When Hydrogen accounting manager Meredith Walker moved to Seattle from Alabama with her husband Joseph about three years ago, the idea of climbing a mountain—let alone Mt. Rainier—was just about the furthest thing from her mind.

But after months of weekday lunchtime training on a StairMaster, and weekends hiking and climbing smaller peaks such as Mt. Si, Meredith found herself atop 14,411-foot Mt. Rainier on a perfectly clear July 27th, together with Joseph, six other climbing mates and four guides.

“You know, it was a lot easier making the actual Mt. Rainier climb than it was training for the climb,” Meredith said. “Our guides set a leisurely pace up the mountain, which felt a lot easier than keeping up with Joseph and the guys on our weekend training climbs.”

Weekend training involved, among other things, climbs packing 30- to 40-pound jugs of water on the way up, to simulate conditions on the face of Mt. Rainier.

“Our Alpine Ascents guides were great,” Meredith said. “They taught us how set a conservative pace, to eat and keep hydrated along the way, and to avoid pausing more than 4-minutes because when you stop moving completely, it’s amazing how quickly the cold sets it—even in July.”

One of Meredith’s guides actually held, for a time, the speed ascent record up Mt. Everest (climbing from Base Camp to the Mt. Everest summit in just 11 hours in 2003).

“As I climbed,” she recalled, “I really tried to avoid monitoring where the top was, and how far away it was. Instead, I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, breathing correctly, and doing the immediate task at hand—basically, following the advice of our guides.”

It turns out that Meredith, Joseph and their fellow mates were fit enough and fortunate enough (with weather, etc.) to actually make an attempt on the summit at about 3:30 p.m., rather than the more common scenario where climbers are awakened in the dark at midnight to make a “before dawn” dash for the summit.

“The views from the top were incredible. As the sun began to set behind us on our way down the mountain, we could see the growing shadow of Mt. Rainier stretching out in front of us over all the communities and lowlands to the east. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Would Meredith consider doing it again? “Absolutely.”