America’s Everest
Washington’s Mount Rainier might not be America’s highest point, but it’s not to be “taken lightly” by climbers, said National Geographic Adventure. Though Mount McKinley and other Alaskan peaks outmeasure it—as do a few in the lower 48 states—none is nearly as steep. Mount Rainier, “with a vertical prominence greater than K2’s, is an entirely different beast.” Towering over the Cascade Mountains, the 14,410-foot peak “never lets its guard down.” The ascent to the summit is “heavily glaciated, avalanche-prone, and battered by intense storms.” Mount Rainier deters roughly half the climbers who attempt it, and that makes it a benchmark for the “Who’s Who of American climbing.” To say you’ve climbed Mount Rainier, opt for “less crowding and more excitement,” and advance by way of the Kautz Glacier route. The crux of this route is a “steep chute sidestepping an ice cliff,” which requires climbers to actually scale straight up. It’s “exhilarating and nerve-racking,” but the subsequent satisfaction can’t be matched.
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