Tell me about Mt. Rainier

[Hesster]

Originally Posted by VeronikaW

So, can you drive up Mt. Rainier? How far up can you go? Is it covered in ski resorts? Are they year round? Or is this mostly a mountain for scaling, because everyone's afraid it's going to erupt? It was so beautiful today, I'm fascinated by it every time I see it.

V. =)

As others have mentioned, there are no ski resorts on Mount Rainier. It's a national park. There are lodges and there are places where you can ski cross country during the winter, but don't expect slopes with ski lifts. You can't drive to the top, but if you want to try climbing it you can go to Sunset or Paradise and climb to the summit. While it's not considered a difficult mountain to climb, don't underestimate it. Seems like every year a few people go up there and get themselves killed because they blundered over a cliff in the dark or didn't bring the right gear and got caught in bad weather.

Washington doesn't have a year round skiing season. Ski season starts around October and (depending on when the snow melts) usually lasts up through April, or sometimes into the first part of May if you're lucky and there was a lot of snow like there was this past winter. Of course, there's other winters where there's hardly any snow at all. We had one of those a few years back where there was never enough snow unless you went way north and a lot of businesses that depended on the ski season went under.

[StealthRabbit]

the hiking is really nice in SE corner of park. Snow has probably still covered most of higher portion. Paradise lodge just reopened, so maybe you should stay there.

Try to fit this in if you do a round trip
Dan Klennert's Spirits of Iron

Packwood is also a nice town with antique stores and fun lodging (Packwod Hotel)

[rleslie70]

MT Rainier is awesome. It's a dormant vocano that i think last erupted 1000s of years ago. so i don't think there is any danger.

you can drive up to paradise or sunset which is about 5000 feet up the mountain. you can take trails from paradise up to about 8000 feet i believe and from there you have to climb the rest of the way.

The top of the MT is 14000 feet. But already this year someone died on the mountain, caught in a blizzard in June!

[allforcats]

Enjoy Mt. Rainier's exquisite beauty. and remember it is one in a chain of active volcanoes. The most recent Rainier eruptions were in the 1840s to 1854 plus an almost-imperceptible eruption in 1894. It's alive!

[orangee_zest]

Originally Posted by VeronikaW

I was on the 18 today driving from Federal Way to Issaquah, and my goodness the mountain looked amazing!! It was breathtaking!!

V. =)

I know what you mean! The mountains and forests(along with my friends)are the things I miss most about Washington! Thinking about it makes me homesick...

It's beautiful, and always covered in snow--no matter what time of year. I dont know if there is skiing, but it's a great place to camp, fish, kiyak, hike, and do lots of other outdoorsey stuff. There are little log cabin shops scattered in random places whilest driving up there. It rains a ton--thats the main weather there. It is green and lush. The rivers sound nice at night when you are sleeping. I remember camping there and actually wanting to get up when the sun was rising, not realizing it was like 4 or 5 in the morning! Go there, you won't regret it^^

[MaikeerinWA]

Nice story about three injured Iraq vets who conquered mighty Rainier.

Trio of injured Iraq veterans stands tall on Rainier - Seattle Times

Kudos to the Camp Patriot organization, too.

[sean98125]

Originally Posted by rleslie70

MT Rainier is awesome. It's a dormant vocano that i think last erupted 1000s of years ago. so i don't think there is any danger.

Actually, it last erupted in the 1840s. There are also eyewitness reports of eruptions as late as the 1890s.