Northern slopes of Mount Rainier as viewed from Old Desolate Ridge. Photo taken over benchmark at 7,133 feet elevation, a southwest-trending dogleg of ridge immediately north of Mystic Lake. There is a magnificent view of the Willis Wall and the head of the Carbon Glacier from this point. Steamboat Prow is just visible on the left.
Mount Rainier, at 14,410 feet, is the highest peak in the Cascade Range, and the fifth highest peak in the United States outside of Alaska. It is the third most voluminous volcano in the Cascades. The base of Mount Rainier spreads over an area of about 100 square miles, and lava flows that radiate from the base of the cone extend to distances of as much as 9 miles. The peak's load of glacier ice exceeds that of any other mountain in the conterminous United States.
The Carbon Glacier is the third largest glacier by area on Mount Rainier (3.1 square miles), yet it has the greatest measured thickness (700 feet), glacial volume (0.2 cubic miles), and length (5.7 miles). It's 3,500-feet-altitude terminus is the lowest of any glacier in the contiguous United States, and it's head is just below the imposing 4,000-foot-high Willis Wall.
