Mount Rainier has the largest and the longest glacier in the United
States. This is the Emmons. It is about six miles long and has an
area of about eight square miles. It is on the eastern slope of the
peak. The ice-area on Rainier covers one seventh of the Park, or about
fifty square miles.
Rainier has a magnificent glacial system. There are a dozen large and
twice as many small glaciers. The peak is an enormous cone with a
blunt, broken top. A majority of the large glaciers begin two thousand
or more feet below the summit and extend in a comparatively straight
line toward the bottom. Though a number unite in continuous ice-fields
well up the slope, down the slope each generally is separated from its
neighbors. The glaciers are separated by narrow ledges called
cleavers, or by each occupying its own deep cañon. Near the terminus
many are separated by moraines or flowering meadows.
The Nisqually Glacier, which ends just below the altitude of four
thousand feet in Paradise Park, is five miles long. In the summer-time
it moves forward at the rate of about sixteen inches per day. This,
and in fact all glaciers, have periods of advance and retreat. During
the last twenty-five years this glacier has retreated about one
thousand feet. That is to say, the present point where it melts
entirely away is one thousand feet farther up the slope than it was
twenty-five years ago. In comparatively recent times, as the cirques,
lakes, and moraines far down the slopes show, the glaciers on this
peak were deeper and larger, and reached much farther down the slope
than at present.
The Nisqually Glacier has continuous connection with the snow deposits
upon the summit of the peak. At one point this snow comes down a
precipitous cascade and tumbles perhaps two thousand feet. This and
all other glaciers are clean and snowy at the upper end, but the lower
end is greatly darkened with rock-débris and earthy material that have
mixed with it. The last half-mile of the Nisqually Glacier has the
appearance more of a rock glacier than an ice glacier. Its front is a
dark chocolate color.
The Paradise Glacier is one of several on the southerly slope. It is
formed by the union of a number of ice-streams which originate at
about nine thousand feet. They do not receive snow from the slopes
above, but quantities of snow are brought to them by the wind. Near
the lower end, this glacier divides into a number of lobes or streams.
The Carbon Glacier descends the northerly slope. It originates in the
large cirque or ice-made cañon on the peak. This is a mile and a half
across, and its terminal wall rises precipitously thirty-six hundred
feet. Its snow supplies fall upon it from the clouds, are swept to it
by the winds, and rushed to it by avalanches.
The Winthrop Glacier is on the northern slope. Among its interesting
features are ice-cascades, glacier tablets, and the ice flowing over
high mounds in its main channel.
The Tahoma glaciers on the southwest slope exhibit a glacier island.
The Kautz Glacier on the southern slope is long, narrow, and winding.
It has an enormous medial moraine. Pyramid Rock commands an excellent
view of this and other scenes.
Many admirable names have been selected for the objects of interest on
Rainier. In this connection, some one is to be thanked for
substituting "cleaver" and "wedge" for "arrête."
The snowfall on the peak is heaviest on the lower slopes. This
diminishes with altitude and is lightest on the upper slopes and the
summit. This is typical of mountain snowfalls. From long experience in
the Rocky Mountains, I am able to say that the snowfall there is much
less on the high peaks than on their middle slopes. The same fact
applies to the Sierra Nevada of California, to the Andes of South
America, and to the Himalayas and the Alps. It is common for a
storm-cloud to be comparatively close to the earth. The height of it
is determined more by the height of near-by plateaus and passes than
by that of the peaks. It is certain that during many of the lowland
storms the mountain peaks thrust up into the sunshine through the
silver lining of the clouds.
Wind is an interesting factor in the distribution of the snowfall. It
sweeps snow off exposed ridges and accumulates it in vast quantities
at places where a glacier starts or where the snow avalanches to a
glacier. Columbia's Crest--the summit--appears to be in a large
measure formed by snow that the wind carries up to it from the slopes
far below. Thus, to snows that fell on these slopes the height of the
peak and its white top are in a measure due.
A score of turbulent streams radiate from this mountain. Apparently
its volcanic material is easily eroded. The streams are heavily laden
with gravel and sediment. Though the peak is comparatively young, the
cañons made by ice and water are large. Vast portions of the mountain
have already been carried away by the erosive forces of ice and
running water.
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