Wildflowers

They're here, wildflowers that is, at Sunrise, peaking now, Paradise, peaking now through next week, and Spray Park, now through next week. It's the time to be there if that's your photography. And it's the time to be there if only to see them. But I have to say one thing if you go.

Stay on the designated paths and trails in the meadows.
You may not leave a trace, but others may not be so cautious and careful about their footprint in environmentally sensitive areas. This is especially important in the late snowmelt season where hiking on the thin snowpack can damage the fragile meadows underneath. In addition you will run the risk of being given a ticket by a Park Ranger for violating the rules (which all visitors accept when entering the NP).

And you can get more information and locations from the photo guide wildflowers Web page. Enjoy them and take care to let others enjoy them too.

Help & Services

Since the Mt. Rainier photo guide I was discovered a lot of cool information about Mt. Rainier, the NP and photographing in the NP, and have decided to start offering research help and services to photographers planning and visiting Mt. Rainier NP, kinda' explained here.

The goal is to assist visiting serious or professional photographers with information about Mt. Rainier and the NP as part of their photography work. There are a lot of on-line resources for photographers planning and preparing for a visit, and there are a lot of resources within the NPS and Mt. Rainier NP to provide much of that information. And many local professionals and organizations are available for additional information.

So what help can I offer? Honestly, I'm not sure, except I have a MS degree in Geography (WWU Bellingham), was a hydrologist for the USGS (1978-2005), and have been an photographer since 1969 and a hiker in Mt. Rainier NP since 1977. And with the photo guide and history projects, I've managed to find a lot of information and material.

The idea I have is to explore the possibilities for help and information service for visiting photographers about Mt. Rainier NP as part of developing my personal photography business. For now the help or services will be free, but it still has to fit into both your information needs and timeframe and my work and schedule.

In short, I'll can pretty much tell you immediately how much help I can provide if you can provide specific information and time needs. The one caveat is that it has to pertain specifically to Mt. Rainier NP and not anything outside or only basically related, such as travel and accomodations to the NP. That information is already available through commercial services.

What I can do is shorten your reseach work and time with information, resources or links to information or resources. The photo guide has a lot of them, but not all of them. I focus those on main or home pages and not specific ones which might provide the help or information you want or need.

Anyway, it's a thought and offer on my part. You're welcome the visit the Web page for more information and contact me.

Updated SW Area Guide

I have updated the southwest area (Nisqually River entrance) for the Mt. Rainier photo guide. It's the first of the five areas to have more detailed information and a map for locations and photo opportunities. This one was updated from the May 20, 2009 initial version.

I apologize for the lateness with the area guides, but I totally misjudged the time necessary to research the information and prepare the maps and Web pages each area, which turned out to be 2-3 weeks instead of the expected one week. I hope to shrink the time to 1-2 weeks for the other guides, to be the Paradise area next followed by the northwest (Carbon River/Mowich Lake), northeast (White River/Sunrise) and southeast (Ohanapecosh) areas.

Anyway, I hope the area guide helps and you're always welcome to send me you comments, suggestions, questions and problems with the photo guide.

Updated July Reports

I have updated the July news and information report and access and conditions map. I've also added the August prospective report and moved July to the list of monthy reports.

This is early, especially for me since I'm usually late, but August is a lot of the same of July into mid-to-late August and changing into early fall mode late in the month through the Labor Day holiday. This is the general trend, and easily things could change either way, but not really until late August and into September. Until then mid-to-late July blends into mid-to-late August as the snowpack continues to melt in the upper elevations and trails begin to clear, including the Wonderland Trail.

So, what's different so far? Well, for one snow is almost completely gone below 5,000 feet and melting quickly up to 6,000 feet. This means the alpine meadows are snow-free and blooming, so wildflowers abound. But then so are the BUGS. Their peak season is mid-July to mid-August. They're gone after the first freezing night (check temperatures at the Paradise snow course) in August.

And people equally abound. It's common for the parking lots at Paradise and Sunrise to fill by late morning during the week and mid-morning weekends. The NPS has a free shuttle from Ashford to Longmire and Paradise, so if those are your destinations, it's a good choice. Otherwise, the same applies to the many trailheads along the highways through the NP.

So the word is simply "Go Early" and be prepared for crowds at the visitors centers and the first mile or so of trails. All of this tails of during August as family vacations ends but spikes during the Labor Day holiday weekend. The best time for wildflowers and waterfalls is now through early August and the best time for hikes, is mid-to-late August when the days are shorter, temperatures cooler, and more importantly, the bugs almost gone.

Anyway, that's the update for now.

A Thought in passing

It's probably clear with the Mt. Rainier NP photo guide and early history of the NP, I've managed to find and collect a fair amount of material. Granted my research hasn't begun to approach the level of research Aubrey Haines did with his extensive research on the history of mountaineering in the NP, and the later work of historians on mountaineering and summit climbs, but I have their books to reference and some of the materials they used with my research.

And so from the beginning of the project looking at the early (1880-1900) pre-NP history of Mt. Rainier (designated a NP in 1899) I saw an interesting view about the 1896 expedition. Since I started the research last year with the recent history materials I was curious why the 1896 expedition wasn't mentioned in history materials with and after Dee Molenaar's 1971 book, "The challenge of Mount Rainier", which describes the history of summit climbs.

It's like it vanished from history, but everyone I know both in the mountaineering and scientific communities with Mt. Rainier and the NP knows about the expedition. It's given it's due in Aubrey Haines' 1962 book, "Mountain Fever, Historic Conquest of Mount Rainier", but that's the last time it's mentioned in mountaineering history book, articles and other materials. Or at least that I've found to date.

So while collecting early stuff on Mt. Rainier and the NP, anything pre-WW II, and especially pre-WW I, I've found the expedition is often mentioned as members of the team have had landmarks named after them, eg. Willis Wall and Russell Glacier, and they named some landmarks. There doesn't seem to be a lack of effort to not only recognize but also acknowledge their work as both a scientific achievement of the time and instrumental in the effort for the NP designation.

What's lost in history seems to have been the effort of the scientific community in the work to get the law passed designating Mt. Rainier NP. They were the third leg and the most important leg of the trio of efforts, the other two being the mountaineering and recreation community and the local commerce and citizen groups, and it was the weight of the National Academy of Science and the US Geological Survey that carried the day to convince Congress to pass the law in 1899 after almost a decade of trying by other groups.

And key in the scientific effort was the 1896 expedition, described in the 1898 report of it along with the scientific importance of Mt. Rainier to the nation and science. And the expedition the team has severa accomplishments of the period which have been lost in the recent history.

They were the first to do a traverse of the northern side of Mt. Rainier about treeline. They did the summit climb up Emmons Glacier, a rarely used route by climbers, camping overnight at Steamboat Prow. And they repeated the northern traverse from the camp along Winthrop Glacier back to the camp on the Carbon Glacier after their descent to Paradise and return to the base camp along the eastern side of Mt. Rainier.

And they did the whole two-week expedition with Bailey Willis' 10-year old daughter Hope, except she didn't do the summit climb. She was scheduled to do the climb but Israel Russell, the climb leader, scratched her the morning of the climb. He later admitted to Bailey she should have gone and could have easily done the climb, even better than two of the team itself, seasoned scientist and camp helper. Hope stayed at the camp at the 7-8,000 foot level along Winthrop Glacier.

What I suspect, and it's just a guess, is that more recent mountaineers and mountaineering historians have decided their climb was incidental to their expedition and wasn't done in the spirit of climbs then and even now. Their climbing route wasn't documented. They didn't relish in their accomplishment of the climb and the summit - although those historians have overlooked the team members' personal notes on this last point.

And they didn't look to the mountaineering community for support or recognition. You see, Israel Russell, Bailey Willis and George Otis Smith had spent several summers exploring the Washiington Cascade Mountains on geologic expeditions, including summers in and around Mt. Rainier. To them the climb was part of the work and the job. They did personally see how important it was in their life, but not the way climbers do.

After all they didn't spend days staying at Paradise for recreation and then for a summit climb. They spent two weeks exploring the geology and glaciers for science. They didn't do the summit climb for the privilege of standing on the summit. They went there to see what was there and collect rocks (yes, they took rock sample from around the crater rim). It wasn't a personal achievement so much as a scientific one.

And so I think recent mountaineering historians, begining with Dee Molenaar, have simply decided it wasn't part of mountaineering history of Mt. Rainier. Or at least it seems such since it's absent from their histories of mountaineering on Mt. Rainier. And it's why I though it worthy to refresh history and renew their importance. And being a retired USGS person too, I feel slighted by their oversight of the USGS's work and achievements.

But it's just an observation and thought in passing.