Major funding for Rainier the Mountain was provided by TCI of Washington and REI.
Additional funding provided by the News Tribune, Washington State Lottery, Hugh and Jane Ferguson
Foundation, Osberg Family Trust, Butler Charitable Trust, and viewers like you.
Rainier for the Pacific Northwest is that great symbol. It's so huge and grand and I'm such a
small person. It just blows your way. She is so big. The largest and most heavily
glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states. It is something that should be
revered for its cultural beauty, for its historical nature. It's almost like an
ownership to people around here. Of course it's beautiful. That's my mountain.
It's a physical challenge. It's a mental challenge. It's it challenged me climbing.
There's you know technical difficulties and and all the dangers of mountaineering.
So all these years that I've been here it's it's gotten into me. You know I live
at 9,500 feet from most of the summer up at Camp Sherman and sometimes just
sitting there. I look at the ridges and the glaciers and there's a real sense
that I'm part of what's happening and it's part of my life. I don't think of
leaving the mountain and going home. I actually think of the mountain as my home.
Still no one gives me a reason why living things have to die. Tell me how
much is this life worth? There's still a mystery from death to birth. It's exciting to help
someone when you pull a person up out of a crevasse, you find them alive and you
can look into their eyes and you can encourage them. It's a good feeling. I
really feel like I'm doing valuable work.
And truthfully I've fallen in crevasses too and I've come to learn that the
mountain plain doesn't care. It just doesn't care about me or anyone else.
My partner Sean and my housemate Phil were killed during a rescue. They both fell.
Since the accident back in 1995 with Sean and Phil it became apparent to me
that we needed you know great climbing Rangers and I was able to recruit a
number of highly skilled dynamic men and women that came here and I think they
really add depth to the program. With all the recent rescue activity we've done a
great job. We handled them efficiently and professionally and we were able to
take care of the problems right away. You know essentially my friends have asked
me do you resent people when they get into accidents that you have to risk
yourself but I don't think of it that way nor do I see myself as a hero or
anything great when I rescue these people. It's something I just do and I
feel comfortable and happy to help.
It was a long climb to reach the top, gonna stretch out on a big old rock.
Take a deep breath of mountain air, sitting in the sun time to spare.
Accidents do happen but with competent guides over 10,000 people safely
attempt to reach the top each year. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a
permit to guide on the Emmons side of the mariner and so for the last two years
I've conducted my guided climbing on the east side.
There's a lot of glacier travel on the Emmons side so it provides for snow and
ice climbers that all the challenges that they'd find on Mount Everest and I've
climbed now for the last decade on some of the world's highest peaks including
Mount Everest where I've been six times.
Mount Rainier is a huge part of my background and learning those skills.
Really the only thing it lacks is the extreme altitude. I've successfully climbed
Mount Rainier 262 times. I've had a number of really close calls in particular
a rock fall and sometimes boulders you know the size of refrigerators. I've been
through that number of times and what can you say? You know this site has a
much more expansive feel. We're much higher we're a thousand feet higher than
Paradise. We can see Mount Adams, we can look to Eastern Washington. It's a
different experience.
Native peoples crossed all the lands, the mountains. We went to the mountain
sides in the springtime and that's where we picked berries and huckleberries and
we set up camp and that's where we told our stories and we played our slahal, our
stick game and that's where a lot of our stories come from the mountains and the
legends told and on the east side of the mountains the Yakama's used that
land for their stories so it's shared amongst all the native tribes and
groups throughout the areas.
In some of our traditional stories Mount Rainier often assumed the role
of a fat angry woman. My people the Lemmys cast Rainier as the jealous wife of
Mount Baker who is the favorite of Baker's two wives but she had an awful
temper. After a while the younger wife Mount Chexon became the shine of Baker's
eyes because she was much kinder and gentler. Furious Mount Rainier threatened
to leave unless Baker showed her more attention. When Baker ignored her she
made good of her threats and she traveled south alone and slow. After a
distance she kept looking back but Baker did not call her home. With a heavy heart
she continued on and camped on the night in the highest hill in the land. She
stretched and stretched to see Baker and her children and still there was no sign
he did not call her home and often on a clear day or a clear night the mountain
dresses in sparkling white and looks longing at Baker and the mountain
children near him.
When the white man's came to our shore they wanted to explore the lands so they
used native guides and they asked our people to direct them up the mountain.
The first recorded summit climb was led to the mountain by Sluskin who was a
Yakama native. He guided General Hazard Stevens and Philomene Van Trump. Stevens
wrote that as they climbed higher on the mountain Sluskin refused to go further.
Tacoma he said was an enchanted mountain inhabited by an evil spirit who dwelt in
a fiery lake on its summit. Many years ago his grandfather a great chief and
warrior and a mighty hunter had ascended part way up the mountain and had
encountered some of these dangers.
Some people believe that native people never went past a certain point but
through our stories we know that that's not true. Without a doubt the most famous
guides in recorded and contemporary history of Mount Rainier are the
Whitaker twins. Jim was the first American to climb Mount Everest and Lou
has led three expeditions there. The guides on Rainier the biggest group
that have summited Everest around 25 have done the top of Everest. When I come
back I still get goose-flesh when I see the mountain I'll fly in and see this
incredible peak. This stands up higher than Mount Everest does in respect to
the terrain around it. We started hiking and climbing around here at the age of
12. Jim guided for three years on Mount Rainier and I've guided for almost 40.
He's taken blind people to the summit and people with one leg. In 1981 a film
crew followed Jim and Lou Whitaker as they guided the physically impaired
climbers to the top.
We'll take another 10 minutes. My legs feel like raw meat.
Watch bread on the rope now. Up rope. Falling, falling. Great, good, hold on, hold on.
Okay now, straight back up the hill. Okay, stop at the time. Okay, you're on the ridge.
Okay, everybody off the ledge.
The team continues the descent. Now the icefall is the only real danger before
them but the glacier has been stable since the last tragedy and the team
estimates that the chance of another avalanche is very remote. The first rope
team crosses safely but precisely as a second rope team enters the path of the
icefall the glacier cracks again.
And then against all reasonable hope before killing them all it stops.
Inexplicably it just stops. We learn from those people how great the human
spirit is and the mountain can help us learn that. Lou's guide service requires
a day of training before attempting the summit. We got women and women guides
now instead of just a bunch of macho, pseudo macho guys climbing the mountain.
Okay that's too big of a step there. Bill right? Yeah. Okay. Bill we're just gonna
take smaller ones and I lock it all the way out so my hip and my knee are locked.
You know it's funny is I have almost as fun on the mountain when we don't summit
you know because it's just about being out there with the wind and the clouds
and snow and it's not you know but and just because people that climb are
usually incredible people. In ways it makes a huge difference in people's
lives.
Personally I haven't guided enough to have like an opinion of men and women
which gender is tougher but I thought it was interesting that one of the senior
guides told me that women seem to be more resilient. Interesting yeah.
The first woman to climb Rainier was a teacher and journalist Faye Fuller. In
1890 it was a challenge just to get to the mountain. The second day of travel is
long. In our saddles 14 hours. Great tall trees line the winding trail. So straight
they seem like pillars of ancient buildings. It is then one realizes the
resources of this state and the dream of its future preeminence. The next morning
riding begins for several miles over rocky riverbeds.
And then the Longmire Springs come into view beneath the lofty mountain.
It was in 1883 when P.B. Van Trump and James Longmire were returning from the
mountain that they discovered the springs.
Mr. Longmire afterward built dwellings and bath houses and established a summer
resort. We traveled higher and higher and at the elevation of about 4,000 feet we
entered the most beautiful parks that could be created.
Saturday August 9th before starting I donned heavy flannels woolen hose warm
mittens and goggles drove long cocks and brads into my shoes rolled two single
blankets containing the provisions for three days. I grasped my alpin stalk and
resolved to climb until exhausted.
After two days of toiling upwards at 430 p.m. August 10th 1890 we stood on the top.
We were somewhat sheltered in the crater and examined the steam jets looking as
if a row of boiling tea kettles had been placed along the ridge and there with
steam beside us we spread our blankets took off our shoes bathe our feet in
whiskey and began the night.
Wheelman were also challenged by Mount Rainier and back in 1898 had a running
battle for bicycle paths. Did it ever strike the local road supervisors that
the old method of dumping a lot of big round boulders about the size of
pumpkins into the mud holes is not the modern way of making roads? They might
buy a pamphlet on modern road construction and profit thereby.
Music
And it's claim of the mountain boys and coast down her side see the flowing
waterfalls the sunsets glorified.
All right good job. I saw you coming up. Good job.
Hey we made it.
All right. I just told my son he'd have to be mighty tired. Mighty tired. I ain't tired. I'm exhausted.
Oh yeah that's all uphill now. This is about a hundred and two miles according to my...
A hundred and two miles. Oh my last twenty were killer. That was an amazing climb.
An amazing climb. Well it was a little foggy. I didn't see a whole lot of mountain on the way up here.
I came here with my sister and brother-in-law about ten years ago and I was
absolutely fascinated and captivated by this mountain. Actually at my desk at the
office I have a small postcard with a picture of Mount Rainier on it and it
made that much of an impression on me and I decided I always wanted to come back.
I've looked at it a couple times in the middle of a hectic day thinking boy I'd
rather be in Mount Rainier than where I am now. Maybe it's a humble feeling you're
the mountain is so large and beautiful and you're so small and it maybe puts
things in perspective for you. Sort of a certain solitude and beauty and majesty.
Music
Perhaps the greatest challenge Rainier offers is to scientists. They're trying to
predict when this active volcano will have a massive mudslide known as a lahar
or a major explosion. There are 25 named glaciers on Mount Rainier. There's as
much snow and ice, perennial snow and glacier ice on Mount Rainier as on all
the other cascade volcanoes combined. So when you live downstream of that much
water you have to recognize that there's a real hazard from flooding or from
lahars that are initiated on the volcano. And I think every time I come here I
have to place the mountain in a different box and I come here and hike and look at
wildflowers and I forget about the dangers of the volcano. Or I come here
and work and look at the hazards and I ignore the flowers. When magma intrudes
in the volcano and destabilizes a slope we could have a landslide occur which
would transform into a large mudflow. And these have occurred enough and perhaps
without warning that we feel it's important to inform people, to educate
them as to all the possibilities. To put it in perspective there have been mudflows
that have traveled as far as the Puget Sound lowlands and filled in large parts
of Puget Sound. What concerns us most is that there are large populations at the
base of the volcano and over 100,000 people living in areas that have been
covered by lahar deposits. How likely is it that we'll have some sort of
volcanic crisis here at Mount Rainier? Likely enough that I'm spending a portion
of my career talking to people in local communities about possibilities. Mount
Rainier is an active volcano. We have gases rising. There have been relatively
recent eruptions as recently as the 19th century. It's not a matter of if Mount
Rainier erupts, it's a matter of when.
There stands a misty mountain in the soft and gentle rain
Against the flight of endless time forever to remain. A national park is set
aside for something very unique unto itself. I think it's a great use of the
taxpayers' money. Through all the passing seasons, through every night and day
I can see that misty mountain and I hear the spirits say. The mountain was there
years, hundreds and hundreds of years before we even came. The vision of
setting aside 330,000 acres for Mount Rainier was a great dream. In the late
1800s, a growing number of people came to realize that Mount Rainier and its
surroundings must be set aside. Not only for scientific research, but to preserve
its outstanding scenic and recreational values for generations to come. Most
important was the local support in both Tacoma and Seattle. Mountaineering
clubs, newspaper editors, businessmen's associations, and the University of
Washington faculty put pressure on Washington State's congressional delegation
to establish a national park at Rainier. Finally, the bill passed both houses on
March 2, 1899. Seattle supporters were delighted, not so in Tacoma, as the bill
finalized the name of the mountain as Rainier rather than Tacoma. To Tacomans
and Native peoples, it was an outrage that the great mountain was not called by
its Indian name, Tacoma. Instead, in 1792, when exploring Puget Sound, Captain
George Vancouver caught sight of the snowy peak and christened it Mount Rainier
to honor a colleague of recent acquaintance. The founding of Rainier
National Park was of great significance. For the first time in the northwest, land
was set aside for inspirational, educational, and recreational purposes
rather than to exploit its resources. During the first years of the park, roads
and trails were built, facilities expanded, and approximately 500 people headed
for the mountain each summer season.
Completion of the railroad to Ashford in 1904 helped to make mass mountaineering
outings to Rainier possible. Touring cars met the train and took groups up the
mountain.
In the hundred years since founding the park, it has been a constant battle to
preserve its pristine natural beauty. In the early 1900s, many concessionaires
were doing business. Even an ice cream stand at the base of Nisqually Glacier.
Bears were fed, now a definite no-no. Tent camps covered fragile meadows, another
no-no. A nine-hole golf course was in operation for a few years. Golfers hit the
ball down the mountain and returned by bus. Paradise Inn was built in 1916 by
the Rainier National Park Company. Concessions were consolidated and limited
to the company. But over the years, there have been dreams and schemes to expand
the facilities at Paradise to a huge destination resort. A violation of the
original mandate to preserve the park in its natural condition and for the
inspirational quality of the landscape.
For the past years, Mount Rainier has not only been a challenge, but has been an
inspiration for photographers, poets, painters, and writers. Floyd Schmoe was
the first park naturalist at Rainier and wrote extensively about the mountain.
Fourteen years ago, a film was made about Floyd.
You see that I don't have that sense of balance that I used to have 65 years ago
when I started skiing up here. I'll be 90 in September of this year and I suppose
I'm lucky to be on my feet even.
Ruth and Floyd started both their marriage and his career by snowshoeing to
5,400 feet up Rainier, where under the snow they were keepers of the inn all
winter. It was here that he wrote one of his best-known books.
I carry their skis up and literally tumble down through Devil's Dip. I've
left a few scars on those trees myself.
Nostalgia, I don't quite know. It makes me wish I had another 10, 15 years up
here. Might even be my last trip.
For the almost 103 years that I have lived, Mount Rainier has become not only
a magnificent place, but it has become a sacred place.
There's a large sense of spirituality for a lot of people who come down to
Rainier. I've talked to a number of people for whom Rainier really does
symbolize the kind of physical presence of God. And you know, with so many
religions, mountains are the place where the great leaders go up to receive
wisdom.
I wrote my book about Mount Rainier basically to satisfy my own curiosity
about the mountain. And in a way, the book is about this, you know, awkward
bookish man going into the mountain and finding out what he can find. And he
finds that it's not a terribly pleasant experience most of the time. I mean,
Rainier's natural climate, if you come down here day after day after day, most
of what you'll find is this. You know, these beautiful forests, but incredibly
fogged in sullen skies.
This is a section about my trek along the Wonderland Trail, which is the 90
mile trail that encircles the mountain. And I had the bad fortune and luck to
hike it in September, which is one of the rainiest times on the mountain. It
opens, the rain, the rain, the rain. If it didn't strike directly, it found me in
more insidious ways. In the high meadows of Indian Henry's hunting ground, ankle
deep lupine washed my feet. The green leather of the Wondershoe, my hiking
boot, soaked up water with such enthusiasm that the boots earned
themselves a new name, Der Watershoe. Two days into my trek, the sweet mountain of
my affection was turning nasty and cold. The mountain has scared me sometimes,
especially when I first started going out on the trail alone. Mountains aren't
just convenient symbols, the nearest point to heaven from Earth. On days like
this, they are truly spooky and epiphanic. The clouds, like ghosts, slip between
hemlock trunks dripping with beards of lichen. When the trees dissolve into
alpine meadows and the path climbs into higher clouds, it's easy to imagine
yourself approaching the gates of heaven. It would take but a moment to leap into
the whiteness and become one of the people who come to Rainier and vanish.
There are actually quite a few people for whom Mount Rainier is the final
resting place. There must be close to about 50 people still resting in the
actual physical mountain. There are 32 Marines who went down in an air crash in
1946 and the rescuers weren't able to bring any of the bodies out because it was
just too dangerous up that high on the glacier. A bunch of Rangers and guys went
up over first in July and then they found the bodies in August. We spent a
week up there trying to figure what to do with the bodies and finally left them
there because they're a dangerous place to work. I think mountain rescue gives
you a motivation that you don't have when you're just climbing. You'll go into
an area that you wouldn't normally go climbing in just to try to save somebody.
D. Molinar has written the most comprehensive book thus far on ascent,
triumphs and tragedies on Mount Rainier. I've heard all about you for years and
of course I've read your read that challenge of Rainier. You know that book
done more good for me. I've also heard the nicest things about you for years.
People have really referred me. It's like you gotta meet D. and I just knew we'd
run across each other at some point. Well if you could make the opportunity at all
to ever come and spend a night or two with us on the mountain, I know myself
and the other climbing Rangers would actually be honored truthfully. They'd be
really really good. It's always good to connect with someone who has a real
sense of some of the history in the past to kind of bring us in touch. Are you
just up here for the day? I came to deliver some maps. Yeah I'm definitely
familiar with this matter. One of my last things I did when I was in the park
service I decided to make a map of the park. The park service buys it and sells
it in their museums and then gift shops.
I used to do a lot of painting usually Mount Rainier from Paradise back when I
was a Ranger. I usually take paints with me when I go up the trail and I enjoy
some of the best paintings I think the ones I did on the spot.
Whether it's a bright clear sunny day or kind of a cloudy and drizzly day a
little bit rain and when you stand there surrounded by this kind of a blanket of
thick atmosphere it kind of puts you in an entirely different state of mind.
I think the strongest impression that I get just living here like getting up in
the morning and looking out and see Mount Rainier over there and it's kind of
assurance the mountains are still there. Okay I'm here. This assures me that I'm
in good God's hands.
I was welcomed here clear gold of late summer of opening autumn the dawn eagle
sunning himself on the highest tree the mountain revealing herself unclouded
her snow tinted apricot as she looked west tolerant in her steadfastness of
the restless Sun forever rising and setting.
Over the years Rainier as an icon has been utilized by promoters and
advertisers. Concessionaires in 1920 publicized the park by romanticizing
Indians. Damsels were also used as a lure as were contented cows.
Marianne Wells promoted her dance group with Rainier as a backdrop.
The name and the mountain continue to be extensively adopted by image makers.
Many gain their livelihood by living near the park. Mount Rainier has provided
us with a job. We were part of the turfs trade you know it is a family thing and
our grandson stays with us so he's right there too and they always say location
location and we are in a location where people come to us and they enjoy it.
We've met people from all over the world this 40 million dollar resort that they
proposed it's going to be devastating to our elk herd. The hunters got six elk
and the vehicles got 16 this year. I'd rather see elk than golf balls myself.
When you do see Mount Rainier it does take your breath away. Every time you see
it it's like you go oh the beauty.
The park has created other jobs. During the depression of the 30s the Civilian
Conservation Corps created 1,000 useful conservation jobs in the park. The west
and the out of doors was a new experience for many as they came from crowded
While the CCC's worked mainly in the summer winter use of Mount Rainier was
growing. The new sport of alpine skiing had been recently introduced to America
by a flock of German and Austrian skiers who fled Hitler's Germany. Austrian
Otto Lang came to Mount Rainier. I really came here to the United States with a
mission. My mission was to preach the gospel propagated by Hannes Schneider
how to ski in a controlled fashion and at the same time be safe and secure and
with a modicum of elegance.
Where there's skiing there's Otto Lang, the foremost exponent in this country of
the plain Albert technique. And Jerome Hill who was a very talented man in many
ways said I would love to make a film about skiing and I would like you to be
the skier in it. So we decided we'd go up to Mount Rainier and start the film
there which we did.
And it so happened that the weather was absolutely incredible. It was one sunny
day after the other beautiful. And they said my god this is paradise. This is
incredible. I'm going to open a ski school here. And I was there in 1936 in
the fall and opened my first ski school. The first rope which was installed at
Mount Rainier in 1937 it was really it was a panic. I mean so many people fell
and fell into the way of the skiier behind them. Skiing was still in its
infancy in America. Although in the Northwest they had a comparative. They
had more skiers than they had in other places.
And one day a young lady showed up to join the ski school and her name was
Gretchen Koenig. And somehow I sort of had a feeling that there's something about
this girl that was different. And I knew that someday she would be a very good
skier. Good enough that she was becoming a member of the US ski team and her
first Olympics was in St. Moritz in Switzerland. And to the surprise of
everybody she won the slalom and had enough in the downhill to get a gold
medal for a slalom win and a silver medal for the combined which was a
tremendous boost for American skiing.
First time that an American had won a gold medal. Yes, man or women.
About the silver ski race you asked me a moment ago they had to climb from
Paradise Inn up to Camp York which is a good three hours climb. That's about
four miles and then 4,000 feet drop and it's it's a... But the worst thing of
all the worst race they lined up these 60 skiers entrance in one line and at the
shot of a gun or gold they all started out at the same time. Of course it was
mega.
They were criss-crossing each other like colliding falling over each other and
it was absolutely it was a massacre.
After I left Mount Rainier the activity during the winter sort of died down and
looking back at it now I am so glad and so delighted that they never developed
Paradise Inn as a destination winter resort and that they didn't build a
chairlift or a gondola up Mount Rainier. It would have ruined the mountain.
Music
During World War II the very first US regiment of ski troops was formed at Fort
Louis in 1940. During 1941 and 1942 the 1,000 strong 87th Mountain Regiment took
over the lodge and trained at Paradise. They went on to become part of the 10th
Mountain Infantry Division which helped drive the Germans out of Italy.
I happened to join the ski troops. I was staring out of the barracks window one
day and here come these guys marching down the street with their white patees
on with their white skis over their shoulder down the street and being a
skier and a rock climber I thought boy that's the place for me so I ran down to
the captain and he said well sergeant I can transfer you so I said do it and he
did it. So we were scheduled to train and climbing and survival in the snow at
high altitudes and we lived in the snow all the time. We sometimes went out and
stayed for maybe a week at a time and a part of our contingent went up to the
top of Mount Rainier and lived in a crater up there for about a week. But it
was all just snow work and learning about new equipment. And they loaded onto
us. On maneuver I had occasion to weigh my pack and it weighed 107 pounds and
ski troops were supposed to be as mobile as cavalry and no way because you get
that rucksack on you and the skis sink down the snow. Maybe you see the tips of
your skis all day long. When it got serious in Italy where we went we did a
lot of fighting just continually. I think we spent maybe two and a half months
being shot at in actual combat but it was quite heavy and we lost just under a
thousand people. And they were talking about putting a plaque on Mount Rainier
so I volunteered to put the plaque up just above the Paradise Inn.
We are practically in the mountains 90% of our lives. We start out in the winter
with skiing and then when the snow gets to be bad for skiing we snow shoe. If it's
warm and not good skiing then we snow shoe. We try to stay healthy as long as
we live. We don't know people live on medication, aspirin, high blood pressure,
sugar diabetes, name it. We don't have it. The mountain helps us. The mountain is
spiritual to us. It's a big, it's a high feeling. I'm 81 but it seems like that
way we do it it seems like you last longer. During the war I was in concentration
camp and then as a patient I came to Sweden and there I met my husband and that
was 52 years ago. So we go up to the mountains to Camp Mille. It's really up
where you see these two rocks is behind the rocks over there. The mileage is I
think 8.4 round trip. Yeah. The elevation is 10,000 feet up and once you leave 7,200
it gets to be very difficult to breathe. Let's go. Come on let's go. Lately we have
only gone every other day. This year 27 times. Rock. Sister of rock. I've been
volunteering for the Sierra Club Service Trips program now for about 10 years and
I have a white collar job during the year and I give two weeks of my vacation
time to the Sierra Club to put a trip together and bring people from across the
country all different walks of life, blue collar, white collar folks to come and
experience the back country. Our primary job at Mount Rainier this year on our
work project is to bring 16 volunteers up here and build rock retaining walls in
a talus slope so that we have one trail that hikers hike on instead of hikers
creating eight trails. I'm a desert rat. I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I lived there
for 20 years and right now in Arizona it's 110 degrees. Coming up to Mount Rainier
and seeing the glacier activity on the side of the mountain is incredible and
actually just the greenery in the area is incredible and I'll be doing a greenery
withdrawal when I go back to Phoenix and see all the brown. And one of the
interesting things on our trail project is that we have our back to Mount Rainier
most of the day and on occasion you'll turn around and you'll see Mount Rainier
and you're like awestruck by the beauty of it and you kind of have to pinch
yourself to say we're right here, right in this mountain and then you go back to
work. Here at Mount Rainier we have about 250 miles of maintained trail give or
take. The Wonderland Trail is a 93 mile circuit of Mount Rainier in and out of
the river valleys and up into the alpine and subalpine zones.
Backpacking is a wonderful recreation and just getting out there alone with
everything you own is on your back. Hopefully with somebody you love it's
just a great experience.
Some of the best rewards we get in this are the attaboys from people walking down
the trail during the day, the people that are using the trail that we're working
on the trail for. I can't honestly say I've ever had a bad experience working
with the volunteers up here. Tremendous individuals and the groups and the
leadership, oh they're tremendous.
These are kids from Japan, they come here every summer to work and they're from
Waseda University and other universities. They just absolutely love it and it's
wet, it's hot, it's buggy and I can't believe they come back and want to work
here. They've got so many applicants because it's open not just to Waseda
University but most of the major universities in Japan and he has to
screen like hundreds of folks and then he has to pick 15 to 20 to actually come
out here. And they just work like bees, they're great and they have a lot of fun.
Most times they're singing and talking and laughing while they're working hard
and it just doesn't get any better than that. They're just, I really enjoy it.
I say it's Christmas for me.
Everyone has to be a steward. You know there are only a few thousand National
Park Rangers in 360 some odd areas in all states of the nation and US trust
territories. We can't do it alone. See this is a catered event here huh? Where
does the line start? This is a Sierra Club? Oh BMA, Boeing Management Association.
They're planting flowers. We'll head up to Edith Creek Basin in a little while.
That was a random act of kindness. He helps find people if they get lost.
He is trained in air and ground sensing. Of course the younger they are the more
interesting some of the questions really are. Excuse me Ranger how much does the
mountain weigh? We sometimes call it Stump the Ranger. People have heard about
this mountain. They'll come up and they will ask a question and they'll say well
where are the President's faces carved? And then you know of course they're
thinking of Mount Rushmore. This roadway was built in 1916. It's narrow with
large eight, nine hundred year old western red cedar trees right on the
fog line and they will ask Ranger how do you get the trees to grow so close to
the roadway? Vehicles are a real problem for us. The Paradise parking lots hold
about a thousand cars. It's been full for about five hours and people get very
short tempered. They've driven a long way and they want to park. Solutions may be
a shuttle service because I don't think it would be appropriate to widen the
roads in the park or to build more parking lots. 97% of the park is
wilderness yet within the next 10-15 years we will be surrounded by suburbia
and the pressure of people to come and use the park 12 months a year. It's that
pressure, pressure, pressure. In 1899 the foresight of folks from Tacoma and
Seattle in looking 100 years down the road it is amazing to set this aside as
a national park. I would hate to envision what this would look like now without
such a designation. Mount Rainier represents a resource for everybody. I'm
glad to have the opportunity just to be here. I know we want to preserve the land.
I wish they'd have done it with more land. Terrific mountain real close to a
major city. It's just like you have one child you want to protect it. Every time
I see it it gives me a lift. It's breathtaking. The hazard potential here. I
can't imagine people not being impressed by that mountain. It's a mountain that so
few people really know. So I love Mount Rainier. Keep her as beautiful as she is.
And it's a way to give something back. This is your park.
To order a videocassette copy of Rainier the Mountain call 1-800-937-5387 or
write KCTS television 401 Mercer Street Seattle Washington 98109. For more
information about this program visit our website at www.kcts.org.
Major funding for Rainier the Mountain was provided by TCI of Washington in REI.
Additional funding provided by the News Tribune, Washington State Lottery,
Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation, Osberg Family Trust, Botler Charitable Trust,
and viewers like you.