# The Overland Monthly/Volume 56/To Mt. Rainier's Lofty Summit

​AUGUST 1910
No. 2 OVERLAND MONTHLY Vol. LVI
Founded 1866 Bret Harte San Francisco
TO MT. RAINIER'S LOFTY SUMMIT
BY WILLIAM THORNTON PROSSER
Photographs by Asahel Curtis
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING may be classed as play, but the feat of leading to the summit of Mt. Rainier, tallest peak in the United States proper, a party of more than three score largely inexperienced but am-
between Puget Sound and Ocean. The Olympic heights shield some of the wildest regions on the American Continent, abounding in fish and game. Last year the Mountaineers prepared for the Rainier climb of this season by as- the Pacific bitious men and women, is more likely to cending Mt. Baker, snow-encrusted for be placed in the realm of labor. The story of how the Mountaineers' Society, of the courtless centuries, rough and jagged, but not within 4,000 feet the height of Mt. State of Washington, numbering sixty- Rainier. Mt. Baker lies one hundred and two in the party, ascended almost three thirty-five miles to the northward of the miles in the air and returned from Rai- higher peak. nier's summit without hitch or accident, in close to record time, is interesting in demonstrating modern mountain climbing Mt. Rainier is the pride, of the State of Washington. Rising in pristine white- and symmetrie grandeur ness to a methods, as well as-the power of discipline height of 14,528 feet, it is the tallest emi- and organization. This is the largest party nence from Mt. St. Elias and Mt. Mc- ever attempting the summit of any of the Kinley in Alaska to Popocatepetl and the Northwest's snow-capped peaks. The Mountaineers' Association, at the head of which is Meany, occupying the chair of history in the University of Washington, and a writer Mexican volcanoes far down near the ter- minus of the North American Continent. Each summer season small parties brave the hardships and dangers of the Rainier feet Prof. Edmond S. climb to see spread at their the of Northwest history, has been in exist- greater part of a State, Puget Sound, ence only three years. Its plan of organi- with its thousand miles of shore line and zation is similar to that of the Mazama (Mexican for mountain climbing) Club of Portland, Ore., which innumerable bays and islets, far in the west the dim blue haze that hangs over the Pacific Ocean, while to the northward has ascended most of the tallest peaks in Washington in British Columbia the white saw-teeth and Oregon, and to the California Sierra Club. Two years ago the Mountaineers of the Selkirks are plainly outlined, and to the south Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, across lesser initiated their organization by ascending the Oregon border, and a dozen the highest peak in the Olympic Moun- tains, that wild, broken range that lies heights appear more like sugar-coated hummocks than towering mountains. Google Original from PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Digitized by ​The Northwest offers a field for mountain climbing as a recreation that will some day attract as many Americans as do the mountains of Switzerland to-day. One might take an annual mountaineering trip for a score of years and have each time a widely different goal. Each precipitous height offers a different, and in its own way a more glorious view. Scale Mt. Constance in the Olympic Mountains, standing opposite Mt. Rainier, and midway between the Selkirks and Mt. Hood, and the curvature of the earth is apparent as if it, rather than the sky, as Omar sings, were an inverted bowl.
From this Olympic point of vantage, Rainier serves as a guide line in the perpendicular to the eye, while the mountains to the north and to the south lean noticeably away from this center.
In a crevasse, Carbon Glacier.
​camp were strenuous days, even though no ascent of the mountain was attempted. With the break of each morning the mountaineers started out on a side trip intended to fit them for the climb to the summit. Over rocks and glaciers they climbed, up mountain and down, wading streams, and returning to the camp at night exhausted with physical weariness, but more than ready with the next day's dawn to start forth on another "hike."
"There was no such thing as disobedience, though sometimes it threatened," said Mr. Curtis. "Those who go with us simply must do as they are told; failure to comply with orders might mean death when crossing the glaciers or ascending steep mountain sides. Therefore obedience is drilled in with vigor when the party is preparing for the climb.
"We endeavored to put the Mountaineers through every possible experience they might later be called upon to face, and even taught the uninitiated to coast down a steep snow slope without danger of tumbling headlong to the bottom. Some of young women objected to this coasting feature; they weren't going to do it—at first; but they did."
Dressed in bloomers, and with alpine-stocks, the women were as well prepared for the climb as their masculine companions when the time set for the ascent arrived. The ten days over, the party was hardened and eager to set foot upon the summit. The executive committee exercised its prerogative of dictatorship, and designated those who were known to be in the best physical shape for the climb. It was disappointing to the others who were left behind, but many felt themselves unequal to the task and voluntarily resigned themselves to await the return of the larger party.
The first day the sixty-two, carrying packs of provisions, sleeping bags and other light equipment, made temporary camp that night above the 9,000 foot level, within sight of the dome. Next morning at daybreak everything was ready for the final dash.
Across the glaciers, and up, up, up the heights the thin brown line made its way, Indian file. As the ascent grew more and more precipitous, it was necessary to have steps cut in the snow and ice. Six picked and experienced mountain climbers were chosen for the advance guard; each hewed out forty steps, then made way for a fresh man. In this manner the party reached
Coasting in Spray Park.
​the summit of Mt. Rainier by afternoon, requiring only forty minutes longer in the ascent than the record establishd by two men who, a couple of years before, had traveled with the lightest possible equipment.
This last dash to Crater Peak, as the mountain's greatest height is known, meant an ascent of almost six thousand feet which, according to Mr. Curtis, is as much as should be imposed upon the human mechanism in one day. More than this change in altitude within a space of a few hours is likely to be too much for the system, which should have a reasonable time in which to adjust itself to the diminished air pressure.
With shouts of joy, the fatigued mountain climbers fell upon the snow-capped summit of the mountain, when the last eminence was conquered. The sixty-two wandered about the extinct crater, and warmed their feet in the heated earth a short distance below the dome. While Rainier has never been known to become
sible, considering the weights and nourishing powers.
violent, there are manifestations of inward activity, one of which is the heating of this patch of earth, so that the snow is melted away, save during the storms of railway. winter. Bleak and chill as the summit of Rainier is, those who ascend find comfort in warming their hands and feet beneath the upper crater.
A short distance below the dome is another crater, and a smaller party of mountain climbers discovered a third extinct vent in the mountain, while exploring the lower levels this season.
ward of the main dome of the mountain is a
like Rainier."
homa-Tahoma being the Indian name of other cities, but the smoke from forest the mountain, before Captain George Vancouver, sailing the British colors, visited Puget Sound more than a century ago, and named the mountain in honor of his friend, Admiral Rainier. Near the base of Little Tahoma was found this third crater, one of its sides carried away by the great Cowlitz glacier.
Marveling at the wonderful outlook from their great height, and contemplating a scene which many would never view again, the Mountaineers spent an hour upon the summit. Beneath the stars and stripes they buried in the snow a record of their climb; then started the descent. Making much better time than on the upward march, the party reached the temporary camp in good season, spent the night there, and joined their companions at the permanent camp the next day.
The route followed on the ascent was that mapped by the late Professor I. C. Russell, of the University of Michigan, one of the most renowned geologists on the American continent. Professor Russell in 1896 made detailed maps for the United States Government that have since served all those ambitious of Rainier's summit, and few changes have been found necessary in the geologist's work.
"Before we left Seattle, we knew exactly how many mouths we would have to feed, and for how long, so carefully had
our itinerary been prepared,"-so Curtis explained the preliminary arrangements for the Mountaineers' trip. "We made out a complete bill of fare, placing While upon it as great a variety of food as pos- Mr.
These provisions were packed into the main camp on the backs of horses, from the nearest point on the "Once at the camp, things moved like clockwork. Each person had his and her separate duties-each was taught what to do and how best to do it. While many had been in mountain climbing parties before, the greater number were virtually inexperienced in the tackling of a mountain
On this climb several members of the United States Signal Corps were of the
To the north-
great jagged rock, reaching a level of party, and with a heliograph they at- about 11,000 feet, known as Little Ta-
tempted to send signals to Seattle and
they were, who were lost in a storm on Rai-
fires prevented.
That mountain climbing in large parties is much safer than with only two or three was exemplified by the success of the Mountaineers as compared with two men, experienced mountaineers though nier while the larger organization was preparing to make the ascent. The trail of the lost men never could be found, and their hodies are thought to be at the bot- tom of some crevasse high up on the mountain's side.
Strange as it may seem, the Federal ​Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 56 Issue 2.djvu/7 ​Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 56 Issue 2.djvu/8 ​Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 56 Issue 2.djvu/9 ​152 OVERLAND MONTHLY. have learned to loiter. The trail, too, is changing in its tone. We have lived under ing, the time when at home we sit on our the dense forests of the Puget Sound porches just after the evening meal and country, but this is different. There is a long stretch where the trees will soon set. rise up, straight and tall and close to- gether, but where there is no vestige of an undergrowth beneath, not even a blade of grass. to have the calm of an early summer even- turn toward the horizon where the sun Here we pause for a considerable time to enjoy the grandeur of the scene-a scene far beyond the brush and imagina- There are no lower branches, tion of even the greatest of painters. A and the green tops are so far above that all slight rest now and then is a great aid, our world seems colored brown, brown and gives encouragement to further effort. We have one more scramble up the bed of a rocky torrent, now shrunken to small When we reach the steepest part of our proportions, and then our leader cries: tThe tents." The cry is welcome, for to us of the city the walk has been long; but and we struggle. The first little level still we have time to pause and to admire. To our left rises Mount Ararat; to our snow. This tiny plateau is all surrounded right, Iron Mountain, Crystal Mountain, by bold, rugged peaks that seemed to have Pyramid Peak-well named-and reign- opened to let us through. The trees rise ing over the whole region, Mount Rainier dark green around us, but scattered singly towers in his mantle of white that has now turned to soft shades of pink and ame- peaks cut off the sun and send twilight. thyst and violet. Before us stretches our Štretched out before us is a beautiful and Mecca, the Hunting Ground. The meadow runs on for some distance, then seemingly breaks sheer off. Far on the other side of the valley that must lie below, rise the stretches a white carpet of graceful adder lofty peaks of the next ridge. Over all the Hunting Ground is spread a carpet of the most gorgeous hues. The background is of moss and grass; the pattern, of every color, crimson, purple, yellow, orange, blue, violet, white, and a hundred shades A Harvard pro- fessor gave up his chair to come and live tile; we may perhaps carry a few blooms among the flowers of Paradise Valley, and calls these blooms even more beautifully bril- from the soil beneath and brown from the bare trunks that rise so far above us. climb, as far as we can see through the tree tops above, the mountain towers- stretch is welcome, and it brings the first or in groups of two or three. The high wonderful carpet: here and there are patches of snow, and between them as far as the eye can reach through the trees tongues, nodding their heads gently as each zephyr strikes them, true snow flow- ers. It is too beautiful and too different to leave quickly. It seems a desecration to tread upon them, as we must, to pass on. Mankind's desire to grasp the beautiful rises within us, and yet it all seems so fu- of each different color. with us, but the sublimity can live after- wards only as a fading picture of memory. Some great painter some day perhaps will liant than those of Paradise. catch the light and shade, but the soul of it is too illusive to confine. Our way becomes seem to be ascending from one tiny pla- teau to another. There are still trees, but they are more scattered, forming rather an open park. The underbrush has given way to fields of adder tongues and pale stream's edge to greet us. purple flowers. Then through a narrow cleft in the mountains, we take our way of this Hunting Ground, and he But the tents are still in the distance, and we push on. The ponies for the down trail trot past us and their riders pause a moment for the merry salutation of the The spirit of camaraderie less rugged. We mountains. and adventure burns brightly. The landlord rises from a knoll by the He questions us good-humoredly of the trail, and he praises our fortitude in electing to tramp over the snow, and before us lays a lake, it. We begin to grow nearly as much in love with ourselves as with the Hunting Ground. A little flattery at the end of a rise more peaks, Mount Rainier himself long day's climb is soothing. And then towering over them. The great heights he assures us that the seven miles was as the crow flies, that we have covered many, the water smooth and dark. Across it a log cabin stands solitary, and beyond it temper the sun's rays, and the place seems Digiüzed by Google Original from
The road between Ashford and Longmire Springs.
​pears to be black basalt, and on its sides no snow clings. Standing as it does next the shimmering slopes of Rainier, it has a striking appearance. Soon we came to what seemed the jumping off place. The Hunting Ground breaks in a sheer preci- pice a thousand feet or so down, and across from the brink rises Rainier, mightier than we had yet felt him. He seemed for a moment to compel the memory of the old legend of Tyee Sahgalee, the home of the Great Spirit, the place where no Indian dare set foot. Down the side that faced us, the North and the South Tahoma Gla- ciers lay, breaking off far, far below us.
Upon going back a few hundred yards, we found Mirror Lake, only a little lake- let, but in it the mountain is so faithfully pictured that for a moment we draw back dizzily, not knowing which is mountain and which is picture. . We follow the pre- cipice to our right, which runs at right angles to the one across which we have just been gazing, and watch for a place to get down to the glaciers below. A diagonal watercourse finally breaks the sheerness, and we work our way down slowly. For the first time we have found a place where the hob-nailed mountain boots are a necessity, though at all times their stout leather and low, flat heels would have been a comfort and an aid.
As we work lower, we begin to feel that our climb is hazardous, but we all get a good view of the dingy glacial surface, and some of us have an opportunity to dig those precious hob-nails into the ice.
We trail back slowly toward the camp again through the bright fields of brilliant bloom. Every point and pinnacle seems to beckon us, every little mound, and every tiny bend in the streams. It always seems imperative to reach that point just beyond, and vet the atmosphere in the brilliant morning is lazy. When we reach the camp we throw ourselves down beside the stream and feast our eyes on the beauties around us: then suddenly, without argument, we are all up and climbing in the other direc- tion. Mount Ararat has drawn us.
Mount Ararat seems very different from the surrounding peaks. Instead of the
bold, broken lines of granite and black, basalt or snow limned slopes, Mount Ara- rat seems to catch the warmth of the bright sunshine. A little soil has clung to the rock, and the flowers extend as far up its sides as the eye can reach. There are many ravines torn out by _ swiftly- rushing mountain torrents, mostly dry at this time of the year, but the flowers spread over all, one beautiful, brilliant tapestry. They offer little foothold, how- ever, and we make our way over the boul- ders in a dry water course. We climb here without any of the element of hazard, just a good stiff rise, working back and forth over the boulders with an occasional help- ing hand over a long step. There is no trail, and the whole mountain-side is spread before our view to choose from.
But when we have reached the top, we stand upon the edge of a black precipice. Thousands of feet below us is a valley and a tiver winding through it like a thin silver ribbon. Across on the other side extends mountain ridge after mountain ridge far away into the blue haze of the distance. Even the snow robed Olympics rise behind the nearer ridges of the Cas- cades. There is immensity here that is almost beyond the power of the human mind to grasp. Our words fall flat. Few of us can stand on the brink of that preci- pice and glance down, but we can all look across to the mountains beyond. We walk on the edge of that precipice around three sides of the mountain, and the valley nar- rows, and we look across at the Tatoosh Range and the Sawtooth Ridge, with many another unnamed ridge beyond. Mount Adams, Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Baker shimmer against the azure sky, and always Rainier is with us. The low valleys below these lofty peaks enable us to grasp fully their grandeur, to realize their immensity. Back in our childhood there were the beautiful Blue Mountains of fairy land; but here we find not only ridge upon ridge of them, with all their fairyland atmosphere, but also the bold white peaks and the snow-clad ranges of this newer land, this summer land of the fiery young Yakima.