The Myth of the Unclimbable Mountain
Defying widespread reports that Mount Rainier had been rendered impassable by avalanches, two men successfully summit the peak to set the record straight.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Tacoma.—For the first time in four years, Mount Rainier has been ascended to the top, disproving the widely circulated reports that avalanches had swept away the paths around Gibraltar Rock, and that the glacier at the head of Gibraltar had broken off, leaving a sheer, insurmountable precipice. Dr. W. R. Betts of New Orleans and H. M. Sarvant, secretary of the Northwestern Woodenware company, completed the ascent. The climbers faced immense peril, crossing a 300-400 foot gap where the ledge had been carried away by rockfall, and cutting 500 steps into the face of a glacier to bypass a massive crevasse. Dr. Betts, who traveled from New Orleans specifically to test the rumors of the mountain's closure, reached the crater rim at 3 p.m. last Monday. He reported no volcanic activity, refuting rumors of an impending eruption, and described the view as the most magnificent in the world.
“They experienced great difficulty and underwent much peril in clinging to the rocks and working their way along its surface.”
The fear that climate or geological events made landmarks 'inaccessible' was a common source of anxiety in early 20th-century PNW media. Today, the debate has shifted from whether a mountain is 'climbable' to how climate change is physically altering these same glaciers, making this 1903 report a fascinating baseline for the region's relationship with its shifting topography.
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