The Climb for the Community team spent all of yesterday on the lower slopes of Mount Rainier training in “mountaineering day school.” This morning climbers started their two-day trek to the summit.

Here’s a report from Molly Nordstrom, United Way of King County’s board chair and the only woman on the Climb:

Today we are hiking to Camp Muir. We will climb from 5,400 feet to 10,060 feet. The trek is nearly 4.5 miles and will take about 6 hours. It’s expected to be

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We asked people to give us 5, and they did…and more! Yesterday, we raised exactly $4,500 in online donations for the Climb for the Community. It’s amazing that we did that in just one day! The money will go to United Way’s Response for Basic Needs, which will provide housing, food and support for people being hard hit by the economic downturn. Funds from the Response are already making more food available for food banks and meal programs. The overall plan is to…