Da Kine Big Kahuna Mountain!

Mount Rainier is perhaps the most dramatic mountain in the 48 states. Other peaks in the Sierra and Rockies are about as high, but none stand alone and tower so far above the surrounding landscape. Rainier dominates the country for many miles in all directions. It's an enormous pile of rock, snow, and ice, 14,410 feet high. It's massive, majestic, awesome, and, on a sunny day like this one, it lifts my spirits. Not sure why, maybe just the sheer majesty of it does the job. It should be remembered, however, that Mt Rainier is considered the most dangerous of the Cascade volcanoes. It hasn't caused any trouble for a couple centuries, but it periodically releases massive mudflows called lahars that regularly sweep into the valleys near Tacoma. The last such lahar occurred about 500 years ago, when those valleys were only thinly settled by Native Americans. Now, there are tens of thousands of people there, hundreds of thousands if you include some of the Tacoma area which could be affected in an extreme case. The lahars occur about every 500-1000 years, so another could happen at any time. They could be triggered by an eruption, or simply by unusually strong melting due to weather conditions.

This huge mass of ice is Emmons Glacier, on the east side of the mountain. Though it's smaller than it was 100 years ago, It still has the largest surface area of any glacier in the contiguous US. Though it looks like the glacier ends near the bottom of the picture, it actually ends farther down, out of the photo. Lower reaches of Emmons are black with rock debris carried down from high on the mountain, and a stream flows vigorously from underneath the ice, at least at this time of year.