Dhe paradise is packed. On the Skyline Trail at the base of Mount Rainier, hundreds of people can be seen trekking up the mountain even in the distance, it looks a bit like the pictures of Mount Everest from a few years ago: a mass hike on peaks that were once only reserved for experienced alpinists.
Admittedly, Mount Rainier, America’s highest volcano, is only half the height of Everest at 4,392 meters, and the Skyline Trail above Paradise Lodge at a good 1,600 meters above sea level is just the beginning of the ascent via Muir Hut at 3100 meters to the ice-covered summit. But the mountain in Washington state is considered a respectable mountain by mountaineers because of its climate, the length of the ascent and the numerous glaciers.
One of the rangers says he’s rarely seen it so crowded here in July. Mount Rainier National Park, just under a two-hour drive from Seattle and Tacoma, is a popular local recreation area, and the Covid hangover that’s given Americans a new appreciation for their national parks is fueling a boom in visitors here too — especially now that the Flower meadows on Rainier’s slopes are in full splendor: purple and pink asters and sky-blue lupins, magenta paintbrushes and delicate white phlox, yellow ranunculus and violets cover the tundra to the right and left of the path.
Climate change leaves traces
Mount Rainier is in many ways one of the most impressive mountains in North America. Lonely and formidable, it looms over Puget Sound on America’s Northwest coast, and as you drive up the road from Eatonville to Paradise Lodge, you catch glimpses of its gigantic form through sixty-five spruce and fir trees. The mighty glacier edges, which shimmer almost turquoise blue in the midday light, hang threateningly over the steep mountain slopes, whose gray-black rock is largely exposed; colossal waterfalls are recognizable as narrow rivulets. Here, too, climate change is leaving its mark.