Am I an asset or a liability?

This is not a trivial question to ask yourself when it comes to mountain climbing and every mountaineer, especially the neophytes like myself, must ask this question with most honesty. Climbing a mountain is an individual endeavor in which you are expected to carry your own weight, both physically and metaphorically, but it is also truly a team effort. When there is a risk of falling on steep, hard snow or ending up in a crevasse, it is essential to travel via rope team. It is called the “Brotherhood of the Rope”. It usually involves three or four people tied together so that if one falls, the others can stop him/her from falling further down the mountain. The other key component of roped glacier travel is speed; it is not a good idea to move slowly or stop in an exposed area with crevasses or risk of rock/icefall. But a rope team can only travel as fast as the slowest of its members. Evidently, no one wants to be the weakest link because it can have drastic consequences not only for you but also for the entire rope team. That is really what this question is about.
 
I have been in training my entire life, whether swimming, biking, running or hiking, but I recognize that my next adventure requires a different set of skills. While I still do some good cardio workouts like swimming and biking, I had to incorporate workouts specific to mountain climbing. In early March, I started running the famed Harvard Stadium stairs once a week with an increasingly heavy backpack each time. I now carry a 50lbs backpack and can complete the entire 2200 stairs up and down in less than one hour. Once a week, I also walk for one hour on a treadmill at a 25% incline with a backpack. Finally, on weekends, I go to Mount Wachusett (a 1hr drive from Boston) and hike up and down the mountain in three hours. With this regimen, I have definitely been seeing improvements in my leg strength and my ability to carry a heavy backpack for hours on end.
 
There are obviously other parameters when one wants to climb big mountains, such as weather, the climbing route, mountaineering skills, altitude, and the “fear factor” or in other words, how to deal with exposure and danger. By signing up with RMI, some factors are out of my control, as the lead guide will be responsible for choosing the best and safest route and the summit window with the best weather. I will learn the basics of safety and mountaineering with the RMI guides just before the actual climb. I do not have the luxury to travel to Colorado to get acclimatized at a higher altitude prior to the Rainier climb but I have never had altitude sickness in the past despite being as high as 12,000 feet. Being in an exposed environment where danger is ever-present and a misstep can have serious consequences will be new to me. I cannot really prepare for that other than ensuring that I am in the best shape possible to prevent running out of energy during both the ascent and descent. That physical “cushion” will give me the confidence I need when things get tough mentally.
 
So, am I an asset or a liability? I don’t know the answer to that question yet but I do believe that I will have done everything I can to get ready to climb that mountain, both literally and figuratively.