Mt RAINIER · Crown of the Pacific Northwest

[Music] ugh [Music] fun [Music] um 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 you away 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 [Music] 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 9500 feet for most of the summer up at camp german 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 [Music] still no one gives me a reason why living things have to die tell me how much is this life worth is 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 plane 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 already add depth to the program there's people hanging off the cliffs right now ma'am okay so the some of them are stuck right now there's a there's a group of four or fives that are hanging and there's a whole team went off 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 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 [Music] 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 ammon side of mount rainier and so for the last two years i've conducted my guided climbing on on the east side people aren't they're coming down yeah those three there's a lot of uh glacier travel on the inland's 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 our near 262 times i've had a number of really close calls uh in particular the rock fall and sometimes boulders you know the size of refrigerators i've been through that number of times and what can you say hey you know this side 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 [Applause] native peoples crossed all the lands the mountains we went to the mountainsides 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 sl 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 yakimas used that that land for their stories so it's shared amongst all the native tribes and and groups throughout the areas in some of our traditional stories mount mount rainier often assumed the role of a fat angry woman my people the lemmies cast rainier as the jealous wife of mount baker who was the favorite of baker's two wives but she had an awful temper after a while the younger wife mount chexin 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 [Music] when the white mans 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 sluiskin who was a yakima native he guided general hazard stevens and philemon 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 he let governor stevens boys through the mountain snowy base and its climb up the mountain and glissade down her side see the flying waterfalls or sunsets glorified 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 are the biggest group that have summoned at 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. [Music] jim guided for three years on mount rainier and i've guided for almost 40. we've taken blind people to the summit and people with one leg in 1981 a film crew followed jim and lou whittaker as they guided the physically impaired climbers to the top okay again you're doing it now right my legs feel like raw meat watch fred on the rope now bro great good hold on hold on okay now straight back up the hill okay step at a time okay you're on the ridge hey you back okay yeah fine okay [Music] everybody [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the team continues the descent now the ice fall 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 the second rope team enters the path of the ice ball 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 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 well 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 what's funny is i have almost this 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 the snow and it's not you know but um and just because people that climb are usually an 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 genders um tougher but i thought it was interesting that one of the senior guides told me that women seem to be more resilient so 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 fourteen hours great tall trees lined 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 [Music] and then the longmire springs come into view beneath the lofty mountain it was in 1883 when pb 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 hoes warm mittens and goggles drove long and brads into my shoes rolled two single blankets containing the provisions for three days i grasped my alpenstalk and resolved to climb until exhausted after two days of toiling upwards at 4 30 pm august 10 1890 we stood on the top [Music] 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 bathed our feet in whiskey and began the night [Applause] [Music] 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 and its climb up the mountain poison coast down her side see the flowing waterfalls as sunsets glorify all right good job i saw you coming up good job hey we made it all right i just told my son he had to have to be mighty tired mighty tired i ain't tired i'm exhausted oh yeah that's all uphill now all right this is about 102 miles according to my 102 miles oh my last 20 were killers 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 10 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 well i'd rather be in mount rainier than where i am now maybe it's a a humble feeling you're the uh 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 rice on mount rainier as on all of the other cascade volcanoes combined so when you live downstream of that much water you have to recognize it that you 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 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 a hundred thousand 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 luckily 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 a 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 a spirit 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 [Music] mountaineering clubs newspaper editors businessman's associations and the university of washington faculty put pressure on washington state's congressional delegation to establish a national park at rainier [Music] 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 [Music] 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 oh the past flower has just begun to gather strength from the summer sun and the camp robbers song is always new and the petals drink from the moaning do 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 and 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 5400 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 we carried their skis up and literally tumbled down through devil's dip i've left a few scarves on those trees myself [Music] nostalgia i don't quite know it makes me uh 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 [Music] 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 [Music] 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 um you know awkward bookish man going into the mountain and finding out what he can what he can find and he finds that it's not a terribly pleasant experience most of the time i mean rainier's rainier's natural climate if you come down here day after day after day most of what you'll find is this you know this beautiful forest but incredibly fogged in sullen skies uh 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 uh 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 loop and washed my feet the green leather of the wander shoe my hiking boot soaked up water with such enthusiasm that the boots earned themselves a new name dur water shoe 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 um people for whom mount rainier is the final resting place um there there must be close to about 50 people still resting in the 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 and 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 into just to try to save somebody d molinar has written the most comprehensive book thus far on ascents triumphs and tragedies on mount rainier i've heard all about you for years yeah and of course i've read you you've read a challenge of rainier you know that book done more good for me i've also heard the nicest things about you for years um people have really referred me so like you got to meet dee 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 it'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 or i came to deliver some maps yeah i'm definitely familiar with this map one of my last uh things i did when i was in the park service i decided to make a map of the park the park service buys it for and sells it in their museums and then the gift shops [Music] 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 trailer and uh 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 i'm here this assures me that i'm in good god's hands [Music] [Applause] [Music] 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 the sun burns the snow high on the mountains it runs and it grows as it falls soon soil down it boils down to the tiles the white river rose to the sea 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 [Music] 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 [Music] [Music] many gain their livelihood by living near the park [Applause] mount rainier has provided us with a job we were part of the tourist 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 when 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 propose it's going to be devastating to our elk herd the hunters got six elk vehicles got 16 this year i i'd rather see elk than golf balls myself when you do see mount rainier it it it does kind of it it does take your breath away every time you see it it's like you go ah the beauty [Music] the park has created other jobs during the depression of the thirties the civilian conservation corps created one thousand useful conservation jobs in the park the west and the out of doors was a new experience for many as they came from crowded eastern cities in the deep south [Music] while the cccs 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 honey schneider how to ski in a controlled fashion and at the same time be safe and secure and with the emoticum of elegance whether skiing there's auto lines the foremost exponent in this country of the famed 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'll go up to mount rainier and start the film there which we did [Music] [Applause] and it so happened that the weather was absolutely incredible there was one sunny day after the other beautiful and they said my god this is paradise this is this is incredible i'm going to open a ski school here and i was there in 1930s 1932 in the fall in the open my first school the first robot which was installed in mount rainier in 1937 it was really it was a panic i mean so many people fell and fell into the way of the key skier behind them skiing was still in its infancy in america and although the northwest they had a comparative they had more skies than that in other places and one of the one day a young lady showed up to join the ski school and her her name was gretchen cunick and somehow i 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 u.s key 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 the silver medal for the combined which was a tremendous boost for american skiing first time that the american had won a gold medal yes man or women yeah about to see mosquito issue you asked me a moment ago they had to climb from paradise in up to camp europe which is a good three hours climb that's about four miles and then four thousand feet to drop and it just and but the worst thing of all the worst race they lined up these 60 skiers entrance in one line and at the shot of the gun or gold they all started out at the same time and of course it was mayhem they were criscus in each other like colliding falling over each other and it was absolutely it was a massacre [Music] after i left mount rainier the 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 in as a destination winter resort and that they didn't build a chairlift or a gondola up mount india it would have ruined the mountains is during world war ii the very first u.s regiment of ski troops was formed at fort lewis in 1940 during 1941 and 1942 the 1000 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 putties 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 in 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 it onto us on a maneuver i had an occasion to weigh my pack and it weighed 107 pounds and ski troops were supposed to be as mobile as cavalry and uh no way because you get that rucksack on you and that skis that 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 continually i think we spent maybe two and a half months being shot at 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 to build a paradise [Music] in the wind is 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 with snowshoe if it's warm and not not good skiing there is no shoe we're trying 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 turtles 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 50 two years ago so we go up to the mountains to camp mill it's really up where you see these two rockets behind the rocks over there the mileage is i think 8.4 round trip yeah elevation is 10 000 feet up and once you leave 7200 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 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 how about uh just maybe 30 degrees our primary job at mount rainier this year on our work project is to bring 16 volunteers up here and build rock retaining walls and 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 and 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 i'll be doing a greenery withdrawal when i go back to phoenix and see all the brown and one of the the interesting things on our trail project is that we have our back to mount rainier most of the day and 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 sub-alpine zones [Music] 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 atta boys from people walking down the trail during the day the people that are using the trail that we're working on the trail for yeah yeah have you ever heard of the sierra club oh sure are you a member [Music] i can't honestly say i've ever had a bad experience working with the volunteers up here tremendous individuals and and uh the groups and the leadership oh they're tremendous these are kids from japan they come here every summer to work and uh they're from merced university and other universities they just absolutely love it and it's you know 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 the wasada 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 good job nice job 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 like i say it's christmas for me in tokyo i'm working at a publishing company and i um i i'm using computer all the day all day so i think it's really good um working in this angry nature and trees and flowers so i feel really relaxed and comfortable here yeah the shape of mount rainier is uh similar to that of mount fuji in japan so i sometimes remember mount fuji when i when i'm looking at mount rainier yeah it has dignity and holiness and so of course it's beautiful so i love mount rainier everyone has to be a steward you know there are only only a few thousand national park rangers in 360 some odd areas in all states of the nation and u.s trust territories we can't do it alone gee this is a catered event here huh where does the where does the line start this is a sierra club um actually boeing management association oh bma boeing management volunteers they're uh planting uh flowers hunting and we did uh uh tried to fill in some earth on a trail we'll head up to edith creek basin in a little while you say hello that was a random act of kindness with strangers yeah he helps find people if they get lost he is trained in air and ground scenting [Laughter] where you headed 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 uh 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 8-900 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 percent 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 [Music] mount rainier represents a resource for everybody i'm glad to have the opportunity just to be here and we want to preserve the land i wish they'd had done it with more land terrific mountain real close to a major city it's just like your 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 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: David Snow

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Keywords: mount rainier national park, climbing rainier in one day, climbing rainier, rainier, steep, hiking, trail running, mountain climbing, disappointment cleaver route, climbing disappointment cleaver route, camp muir, rainier national park, DC route, hiking rainier, planet earth, climbing in the pacific north west, pacific north west, how to climb rainier, adventure vlog, mt raininer documentary, climibing mt rainier, best rainier documentary, how to climb mt rainier, mt rainier

Id: RN8zIv-ecws

Length: 56min 17sec (3377 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021