Mount Rainier

“ Seen from the Puget Sound country to the west, Mount Rainier has an unreal quality—its white summit, nearly 3 miles high, seems to float among the clouds. We share with the populace of the entire lowland a thrill as we watch skyward the evening’s setting sun redden the volcano’s western snowfields. When you approach the mountain in its lovely setting, you may find something that appeals especially to you—the scenery, the wildlife, the glaciers, or the wildflowers. Or you may feel challenged to climb to the summit. ”

“ The undulating meadows between the shady groves are brilliant in summer with a veritable carpet of gorgeous blossoms. In contrast to the exquisite charms of the groves and flower-decked rolling meadows are desolate ice fields and rugged glaciers which vary, through many tints and shades, from silvery whiteness to intense blue. Added to these minor charms, and towering far above them, is the massive summit of Rainier. At times the sublime mountain appears steel blue in the unclouded sky, or rosy with the afterglow at sunset, or all aflame with the glories of the newborn day. ”

“ On either side of the trail worn in the brown soil the ferns and flowering shrubs were bent over in graceful curves, and at times filled the little-used lane, first traversed fifteen years before.
The trail led us to Eagle Cliff, a bold, rocky promontory rising as does El Capitan from the Yosemite, 1,800 feet from the forest-lined canyon of Mowich River. From Eagle Cliff one beholds the most magnificent view that is to be had in all the wonderful region about Mount Rainier. ”

“ The scenery of Mount Rainier is of rare and varied beauty. The peak itself is as noble a mountain as we have ever seen in its lines and structure. The glaciers which descend from its snow fields present all [291] the characteristic features of those in the Alps, and though less extensive than the ice streams of the Mount Blanc or Monta Rosa groups are in their crevasses and séracs equally striking and equally worthy of close study. We have seen nothing more beautiful in Switzerland or Tyrol, in Norway or in the Pyrenees, than the Carbon River glaciers and the great Puyallup glaciers ”

“ Easily king of all is Mount Rainier. Almost 250 feet higher than Mount Shasta, its nearest rival in grandeur and in mass, it is overwhelmingly impressive, both by the vastness of its glacial mantle and by the striking sculpture of its cliffs. The total area of its glaciers amounts to no less than 45 square miles, an expanse of ice far exceeding that of any other single peak in the United States. Many of its individual ice streams are between 4 and 6 miles long and vie in magnitude and in splendor with the most boasted glaciers of the Alps. ”

“ Marking the eastern horizon are the Cascade Mountains, and looming majestically to the southeast is the snow-capped, truncated cone of Mount Rainier—serenely beautiful in midsummer, mysterious when half-shrouded in the gray mists of autumn, and unforgettable if seen at sunset of a clear midwinter day, suffused with an alpine glow that slowly gives way to blue shadows, which creep up the long snowy sides with the sinking of the sun. ”

“ The extreme limit of tree growth on Mount Rainier is about seven thousand feet of altitude, above which one finds only occasional distorted, wind-tortured mountain-hemlocks. There is no well-defined timber-line, as on other lofty mountains. Avalanches and snow-slides keep the upper levels swept and bare.
The wild-flower catalogue is too long to enumerate here. John Muir expresses the belief that no other subalpine floral gardens excel Rainier's in profusion and gorgeousness. The region differs little from other Pacific regions of similar altitude in variety of species ”

“ The walls of the crater in some places are quite warm, all of which plainly indicates that Mount Rainier is a volcano, not extinct but slumbering.
The amount of steam that escapes from the crater at any one time varies with the atmospheric pressure. In fact, Mount Rainier is a reliable barometer, foretelling a storm with certainty. Everyone who has noted the appearance of the mountain from time to time is familiar with the peculiar white cloud that is frequently seen suspended just above the summit, while no other clouds are in sight. ”

“ The mountaineers of the Pacific Northwest will no doubt jubilate at the above announcement by the United States Geological Survey of the new figure for the altitude of Mount Rainier. It places that peak close to the top of the list of high mountains in the United States. Mount Rainier's closest rival on the Pacific coast, Mount Shasta, it so happens, has just recently been beheaded by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and now can claim no more than 14,162 feet, that is, 218 feet less than it once boasted. The great volcano of Puget Sound is thus left well in the lead. ”

“ Immediately adjoining the Paradise Glacier on the northeast, and not separated from it by any definite barrier, lies the Cowlitz Glacier, one of the stateliest ice streams of Mount Rainier. It flows in a southeasterly direction, and burrows its nose deeply into the forest-covered hills at the mountain's foot. Its upper course consists of two parallel-flowing ice streams, intrenched in profound troughs, which they have enlarged laterally until now only a narrow, ragged crest of rock remains between them, resembling a partition a thousand feet in height. ”

“ Mount Rainier probably started to grow during the middle part of the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age, which began more than 1 million years ago, but glaciers had covered this part of the mountains even before the volcano appeared. Masses of rock debris formed by ancient glaciers occur beneath lava flows from Mount Rainier on the west side of Mazama Ridge just upslope from Narada Falls, on the north side of Glacier Basin, and at a few other places in the park. ”

“ The unwasted condition of these craters, and, indeed, to a great extent, of the entire mountain, would tend to show that Rainier is still a comparatively young mountain. With the exception of the projecting lips of the craters and the top of a subordinate summit a short distance to the northward, the mountains is solidly capped with ice all around; and it is this ice cap which forms the grand central fountain whence all the twenty glaciers of Rainier flow, radiating in every direction. ”

“ Ice-clad Mount Rainier, towering over the landscape of western Washington, ranks with Fuji-yama in Japan, Popocatepetl in Mexico, and Vesuvius in Italy among the great volcanoes of the world. At Mount Rainier, as at other inactive volcanoes, the ever-present possibility of renewed eruptions gives viewers a sense of anticipation, excitement, and apprehension not equaled by most other mountains. Even so, many of us cannot imagine the cataclysmic scale of the eruptions that were responsible for building the giant 2 cone which now stands in silence. ”

“ This upland park owes its scenic charm largely to its manifold glacial features and is diversified by cirques, canyons, lakelets, moraines, and waterfalls.
In the foregoing descriptions the endeavor has been to make clear how widely the glaciers of Mount Rainier differ in character, in situation, and in size. They are not to be conceived as mere ice tongues radiating down the slopes of the volcano from an ice cap on its crown. There is no ice cap, properly speaking, and there has perhaps never been one at any time in the mountain's history, not even during the glacial epochs. ”

“ Our road now lies across McDonald's Prairie, from which we catch the first real view of Mount Rainier, the grandest snow-peak of the Cascade Range; which fact it pains us to admit, because we had taken Mount Hood to be the highest, and even maintained its pretensions over Mount Shasta, its California rival. But our eyes convince us that Rainier is chief among the snow-peaks, and altogether lovely. Measurement makes it just four feet higher than Shasta—so the North has the champion mountain, after all. ”

“ A far more spectacular variety of landslide occurs when a mass of rock drops from a cliff to form a rockfall. The largest rockfalls on Mount Rainier in historic time occurred in December 1963 on the east flank. Masses of rock hundreds of feet across fell repeatedly from the steep north face of Little Tahoma Peak onto Emmons Glacier. The rock masses shattered into dust and countless fragments, fanned out across the glacier, then avalanched down the steep ice surface at tremendous speed. When the avalanches reached the end of the glacier they shot out into space as sheets 36 of rock debris. ”

“ The face of the mountain also varies from day to day as its broad snowfields melt during the summer. The melting of these frozen reservoirs makes Mount Rainier a natural resource in a practical as well as in an esthetic sense, for it ensures steady flows of water for hydroelectric power in the region, regardless of season. ”

“ Mount Rainier National Park and Rainier National Forest are government titles. The mountain is known by the name Rainier all over the world. Usage, during a century and a quarter, has established the title.
It may be conceded that Tacoma is a native and euphonious word and would fitly designate the greatest of Pacific Northwest mountains. But Rainier is old and world-wide and fixed, and, moreover, is but one of many alien names in the Puget Sound region. Puget Sound is an example, and Mount Baker and Mount Saint Helens, and here in Oregon is Mount Hood. ”

“ Why, their Indian, Sluiskin, is better known than Kautz!"
"But I thought," said I, "that Stevens and Van Trump were the very first men to reach the summit of Mount Rainier."
"Oh, don't misunderstand me, Bill," answered Milton Rhodes. "All honor to Stevens and Van Trump, the first of men to reach the very top of the mountain; but all honor, too, to the first white man to set foot on Rainier, the discoverer of the great Nisqually Glacier, the first to stand upon the top of Old He, though adverse circumstances prevented his reaching the highest point." ”

“ It springs so powerfully into the air that one involuntarily looks for signs of life and action. But no smoke rises from its broken top. It is still and helpless, shackled in bonds of ice. Will it remain bound? Or will it, with due warning, destroy in a day the elaborate system of glaciers which countless centuries have built, and leave a new and different, and perhaps, after years of glacial recovery, even a more gloriously beautiful Mount Rainier than now? ”

“ Of all the fire-mountains which, like beacons, once blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest in form, has the most interesting forest cover, and, with perhaps the exception of Shasta, is the highest and most flowery. ”

“ Mount Rainier is so deeply covered with ice and snow that the glacial aspects of the mountain are far more conspicuous than the volcanic ones. The facts about the vulcanism and the history of the growth of the mountain are very difficult to study; and it will be a long time before they are fully known. The glaciers, on the other hand, are very conspicuous, comparatively easy of access, and the many facts concerning their extent, rate of motion, recession, or advance, may be quite readily determined. ”

“ Beyond the glacier are extremely bold and rugged mountains, scantily clothed with forests nearly to their summits. The position of the timber line shows that the bare peaks above are between 8,000 and 9,000 feet high. Looking southward, up the glacier, we have a glimpse into the wild amphitheater in which it has its source. The walls of the great hollow in the mountain side rise in seemingly vertical precipices about 4,000 feet high. Far above is a shining, snow-covered peak, which Willis named the Liberty Cap. It is one of the culminating points of Mount Rainier, but not the actual summit. ”

“ Mount Rainier is dormant; Yellowstone is dead, and Crater Lake marks the spot through which a volcano collapsed and disappeared. Rainier's usefulness as a volcanic example, however, is lost in its supreme usefulness as a glacial exhibit. The student of glaciers who begins here with the glacier in action, and then studies the effects of glaciers upon igneous rocks among the cirques of the Sierra, and upon sedimentary rocks in the Glacier National Park, will study the masters; which, by the way, is a tip for universities contemplating summer field-classes. ”

“ To the eastward the eye ranged over hundreds of miles, over chain on chain of mountain ridges which gradually disappeared in the dim blue distance."
Notwithstanding the rigors of the ascent parties leave Paradise Inn for the summit every suitable day. Hundreds make the ascent each summer. To the experienced mountain-climber it presents no special difficulties. To the inexperienced it is an extraordinary adventure. Certainly no one knows his Mount Rainier who has not measured its gigantic proportions in units of his own endurance. ”

“ About Mount Rainier it does not often exceed 20 to 40 feet in height [Pg 25] and is often a much smaller tree. It produces cones at the age of 5 to 7 years. The foliage is a yellowish green. At high elevations the leaves have a peculiar whorled appearance which gives it a different aspect from that of the other pines. The short, heavily limbed trunk bears no resemblance to the tall and slender shaft of the lodgepole pine of the Rocky Mountains. The root system is shallow and the tree is easily fire killed. The wood of the variety which grows in the park is of no commercial value. ”

“ The elevation of Mount Whitney (14,501 ft.) , it may be remembered, was determined by actual leveling, but such procedure would have been impossible on Mount Rainier, as the most practicable route to its summit leads over many miles of snow and ice, and up a precipitous chute several hundred feet in height. On thawing snow accurate leveling is out of the question, for the instrument can not be set up so firmly that [300] it will not settle slightly between back and fore sights. To execute this pottering kind of work in freezing weather would entail both hardship and great expense. ”