Ever seen a photo of Mount Rainier? Or, if you live in western Washington, just look out your window. It's the big mountain, 14,410 feet high with 26 major glaciers. So massive it makes its own weather.

In 1890 when 20-year-old Fay Fuller tried to climb Mount Rainier, life was different. Only a few men had reached the top. No woman was known who had ever tried.

Back then women couldn't vote. They didn't have sports teams. Pants for women were unheard of. Instead, women wore long skirts that covered their ankles.

Fay taught school in a small town called Yelm near Mount Rainer. She'd heard about a man named Philemon Beecher Van Trump who was in the first documented climbing party to reach the mountain's top. Fay invited Mr. Van Trump to talk to her class about his climbing adventures. Soon Fay began to dream of climbing Mount Rainier herself.

In August of 1890 Fay joined the Van Trump family on a camping trip to the mountain. It took five days on horseback just to reach Paradise Camp. Once there, Fay met a group of four men who were planning to climb to the top.

Fay was no wimp. She'd strengthened her small body by rowing in the rough waters of Puget Sound and doing calisthenics. She rode astride her horse rather than sidesaddle, with both legs on one side, as was expected of young ladies.

But still the climbers hesitated to take a young woman up the mountain. Finally one of the men agreed to stay with Fay and bring her down if she couldn't continue. The others consented to take her along.

One of Fay's challenges was figuring out what to wear since women of her time didn't climb mountains. Women bought their clothes from dressmakers, and Fay paid hers to make a pair of wool bloomers—loose, balloon-like pants that tied together at each ankle. Local men and women were astonished.

Now that Fay's legs were covered, she turned to other necessities. For traction on the slippery ice, she pounded nails through the bottom of her shoes. An old shovel handle with a spike driven into the end became her climbing staff. She tied two blankets over her shoulder, tucked in food for three days, and carried a canteen for water. At the last minute she filled her pockets with chocolates.

The four men and Fay left Paradise Camp at 11:00 a.m. They climbed through steep snowfields, scrambled over rock ledges, and spent the first night at 10,000-foot Camp Muir.

With only prunes and raisins for breakfast and no water because the streams had frozen, the party departed at 4:30 a.m., headed for the top.

They trudged up the southeast slope over glaciers, up icy ridges, across crevasses and rocky ledges. Soon the climbing team faced the Great Gibraltar Cliff. Each step had to be carved into the near vertical ice as they inched upward. Fay strained to get enough breath in the thin air and found herself taking five breaths for each step.

Finally they scaled the cliff only to see snow-covered ridges stretching up ahead. By this point the ice had begun to melt and each step required a probe to be sure it wouldn't break away into a bottomless crevasse. The wind picked up, clawing to pull the party off the high ridges.

Hour after hour, one careful step after another, fighting the bitter wind, they worked their way up the mountain. Fay refused help from the men in the group, even in the most treacherous sections.

Twelve hours after leaving Camp Muir, on August 20, 1890, Fay Fuller stood atop Mount Rainier. She later wrote, "It was a heavenly moment; nothing was said—words cannot describe the scenery and beauty, how could they speak for the soul!"

As was the custom, each climber left a token at the top. Fay chose some hairpins. That same summer, the next climbing party up the mountain found her hairpins, proving that a woman had successfully scaled the mountain.

The ferocious wind drove Fay and the men to find shelter for the night. They warmed themselves near steam vents in the dormant volcano. The steam soon soaked their clothing, forcing them to move to an ice cave. Below-freezing temperatures, exhaustion, altitude sickness, and rumbling sounds of distant avalanches kept Fay awake the entire night.

Morning came but the wind never stopped. Fay forced herself out into the blast and down the icy snowfields. The sun scorched her skin and the biting wind swelled her face.

The climbers moved as quickly as possible, hoping to reach Gibraltar Cliff in time to use their previously cut steps. But the relentless sun had already melted their steps so the climbers had to chop each one again. The man-sized steps stretched her into unstable positions, frightening her more than on the ascent.

The final stage of the descent was easier. Long glissades down snow-covered slopes dropped them safely into Paradise Camp.

For five days Fay barely moved. She nursed her blistered and pealing skin and painful body.

Yet, once wasn't enough for Fay. Seven years later she successfully climbed Rainier again, this time part of a 200-member climbing team. On the descent, one climber slipped to his death, the first climber known to die on the mountain.

Fay lived to be 88 years old. She always remembered that Mount Rainier gave her something special. She recalled, "I accomplished what I have dreamed of and feared impossible, and from my experience nothing could be taken."

Whenever you see the mountain, remember Fay and her climb to the top. In the decades since her momentous climb, hundreds of women have followed in her footsteps, reaching the summit of their dreams. Will you?

Find Out More:

Where the Waters Begin: The Traditional Nisqually Indian History of Mount Rainier. Cecelia Carpenter. Northwest Interpretative Association, 2001.

The Big Fact Book About Mount Rainier Bette Filley. Dunamis House, 1996.

Mount Rainier National Park website. http://www.nps.gov/mora