Four CWU Police officers summit Mount Rainier

Last summer, what began as a casual conversation about bucket list dreams turned into an ambitious challenge for Central Washington University Chief of Police Eric Twaites.

When he was asked by his coworkers whether he’d like to go out and climb Mount Rainier, he knew that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave his comfort zone far behind and summit a peak he had grown up in the shadow of.

“I’ve never climbed a mountain before,” Twaites said. “I knew that in order to meet that challenge, I’d need our very own mountain G.O.A.T. to lead the expedition.”

The mountain G.O.A.T. ("greatest of all time") in question is Police Captain Marc McPherson, who has a long history of making arduous climbs for the sheer enjoyment of it. With his guidance, Twaites, Officer James Brese, and Officer Samuel Hooper made the 14,411-foot climb to the peak of Mount Rainier from July 7-9.

The four climbers faced long miles of hard-packed trail; soft, slushy snow on the lower slopes; loose, scrambly volcanic rock; and ultimately worked cohesively as a rope team across several icy glaciers to overcome the tallest mountain in Washington — and the tallest free-standing volcano in the lower 48 states.

While the trip served as an introduction to mountain climbing for the majority of the crew, McPherson found fresh enjoyment in the endeavor thanks to their presence.

“We’re a team here at work, and it’s good to be a team in different environments too,” he said. “I’ve climbed the standard route on Mount Rainier enough times that it’s lost some of the novelty, but having these guys with me really brought it back for me. Their excitement and their nervousness brought it back to the beginning for me, like I had no idea what to expect.”

Hooper, who has been with the CWU Police Department for less than a year, felt inspired enough by McPherson’s climbing spirit to join the expedition, which turned out to be an educational experience in what is, and is not, necessary to bring up a mountain.

“If anybody else had asked me to go climb Mount Rainier, I would’ve said no, not because I didn’t want to do it, but because I wouldn’t trust anybody else with it,” Hooper said. “Marc (McPherson) made sure I had the right equipment going up, and I definitely packed way too much food, which is a learning experience I’ll carry with me next time I climb a mountain.”

The team reached the summit in three days, traveling mostly by night, as is best practice when climbing over the summer, according to McPherson.

“The logistics of climbing a glaciated mountain like that involve walking across a lot of deep, dark holes covered in snow bridges,” he said. “The way to do it is to climb at night so the ice stays frozen, the bridges stay firm, and the rocks on the cliffs stay put without meltwater to loosen them.”

The darkness came with the added benefit of obscuring some of the more perilous stretches of the trek.

“The most nervous I was, was on our way down when the sun would come up and I’d see what we’d hiked through in the dark,” Hooper said. “I learned a lot about myself up there.”

As they reached the peak right around sunrise, it was clear to the whole crew that they could not have made it there without having each other’s backs.

“You have to be smart, work hard, and do the best you can to reach the top, because if you don’t, your team isn’t going to get there either,” Hooper said. “Having the memory of accomplishing that with these guys is going to be huge for me.”

Back at ground level, Twaites looks back on the as important bonding between himself and the officers he oversees.

“It’s a cliché in law enforcement, we say we put our lives on the line for one another every single day, and in the mountains it’s the same thing,” he said. “We would be willing to do whatever it takes to help one another reach the top. Marc (McPherson) and I have been here more than 20 years, Sam (Hooper) has only been here a few months, and yet we still get to come together and create that bond that’s going to last for years to come.”