Ascent of Mount Rainier [pp. 393-403]

THE
OVERLAND MONTHLY
DEVOTED TO
THE DEVELOPMfENT OF THE' COUNTRY.
VOL. I4.-MAY, 1875.-No. 5.
ASCENT OF MOUNT RAINIER.
N the summer of I857 I was station ed at Fort Steilacoom, Washington
Territory. This post was located near
the village of Steilacoom, on the waters
of Puget Sound. The post and the village took their names from a little stream
near by, which is the outlet of a number
of small lakes and ponds emptying into
the sound. Quite a family of Indians
made their permanent home in the vicinity of this creek in former years, and
were known as "Steilacoom Tillicum."
According to the Indian pronunciation
of the name it should have been spelled
"Steelacoom," dwelling long on the first
syllable.
I was at that time a first-lieutenant,
young, and fond of visiting unexplored
sections of the country, and possessed
of a very prevailing passion for going to
the tops, of high places. My quarters
fronted Mount Rainier, which is about
sixty miles nearly east of Fort Steilacoom in an air line. On a clear day it
does not look more than ten miles off,
and looms up against the eastern sky
white as the snow with which it is covered, with a perfectly pyramidal outline,
except at the top, which is slightly rounded and broken. It is a grand and inspiring view, and I had expressed so
often my determination to make the ascent, without doing it, that my fellowofficers finally became incredulous, and
gave to all improbable and doubtful
events a date of occurrence, when I
should ascend Mount Rainier.
My resolution, however, took shape
and form about the first of July. Nearly all the officers had been very free to
volunteer to go with me as long as they
felt certain I was not going; but when I
was ready to go, I should have been
compelled to go alone but for the doctor, who was on a visit to the post from
Fort Bellingham.
I made preparations after the best authorities I could find, from reading accounts of the ascent of Mont Blanc and
other snow mountains. We made for
each member of the party an alf5enstock
of dry ash with an iron point. We sew
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by JOHN H. CARMANY, in the Office of the
Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
VoL. I4.-26.