XX 



AN ASCENT OF MOUNT RAINIEB 



Ambitious climbers, seeking adventures 

 and opportunities to test their strength and 

 skill, occasionally attempt to penetrate the 

 wilderness on the west side of the Sound, and 

 push on to the summit of Mount Olympus. 

 But the grandest excursion of all to be made 

 hereabouts is to Mount Rainier, to climb to 

 the top of its icy crown. The mountain is very 

 high,^ fourteen thousand four hundred feet, 

 and laden with glaciers that are terribly rough- 

 ened and interrupted by crevasses and ice- 

 cliffs. Only good climbers should attempt to 

 gain the summit, led by a guide of proved 

 nerve and endurance. A good trail has been 

 cut through the woods to the base of the 

 mountain on the north; but the summit of 

 the mountain never has been reached from 

 this side, though many brave attempts have 

 been made upon it. 



• A careful re-determination of the height of Rainier, 

 made by Professor A. G. McAdie in 1905, gave an altitude 

 of 14,394 feet. The Standard Dictionary wrongly describes 

 it as "the highest peak (14,363 feet) within the United 

 States." The United States Baedeker and railroad literaturi 

 overstate its altitude by more than a hundred feet. [Editor.! 



261 



