The easy way!

Not exactly backpacking, but if you don't like mountains you should be somewhere else anyway

Helo ride in (I rode in the front with the heat on... my photog friend rode in the back with the door open):



Lower glaciers and trying to find a hole in the cloud cover to top out:



Above deck at 13,400'



On the flight back home today:

Cool stuff Mac! Did you see me mooning you from the top while you flew over...grin

Dober

beautiful!

So what kind of prop job was it?

Looks like fun!

A-Star chopper, King Air-300 fixed wing.

Yeah, saw you in your Jammies.

I saw both Rainier and Hood for the first time out the window of my Delta flight as we flew into Seattle in early September. The Seattle leg was an accident, result of a bad plane out of Atlanta giving me a new itinerary. Was wicked cool seeing them, though, and I counted it as one of the high points of my trip. Lots of bears were about in the Many Glacier area of Montana.

Nice pics, by the way!

Hey, I have a photo of Rainier similar to that. Taken by my wife a few months ago, courtesy of Alaska Airlines.

Cool pictures.

I figured it had to be an A-star with the rotor turning the wrong way!

A better shot... mine were taken through the canopy. This through the open door.

Great photos! I'm envious of your trip.

FWIW story: In a single engine plane once flying from Port Angeles to Redmond, OR, we were on a course around SeaTac headed to pass east of the Rainier summit. SeaTac air control called the pilot to ask him if he was aware that he was headed east of Rainier. He replied that, yes, he was and was changing course to go west of Rainier.

I asked my pilot friend what that was about. He said that normal air flow off of the Pacific creates a huge boiling eddy of clear air turbulence downwind of the peak, to its east. It can be severe on small planes.

If you ever feel a need to get in shape, do the Wonderland Trail around Rainier. About 90 miles with only about 75' total of level ground ... well, maybe a bit more but that trail has some serious elevation gain & loss. Grat hike.

Having lived in Seattle for 23 year I never get tired of looking at Rainier. I've spent many sunrises and sunsets at Kerry Park on Queen Anne, taking photos of the Seattle skyline with the Big R in the background.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have access to at the moment.

I spent so much time up there on the weekends when I was in the service, that my buddies thought I was shacking up with some female forest ranger up there...

been all over that mountain...

flying to Seattle to change planes to fly to the rest of the world from Medford OR, it is pretty cool to see all the mountain peaks on the way north...

Lassen and Mt Shasta to the south, MacLaughlin Locally, Mt Jefferson, Sisters, Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Rainier, and several more to the north ( whose names escape me at the moment)...most always snow covered....and most above the clouds when it is cold overcast and rainy down below...

pretty much one of the main reasons I live here in the PNW...

When I was stationed at Ft Lewis, I was there about 30 days before it was clear and you could see Rainier.. I remember my jaw hitting the ground.... it was hard to believe to see something so big and so beautiful when you were east coast raised..

Great photos, Thanks!

It has been more than a few years since I was on Rainier.

Looking at the old gear in the pics, it is pretty laughable.

Your helo ride, sounds like a more relaxing trip up

Stationed at Ft Lewis back from 1976 to 1980 I flew several times via Chinook helo over and back to Yakima Firing Center. Sometimes only a few hundred yards off the Southern face of Rainier. Awesome mountain!

Then, the winter of 1978/79, I spent the entire winter just barely outside the Rainier park entrance at Huckle Berry Mountain Training Camp. An Army adventure camp teaching skiing during the winter and mountaineering during the Summer. Basically got to ski 7 days per week up at Crystal Mountain ski resort. It's no wonder I reenlisted after my first 3 yr enlistment. I was having a ball!

Alan

Cool shots. Here's one of mine from a few years ago.

Awesome shots! You can't beat the beauty of nature.