First ascents of Washington's volcanoes

Five volcanoes rise above the Cascade Range in Washington state and all are popular among mountaineers. In fact, all five were climbed before the end of the nineteenth century, when mountain climbing had not yet fully matured as a sport. William Fraser Tolmie, chief factor at Fort Nisqually, a British outpost near modern DuPont, made the first attempt to reach one of these peaks in the 1830s when he worked his way onto the lower slopes of Mt Rainier. But it would be more than a decade before the first Washington volcano was summited, and more than three decades before two men -- one the son of our first territorial governor -- finally stood atop Rainier.

1. Mount St Helens (9,677 feet*): Dryer, Wilson, Smith, and Drew, 1853 Aug 27
2. Mount Adams (12,276 feet): Aiken, Allen, and Burge, 1854 late summer
3. Mount Baker (10,778 feet): Coleman, Tennant, Ogilvy, and Stratton, 1868 Aug 17
4. Mount Rainier (14,111 feet): Hazard Stevens & Philemon B. Van Trump, 1870 Aug 17
5. Glacier Peak (10,541 feet): Gerdine, Strom, Dubar, and Bard, 1897 early summer

*All elevations given here are thought to be accurate for the actual climbs. St Helens is 8,364 feet high since its 1980 eruption, but was 9,677 feet before that. The climbers of the other peaks either had incorrect or no elevation estimates at all.