Photographer Pete Cassam was a natural for this assignment. He has tons of climbing experience (rock, snow, ice, you name it) and loves the mountains. Here he is shooting at 5,800 feet on Mount Rainier.
This was hard work. I sweated through my T-shirt and a sweater. We would scamper ahead (remember, we're in snow at 5,800 feet) and find a good vantage point, shoot video of the climbers as they came to us and passed us, then shut down the camera and do it all again.

I usually take a self-portrait whenever I have the camera out. Just because I can, I guess. The climbers in the background are with the "Big Expedition for Cancer research." They're getting to know each other here on Mount Rainier. Then in June four of them, the professional mountaineers, will head for Alaska and try to summit a mountain that has never been climbed. The Hutch is planning to do the same for years to come, sending teams to climb the unclimbed, and name the unnamed peaks of the world
Like I say, it would be nice to switch gears and just go along with them.