She’s a beast of a mountain. She is demanding and wild; she doesn’t need whips and handcuffs because she looms so large with an enormous white glaciated cap. At 14,409 ft., the highest peak in the state, you can’t take your eyes off her. She demands your attention from everywhere in the State of Washington. Whether you are out on the Olympic Peninsula at the farthermost western point of the contiguous U.S., in a skyscraper in Seattle, on a ferry out in Puget Sound, or in the wine country near Walla Walla, if she is within view, I guarantee that you won’t look anywhere else.
The only way I can communicate her massive presence is to compare two photos shot at the same location in Paradise, WA: the picture immediately above of the surrounding jagged high peaks to the south, with a photo at the top of the blog, shot moments later just turned 90 degrees north to Mt. Ranier’s southern flank. See? She doesn’t need a riding crop to make you behave!
Everyone can hike this monument and see waterfalls and rainbows, basalt columns, and lush greenery with abundant wildflowers due to the “Wonderland Trail” that encircles the mountain. It sits below the snow line usually by May, with hundreds of access points. Starting short hikes here with her 5 year old in 1999, Sally has taken small bites of this trail on the Northern, Eastern, and Southern flanks over the years. Steven’s mind was blown over and over, as the trail gave him peeks of the mountain frequently through the trees.
That experience was deeply enhanced as we met 90-year-old Bronka Sundstrom on a hike/bike on our last day. Hiking her usual 12 miles with her 92-year-old friend and NP Park Volunteer, Wally, we learned that she holds the record as the oldest female to summit Mt. Ranier, at the young age of 77. She is also a Jewish Holocaust survivor from the Nazi invasion of Poland when she was 14. She snuck around finding food for her family before they were captured and died in concentration camps. She is so smart and exhibits a loving, positive and forceful personality, a huge personality busting out of her tiny 90 lbs frame. She didn’t even report any fatigue at the end of her 12 miles. She says the trick is to, “Go Slow…but Go”. What a mentor! We exchanged contact information and will stay in touch. It is rare to meet a humble person as big in spirit as the mountain towering over us.
She made us feel almost as young as standing before this massive slice of Douglas Fir found in the park, seeded in 1293. Each of the circles represents points in history: Marco Polo’s voyages, Kublai Khan’s invasions, the French Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, etc. If my darling younger husband Steven needed to have a jolt of perspective as a newly minted 60 year old, he got it here on Mt. Ranier. He plans to come back yearly for his annual spanking!
