The southeastern crater rim....

The southeastern crater rim. A sense of the scale of the place is offered by the smaller "dots" making their way across the crater floor--the members of the group have just come up from the Ingraham Flats trail and are heading for Columbia Crest, true summit of Rainier. The foreground climbers are seen relaxing and enjoying the warm, moist steam escaping from fissures in the volcanic rocks. There's actually an extensive network of tunnels and natural passageways beneath the lens-shaped ice cap. For a map of the tunnels as well as photos of the hidden caverns and ponds beneath the ice, see Molenaar's 'The Challenge of Rainier. '