hike before the climb was June 1st and 2nd when we did night training at Paradise Park in Mt. Rainier National Park, followed by a hike to Camp Muir the following day. Now, we continue to do our own training for the final push to be as fit as possible for the climb July 15 – 18. Our climb will begin with 2 days of training at the base of Mt. Rainier. Then, on July 17th, we will hike to Camp Muir and hopefully get some rest before starting for the summit very early on July 18th.
We recently surpassed our $20,000 fundraising goal by reaching $24,276 to date! Special thanks go out to Tideworks leadership, including our president, TJ Rucker who supported our group by having Tideworks contribute $5,000 toward our goal. We also want to acknowledge Jon Hemingway, our chairman, along with his wife Kim who committed to match $2 for every $1 contributed by Tideworks and SSA employees up to $5,000. And yes, Tideworks and SSA employees did step up to contribute every cent of that matching contribution! So awesome! And we could not have reached our goal without our family and friends donating towards this effort. To all of you… Thank you! Thank You! Thank You!
Our donation link will remain open until August 1st. For your donation, please go to the Tideworks Mountaineers Climb For Clean Air Webpage and select the Donate Now link.
Follow our journey on Instagram @tideworksmountaineers and check out the video of our Camp Muir hike last July: Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier.
