Great News! Mount Rainier has a new climbing guidebook packed with incredible photos and outstanding route descriptions.
Mike Gauthier, lead climbing and mountain rescue ranger at Mount Rainier National Park, has summited Rainier over 150 times in all seasons and conditions. Now he shares his intimate knowledge of the mountain by selecting the best 39 routes to the top. From the classic Liberty Ridge to the drama of Success Cleaver to the rarely climbed Mowich Face, Gauthier will help you choose the right climb for you. Whether you're looking for panoramic views or to train at 14,000 feet on steep glaciers and deep crevasses, Mount Rainier: A Climbing Guide provides all the details you'll need to reach the summit and back in safety.
"I can think of no climber with more experience and first hand knowledge of Mount Rainier's climbing routes than Mike Gauthier. His book, Mount Rainier: A Climbing Guide, provides not only excellent route descriptions and photo diagrams for over 35 climbs, but also takes an in-depth look at what is required to scale this Northwest giant. His dual perspective, as both an expert climber and ranger for Mount Rainier National Park, enhances the narrative with the unique insight of a climbing enthusiast tempered by years of experience rescuing others. This book is a "must read" for anyone planning a climb of Rainier."
Todd Burleson, president, Alpine Ascents International
"The American alpinist Alex Lowe once said there were two kinds of climbers: "Those who climb because their heart sings when they're in the mountains, and all the rest." Your guide up Rainier's many faces is one whose heart sings arias. Mike Gauthier is an old-school climber in a young man's body, a mountaineer who's spent one third of his life on Rainier. He has been to the top of this mountain more than 150 times, and in one punishing summer season recorded thirty six summits--if you do the math, that works out to a run to Columbia Crest every sixty hours or so. Like the bandana'd fellow that day on the trail, when he's on Rainier, Mike's doing great, man. He picks up his mail in the mountain lowlands but his true home is 10,000 feet high, at Camp Muir and Camp Schurman, where he plies his trade as a national park climbing ranger. If the mountain's glaciers contain the story of every climber who's crossed them, Mike Gauthier has left volumes of joy and sorrow on the faces of Rainier. From him I've learned to distrust the mountain while loving every minute I spend upon it, to use wisdom and prudence and boldness when traveling its flanks, and to have the best time possible under the worst conditions imaginable. Some days I see the summit from Seattle and wonder if he's up there hunkered down against the tempest in the sublimely awful scene. Most days he is."
Bruce Barcott, author of The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, from the foreword
Order your signed copy by sending $20.00 to:
Mike Gauthier
PO Box 205
Ashford, WA 98304
The $20.00 includes the retail price of the book at $16.95 and $3.05 for shipping and handling. Ensure that you include a correct return address and a signed copy will then be sent to you. Thank you.
mikegauthier@mashell.comBook Signings and Release Events
The presentations are free and include a showing of many unique and unpublished photos of Mount Rainier, mountain climbing, and the National Park. Each program will last 50 minutes however I'll be around to answer any questions or sign books. Here is a list of the dates, times and event locations. I hope to see you there.