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The life of every Coast Guardsman is filled with hills to climb,
whether leaving family behind to sail the seas, taking the
notoriously difficult servicewide exam to achieve lifelong career
goals or being first responder on scene after a natural disaster.
For a dedicated few, life comes with a few mountains too — like
Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick DeBrum, Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan
Griffin, Petty Officer 2nd Class Scott Wingfield and Petty Officer
3rd class Adam Plourde, Coast Guardsmen from Sector Puget Sound in
Seattle, who climbed Mount Rainier in May 2016 ... and proudly flew the Coast Guard
ensign from its peak.
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May 17, 2016 - Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick DeBrum, Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Griffin, Petty Officer 2nd Class Scott Wingfield and Petty Officer 3rd class Adam Plourde, from Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound in Seattle, display the Coast Guard ensign at the summit of Mount Rainier. At 14,410 feet above sea level, Mount Rainier is Washington's tallest mountain. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nick DeBrum)
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Of the 10,000 people who register each year to climb
Rainier, the fifth tallest mountain in the continental U.S.,
fewer than 5,000 make it to the summit. It towers above the
state at 14,410 feet, where oxygen thins to 12 percent and
physical reactions vary from sweating and exhaustion to
shivering with shortness of breath in a matter of minutes.
“We constantly reevaluated our personal condition and
the condition of our surrounding environment,” said
Wingfield, a marine science technician at the sector's
Incident Management Division. “The mountain has no feelings
and it did not care if we made it to the top, got injured or
killed. Those decisions lied solely on us, and we all
determined together that the summit was optional – the
parking lot was mandatory.”
That humility — plus
eight months of physical and mental preparation — carried
the four men up the 9,000-foot elevation gain from the
Paradise Trailhead to Mount Rainier's peak.
The
group's training process began in September 2015 and
included everything from team meetings about expectations to
local hikes and emergency preparedness classes. Their last
stepping stone toward the big climb was the ascent of Mount
Saint Helens in March, where each team member gave his
equipment and his grit a final check.
On Mount
Rainier, the group applied equal parts training and strategy
to their climb, carefully assessing threats and mitigating
each one as a team. By taking one step at a time, they made
it just below the mountain's summit in three days.
“We all set our packs on the ground near the summit and
collapsed for a few minutes, exhausted,” said Plourde.
“After we each had a snack and some water, we hiked up the
last 50 yards to the true summit and had a big group hug. It
was sublime, like we were standing on the roof of the
Northwest.”
Eager to make it home safely, the team
only spent about 10 minutes at the summit — just long enough
to fly the Coast Guard flag and take in the view, an
estimated 300-mile radius from Mount Baker in the north to
Mount Jefferson in Oregon.
They returned to work
Monday sore and tired, but with a new sense of brotherhood
and pride knowing they had conquered a goal some die trying
to achieve.
Coast Guardsmen from units around the
world are upholding the Coast Guard's highest traditions
both in and out of uniform. But a courageous few – those who
see life's mountains as opportunities to test their
physical, mental and spiritual boundaries — give new meaning
to the term ‘above and beyond.'
By U.S. Coast Guard Seaman Sarah Wilson
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2016
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