The Story Behind the First Documented Summit of Mt. Rainier

Young Hazard Stevens survived the Civil War and became a PNW legend. 

Hazard Stevens and his colleague, PB Van Trump, became the first climbers to summit Mt. Rainier together. 

Hazard Stevens Traveled all around Washington

In 1854, Hazard's father, Isaac Stevens, became the first governor of the new Washington Territory. The Stevens family moved to Olympia, where they met with tribal leaders and established treaties. After the Civil War, Isaac Stevens received a Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Story of the First Rainier Summit

In August 1870, Hazard Stevens and Philemon Beecher Van Trump left Olympia for the historic attempt at climbing Rainier. They met up with James Longmire in Yelm for pack horses and a Native American mountain guide named Sluiskin at Bear Prairie. 

Upon arriving at Mazama Ridge to camp for the night, Sluiskin told the two that “an infernal demon on the mountain would destroy them.”

Hazard and P.B. ignored the warnings and pressed on the next morning, without any cold-weather gear, believing they would summit and return before sunset. 

Thinking they reached the top at five in the afternoon, the two planted a flag at what they would name Peak Success. 

The two realized they still were not at the top.

They had to push another 250 feet to Crater Peak, where Hazard Stevens left a bronze plate with the two men's names.

Hazard & P.B. Didn’t know if they’d get down alive

They were forced to spend the night near the summit, huddling inside a cave containing a steam vent, unsure of their chances of survival - Jessica Wambach

 

Party in Olympia

Hazard Stevens and PB Van Trump’s 1870 successful adventure put them in the history books. While it still stands as the first official summiting of Rainier, several people didn’t believe they made it to the top. Hazard Stevens’ brass plate was never found at Crater Peak.

The Stevens–Van Trump monument along the Skyline Trail in Mount Rainier National Park commemorates the 1870 summit.