Mt. Rainer

Mt. Rainer in all its glory in early October 2007.

(taken from the parking lot, no hiking required!)

My cousin and I heard that we were in for a nice weekend, so we thought we should go to the most famous mountain in the state. Mt. Rainer, at 14,410 feet (4,392 m) is the tallest mountain in the area. It took us about 2 1/2 hours drive from North Seattle to Paradise Lodge which is at an elevation of 5,400 feet and a great jumping off point to all sorts of trails.

Assured by the ranger that the snow wasn't too deep yet, we ventured up the Skyline Trail. This trail is a 5 or 6 mile loop with an elevation gain of 1700 feet. This doesn't seem bad, unless you're walking through 3 feet of snow! Despite the ranger's assurances, after a few miles, we found ourselves doing just that! I got pretty tired, but the views were so amazing, that it was worth it.
The views and the weather were amazing. Down by the lodge, the blueberry bushes were scarlet, and as we heading up, gleaming white snow and blue sky dominated. It was amazing because no matter where you looked it was gorgeous. You had Mt Rainer right there, or if you turned around you could see Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens and countless other peaks. We even heard the rumble of glaciers calving from the other side of the ridge. Mt. Rainer got so close, I felt like I could just reach out and touch it.

It's actually rather strange, Rainer can be seen from 100's of miles away, and as you get closer and closer to it it appears really big. But then, when you're practically hiking on one of its shoulders, suddenly it seems so doable. It's almost like it was luring us in. It made us think, ah... it wouldn't be THAT hard to go up there. But it is, trust me. And no, I haven't tried. yet.

We made it to Panorama Point (6,800 ft) for lunch and watched people backcountry skiing down from Camp Muir (the base camp for Rainer ascents). During our lunch I wandered around to the other hikers, asking if they were going to turn around to head back or finish the loop. While this may have appeared as me just being friendly, I had other motives. The 2nd part of the loop hadn't been broken through yet, and I didn't know where the trail was (and wasn't that excited about breaking the trail through 3 feet of snow myself). I met a nice guy from Alabama and his Mom. He was interested in making sure he "got his Mama off this mountain" (insert southern accent here), but wasn't sure of the way either. Finally I found someone who had been down the last part of the loop, and as we stood at the top of the ridge, surveying where we needed to go, we saw 3 toiling shapes coming up the other way. Perfect! All we had to do know was sit back and wait for them to make it all the way up to us and we'd have our trail. After a while though, our consciences got the better of us, and we headed on down. Poor guys, we did cheer for them when they got close and made sure to comment on the beautiful trail they had made.

It was a gorgeous day, and a gorgeous place to visit. Unfortunately it's going to have to wait until the snows melt next summer before I return.