[kiliki]

Karen's post reminded me of this online exhibit that the Tacoma Library has had up for a while (apologies if it's already been posted). It's sort of a nice little piece about mountaineering/hiking (their "local walks" sound like so much fun!) in 1910's in the NW, and there are some neat pics. http://mtn.tpl.lib.wa.us/climbs/

[MooseAndSquirrel]

[Bob K]

I liked the part about the two women: Fay Fuller (how she climbed Rainier in 1890): Fay blackened her face with charcoal and wore goggles to modify the sun's glare. Her climbing outfit included heavy flannel underwear, a thick blue flannel bloomer suit, woolen hose, heavy calfskin boy's shoes with caulks, and a small straw hat. She later commented that her costume was assembled "at the time when bloomers were unknown and it was considered quite immodest." and Alma Wagen: In 1917 while on a 240 mile Mountaineer outing, on which climbs of Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood were made, Alma nearly lost her life. As told in the June 1922 Sunset Magazine, "When well up to the summit of Mount Hood, a small boulder, loosened by the melting snow, came bounding down the steep declivity, struck Miss Wagen upon the back just above one hip. The pain and shock were terrific, but the girl, clutching the rope desperately, saved herself a fall that would have meant death." She was slid off the mountain on top of a fellow climber who used his own body as a toboggan Woo...they don't make many women like that anymore. -

[kiliki]

They WERE tough, climbing in bad fitting boots and wool clothes, sleeping on top of Rainier with only a wool blanket. And with no ibuprofin for the bumps and bruises. Fuller was the first woman to climb Rainier; she became a vice president of the Mazamas (the Portland mountaineering club), and she was also a reporter in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. But even she succumed to the mores of the time. Once she married all her climbing and working days were over, and she spent the rest of her life as a housewife.