The Glacier Reconnaissance

Under the pale, crystal-clear glow of a waning harvest moon, the high glaciated crags of Mount Rainier stretched out in an endless expanse of pristine white and luminous shadow. A cold front had swept the storm clouds eastward toward the Yakima Valley, leaving the upper mountain suspended in a biting, subzero stillness where temperatures hovered around twelve degrees below zero. Across the broad, windswept snowfield of the Muir Snowfield, two…