Yesterday was travel day. Once more I took my usual Delta flight from Amsterdam to Portland. Apart from sitting 3 hours in the plane while still on the ground in AMS (they were fixing a problem with the water system) and apart from finally having a few new movies on the entertainment system (with the start of the new month) it was a totally uneventful and photographically dull flight with one single exception: while starting the decent into PDX we passed Mount Rainier in very close proximity, and the top of the highest stratovolcano of the Cascades Range was raising above the otherwise solid cloud cover. Enough to warrant the seventh episode of my Monday Mountains. For more info about Mount Rainier and more photos continue after the jump….
Mt. Rainier is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest and the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington. This large active volcano located 54 miles southeast of Seattle has a summit elevation of 14,411 ft (4,392 m). According Wikipedia, Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. Because of its large amount of glacial ice, Mt. Rainier could produce massive landslides and flooding that could threaten the entire Puyallup River valley, and poses a grave threat to the southern sections of the Seattle metropolitan area, a city of over 650,000 people with more than 3.7 million living in its metropolitan area.
With 26 major glaciers and 36 sq mi (93 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each more than 1,000 ft (300 m) in diameter.
With an ultra prominent shape, Mount Rainier raises 13.210 ft (4,026 m) above its surrounding terrain, which is a greater topographic prominence than that of K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain. On clear days it dominates the southeastern horizon of the Seattle metro area.
It was first ascended in 1870. On a free weekend in the summer I definitely plan a visit to the mountain and its National Park.
The photos from the plane I took with my Olympus PEN-F with the 12-40mm F2.8 Pro Zoom, 1/8000 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 200 (from the high shutter speed you can see how incredibly bright it was outside facing south towards the sun). The bottom photo I took on a previous trip while driving from Portland up to Seattle, you can read about it in this post.
Summing up my travel day, we carried our 3h delay all the way to Portland, so there went my free afternoon and the hope for some sightseeing opportunity. I went straight to the Hotel, fresher up and went directly to the office for some Sunday evening prep meetings for a major downhill event early Monday morning. By the time I was back in the hotel my day has lasted 27 hours, minus 2 hours nap time on the plane. Business travel reality.
Have a great week!
Marcus
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