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The Rise and fall of the Paradise Ice Caves
By Charles H. Anderson Jr.
Mark Vining
Around 1908 Mountaineers visited some caves in the Paradise and Stevens Glacier on Mount Rainier. The mountaineers did not know at that time the two caves connected together. In the book the Mountain That Was God by Williams there were two caves system.
In the early 1920s Park Naturalist Floyd schmoe explored the Paradise Ice Caves. He found passages going the entire glacier. Floyd found a Dome Room, which had lots of passages taking off from this room. Some of these passages had diffused light and were filled with the richest blues and green imaginable. Along the surface of the white water hung a haze of old rose and gold as though beams from the mountain sunset had been imprisoned there. Floyd looked above, there were areas of pearly white and everywhere he looks there were streaks of clear ice with every imaginable shade of blue and green from the sunlight beyond.
Around 1930 the Mount Rainier Guide Service started giving guided tours of the Paradise Ice Caves. These trips were on the Paradise River Section of the cave system, around 1946 the Guide Service started giving tours on the Stevens Creek side. The Park Service started marking the unsafe areas of the cave with Metal Dangers Signs and using ropes for the tourists to keep out of the danger area. We have found no maps of the caves from the Guide Service or the Park Service to this date.
In Aug 1961 Dr. William R. Halliday and members of the Cascade Grotto went to the Paradise Ice Caves. The cavers looked into the entrance and nodded wisely and did not go in. The entrance was wall to wall with water from Stevens Creek. The Cascade Grotto did not go back for six years. Bill Halliday didn’t bother going along the second time. Bill Halliday made a big mistake and a new era had begun.
On July 1, 1967, Luurt Niewenhius, Charles H. Anderson Jr. and Edith Anderson went to the Paradise Ice Caves for the first time. After reaching the Paradise Ranger Station and talking to the rangers on duty, we signed the small trail register and left for the caves.
In July 22, 1967, Charles H. Anderson Jr. formally proposed a scientific exploration of the entire cave to Norman A. Bishop, Chief Park Naturalist, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington. At first the local staff of National Park Service was dubious as too dangerous, perhaps, and just not worth the study. However, Norm
Bishop was impressed by the concept of scientific exploration. He authorized me to do the study with the tacit warning that permission would be revoked if the scientific exploration turned out to be less than scientific. But Norm needn't have worried, an entire new subdivision of speleology, Glaciospeleology stemmed from his decision.
The first time Charles Anderson, Edith Anderson, Rick Riggs, Bill Petty went to the Paradise Ice Caves was on Aug 1, 1967. Charlie was leading the team. Just inside the gaping entrance on Stevens Creek was a dry corridor on the left side, which wound hundreds of feet to the west side of the glacier. Hardly 2OO feet from the junction were different. The passage curved, then westward, paralleling the lower margin of the glacier. Soon we broke out into an awesome, lightless natural chamber 25O feet long and almost 1OO feet wide. We called this room the Big Room. Just beyond we found four separate corridors that led upward to daylight along the headwall. We started surveying back toward the Stevens Creek Entrance. Once back at the entrance we started exploring again.
Between the Big Room and the water entrance on Stevens Creek, we found the Pillar Passage. Along the way we found the beauties, which had delighted Floyd Schmoe and the tourists two years ago. Our headlights sparkled back a million fold from giant frost crystals. Then we found a magnificently glassy ten-foot ice pillar and several lesser columns reaching toward fluted Moulin’s high overhead. So we named this passage the Pillar Passage, from glistening white ice and from odd clear bodies of glare ice, spouted frozen ribbons, entrancing rows of helictites and occasional transparent stalactites. We found the greatest glory of lime stone caves seemed transmuted into an incredible place of scalloped blue ice in this miraculous Pillar Passage. At this point Charlie suggested to Rick Riggs that we start surveying the Pillar Passage on the way out, so we did.
The next weekend we all went back to Paradise and Stevens Glacier Caves and started the hike to the caves. When we reached the caves Charlie talked to Rick, Bill and Edith, lets start mapping in the Main Water Passage of Stevens Creek and so we did. Alongside the roaring Stevens Creek, the cave was wide enough for us to penetrate a hundred yards, to an echoing chamber fifty feet in diameter. Then we found a side passage. When we started exploring the side passage, we were presented with problems; quicksand and tilting boulders yards in diameter. We all called this Suicide Passage because of the large size boulders at a 6O degree slope. Almost at once, we all recognized a unique caving hazard; large flake falls.
These flakes, often weighed many tons. The flakes are sword like slabs of ice peeling off from innards of the glaciers as a result of natural release of interglacial pressures from the glacier. As we explored further on we found four separate corridors leading upward to daylight along the basin wall. Between the Big Room and the Pillar Passage lay a complex of corridors and small rooms. Some of these led to new entrances along the headwall. This entire part of the glacier seemed hollow. And this trip yielded over 3/4 of a mile of mapped cave with no end in sight. We found vertical layering resulting from compaction of snow, ice and glacier flow that could be traced along the axis of the glacier. Some of these were found to curve away from the axis to special zones of accumulation of snow and ice. We also found large rocks and early deposits in the ice, which told the early history of the cave ice.
With Dr. W.R. Halliday and other members of the Cascade Grotto, Charlie returned time after time mapping, photographing and studying the cave system. Soon we all recognized a myriad of glacier features, here exposed in view. We found layering of various years of snow and ice was prominent. We started to recognize jumbo-size flakes and their narrow attachments of ice increasingly thinned by the caves atmosphere. We soon learned to look both ways in the passages to scan dozens of feet long flakes yet so tenuously attached that a change or touch could collapse tons of ice from the walls and ceiling. Years later, the most experienced glaciospeolologists still shudder when they occasionally turn around and could see what they have missed. The jumbo size flakes and flake falls promptly impressed the new-style glaciospeleologists.
In 1967 and early 1968 the glacier front shrank backwards and the ablation continued to enlarge its inner corridors, and passages connecting the Big Room and the Pillar Passage broke down in complexity of collapsing and splintering flakes of ice. Prominent landmarks appeared. We found impressive glacier cave entrances opening into five nearly separate cave entrances. Others cavers and I were mapping and remapping the changing Glacier caves. It took time and effort but our enthusiasm ran high. An old friend of mine Don Cournoyer, Charlie had always been fascinated by his recorded of 2O9 trips into Breathing Cave W.VA. After a few dozen trips into this cave system, Charlie wonders if I could beat Don's record.
The winters of 1967 and 1968 brought its expected cold but surprisingly little snow. The new entrances at the snout never closed that winter. Stevens Creek is fed largely by seasonal melt water. In the cold weather we found its flow stilled to a sub glacial trickle. We explored, and then we were mapping up the mainstream passage and now we found it almost dry of water. Even to our surprise we found Suicide Passage yielded easily in winter and we still treat loose, car size boulders with respect at anytime. And the winter exploration seemed to be the key to glaciospeleology and the Paradise Glacier Caves System because of the low water. But outside the Paradise and Stevens Glacier Caves winter still reigned on the blizzard swept slopes of Mount Rainier. All glaciospeleologists are equipped for winter survival and we repeatedly undertook additional training techniques. . Sometimes we had to resort to navigation by the compass, with visibility one to three feet and we were prepared. About half of the cavers tried out the current weather conditions, and decided it wasn't worth the effort and turned back. But the rest of the glacier- speleologists had no real difficulty reaching the Glacier Caves. Once we were inside the caves we could wait out the worst snowstorm in something close to comfort, and in the 32 degree cave temperature. These trips were too smooth and too easy for winter travel. On February 18, 1968 the trip to the caves began in extra-balmy weather. Members of the team were Charlie Anderson, Edith Anderson, Dave Mischke, Bob Brown and. As we started to the caves about 1/4 mile out, Bob Brown noted that he did not have his Ice Axe with him and some other equipment so Bob decided to turn back to Paradise and the cars.
The rest of us went on to the caves and it was an easy trip. We started taking pictures of the cave formations, which are only in the caves in during winter months. The caves were at their best, and our headlight sparkled back millions from giant frost crystals. There was a magnificently glossy fifteen-foot glassy ice stalagmite and several lesser columns reaching toward fluted Moulin’s high overhead. Also, we found glistening white and clear bodies of glare ice and lots of ribbons, entrancing rows of helictites and an occasional transparent stalactite. After the photo session we started mapping the changes in the caves and new cave passages that we found in the Stevens Creek section. After about three hours of mapping the main river passage, we started out of the cave.
The weather was still nice at this point and Dave, Edith and Charlie started down the mountain to Paradise Ranger station. About halfway back, we all learned about Mount Rainier blizzards. The weather changed at a very fast rate as a winter storm started to hit the mountain. You could not see two feet at this point and the wind-chill and snow was very bad at this point. Charlie was leading with Edith behind Charlie and Dave last. When Charlie ran unto an ice wall that Charlie could not see because we were in a whiteout. All of us were a little to far up the mountain, so we all started to go down Avalanche Alley to the right point to hit the right course to Golden Gate. At the lower part of Avalanche Alley we all started to the top of the ridge. When we got to the top, the winds were about 4O miles per hour and you could not see more that two feet ahead of you. Edith was getting really tired and running out of steam at this point.
At this point we were within about 2OO feet of the Golden Gate where we could start down to Paradise Ranger Station and Edith could not move anymore. Dave and Charlie talked and decided to build a snow cave and wait out the storm. After about 1 to 2 hours we finished the snow cave and put Edith in the middle of us to keep as warm as possible. At this time unfortunately the visibility was about five feet, and hearing was slightly less. By this time Bob Brown was at Paradise Ranger Station and was getting help for us up on the mountain. The rangers started a rescue team to find us and soon the rescue teams were nearby. Unfortunately, visibility was only five feet and the wind at 4O miles per hour. At least one rescue team passed in the middle of the night and unknowingly were within yards of the snow cave and its marker.
Dawn brought a slackening in the winter storm and Edith was unconscious and was in a state of hypothermia. Charlie told Dave that he should try to go down to Paradise and get help, and Charlie would stay with Edith. Dave was able to stagger down to the ranger station to get help for Edith and Charlie. Dave, rangers and the Mountain Rescue teams were soon at hand. They all worked on Edith and me. Charlie was starting to be in a state of hypothermia because of the long time in the storm. We all started down the mountain to the Paradise Rangers Station. By the time we got to the ranger station it was too late to save Edith's life. Hypothermia had claimed another life on Mount Rainier. Inevitably, the reaction lay heavily on us all. Yet Edith's death did not kill the Paradise Ice Cave project. All of Charlie work at Paradise and Stevens Glacier Caves is dedicated to Edith.
The summer of 1969 yielded little new cave that we could explore due to the high runoff of melt water in the Stevens Creek entrance. But in November on a routine investigation of the main Water Passage; we found an ordinary side passage some 2,OOO feet up the Main water Passage and quickly discovered the Rockslide Room. It was larger than the Big Room itself. At the top of its treacherous slopes lay another back entrance near the Headwall and surprisingly close to the upper end of the glacier basin. Then the winter snows started to close in the cave before we could return.
The next year was nineteen seventy and was the Centennial Year of Mount Rainier and for caving. With the courtesy of Stevens and Van Trump, climbing Mount Rainier IN 187O. As part of the celebration the Cascade Grotto of the NSS attempted a special breakthrough on October 3, 197O. This was Charlie ninety-ninth trip into the Paradise and Stevens Glacier Cave System. The next day was my hundredth and in dense underground fog, and perhaps Charlie most disappointing trip. Over and over we found ourselves knee-deep in the ice water before we could even reach the Rockslide Room junction on Stevens Creek. Van York and Charlie had frostbitten our feet from years earlier. Each time we were forced into deep water, increasing pain tormented us.
A grim reality pointed out to us that we would have the same agony if the breakthrough was unsuccessful and we would have to return most of the entire length of the sub glacial stream. Van York and Charlie gave up while still mapping the Stevens Creek passage. Ron Pflum and Bill Zarwell grimly splashed on in Stevens Creek and returned to the surface surprisingly soon after we left them. This was the first known traverse beneath the entire length of the glacier. After nearly a mile in the ice water and fighting 43-degree rapids, Ron and Bill burst out of a huge entrance just 2OO feet further than Van and Charlie did.
1n the summer of 1971 the only new passage that we found was the Waterfall Passage. The passage was name for 3 nice waterfalls in the passage. Bill Halliday, Ron Pflum, Bill Zarwell, Mark Sailer, and Charlie Survey the Waterfall Passage in September 1971. With more than two miles of mapped cave, it appeared that Paradise and Stevens Glacier Caves System was going to total about three miles of cave inside of the mile long glacier.
Some gung-ho limestone cavers from the Western and Eastern states scoffed outright, saying that this cave was an inexcusable exaggeration and that all of this did not amount to much. It wasn't in limestone, which was the only rock that caves grew worth considering. It wasn't all in one cave now. The Big Room and the Pillar Passage were fast melting away.
At least in public my co-workers and Charlie merely smiled. We all gave soft answers and we turned away the bitterest taunts that these cavers gave. As the lower sections collapsed between the Big Room and the Pillar Room. The small stream passage was becoming full-scale side passages like the Waterfall Passage. Some of these passages were with there own brand-new Moulin’s out of interglacial bodies of glare ice. Nature again took a hand and the 197O breakthrough had been just in time. Record snowfalls began to accumulate and compact. In the winter of 1971-72 over 1,OOO inches of snowfall. Many spacious chambers and corridors were larger fill with snow. Glassy speleothems were disappearing.
The new record snows dismayed the glaciospeleologists. There were hazardous basin walls entrances on the far side of the glacier that we could enter any of the cave systems. But much scientific observation and documentation were needed.
The glaciospeleologist team plugged ahead. The annual convention of the National Speleological Society was to be held in the Pacific Northwest in August 1972, for the first time. Charlie applied to the National Park Service of Mount Rainier for permission to have a post convention trip to the ice caves.
The staff of Mount Rainier National Park had authorized a special post- convention field trip to the caves. It was very obvious that no large group of cavers, that were unskilled in glacier caves and glacial travel could follow a safe route to the caves, the only route open across the glacier and down to the caves from the rock and ice. We gloomily contemplated still further criticism if we canceled the trip.
On July 1, 1972, Mark Vining, Truman Sherk, Chris Miller and Charlie were returning from the upper basin entrances, from a new route by the way of Paradise River for a change of scenery. We were about a mile upstream from Sluiskin Falls where the Paradise River tumbles out of the glacier basin. We unexpectedly found a large hole in the snow where a geothermal spring was. We called this new entrance Surprise Entrance. We had about two hours to kill and we casually decided to enter the snow cave. Mark, Truman, Chris and Charlie were upstream and we sloshed along, and were expecting the cave to end at any time. When we were about a thousand feet upstream we ran out of time and not cave.
This was only a snow cave, and we all expected the cave to end at any time. At first we were moderately interested in the cave and wonder if this was the original Paradise Ice Caves. We all returned on several weekends to explore and map the cave. Each trip revealed more and more cave. Its patterns were surprisingly like the glacier caves in ice. We found some old relics that turned up, a rotting wooden ladder that the guide service used for tours to get into the ice caves. We found an old metal DANGER sign with paint flaked almost to illegibility to read.
It was not long before long we had mapped over a mile of snow cave not counting 2OOO ft in the lower section. This lower section of cave lasted just long enough for the post convention field trip. It was hard for us to get really excited even about a mile of snow cave. The glaciospelologist and Charlie underwent merciless ribbing. We were called Deadpan limeys and were spoken of in a half-facetious about way about north westerners growing caves with carbide lamps and smuggling flame throwers into the national park to make these caves. We didn't expect much of these new finds about the caves. Less than a month after the NSS convention, the last virgin passage became lower and lower as it was pinching out. Finally the cave ended pinching out against a rock wall below the upper Paradise Glacier.
We were not very surprised and we all took a short rest. Then Mark Vining decided to do a little exploring. As Charlie now reminisce very, we were happy, and Charlie was right with him and soon Mark found a low side passage about 3OO feet back toward the entrance. When Mark and Charlie crawled through the opening we found us in a real honeycomb passage. Mark, Chris, Truman and Charlie had to leave 19 passages that we did not check or explore. These passages went up and down and interconnecting through the ridge. We returned as soon as possible and found the Honeycomb Area expanding atop the low basin center ridge that separates Paradise River from Stevens Creek. Charlie announced that a connection from the resurrected Paradise River cave section to Stevens Creek cave section appeared possible; maybe even likely to connect the two caves together.
To us this cave was heaven. Mark and Charlie found that glacier caves and snow caves follow stream's courses. Other cavers and Park people said they couldn't possibly go up and over and across a divide between two drainage basins under a glacier and snowfield. Some people just said," That’s more of Charlie's big talk." Charlie just grinned again and went back to work.
The other Northwest cavers were celebrating the Oregon Grotto Party. Bill and Lynn Halliday for the Oregon Grotto for putting their hearts into making the 1972 NSS convention a success put on the party. On Sept. 3O, 1972 Christ Miller and Charlie were conspicuous by our absence from the party. Chris and Charlie were mapping the dripping black maze of the Honeycomb Area. It was about 6:3O P.M. when an inaudible vibration came increasingly to Charlie awareness. Not for several body lengths of crawling in the ice water did comprehension click. "Do you hear a roar?" Charlie breathlessly queried to Chris crawling close behind me. Chris halted and listened and pounded on my back. A muted but unmistakable sound revealed a torrent that was not far away. At double speed Chris and Charlie slithered onward, about fifty feet or more. Below, in a little black hole about the size of a hard hat, roared Stevens Creek. It was about 25 feet wide at this point. Yippee! For the first time Charlie long suppressed feelings burst out in pure joy. Now no one can say that Charlie was exaggerating that the Paradise and Stevens Ice caves connect.
The new enthusiasm for the glacier caves quickly spawned into the International Glaciospeleological Survey with Charlie as director. Members of various grottos joined and the British Columbia Speleo-Research served in the initial supporting roles in forming IGS. IGS had other projects besides the Paradise and Stevens Glacier System. The new survey soon formed with the blessing of all cavers that were concerned. Other studies were soon underway on both sides of the border-taking place.
IGS reported in 1973 we had mapped more than 60 passages in the ever-enlarging cave system. On Aug 18, 1973 the first Expeditition devoted entirely to glaciospeleology. The expedition was held at the Paradise and Stevens Cave System. This was an International Glaciospeleological Survey project and carried the flag of the Explorers Club, the first time under a glacier. After the expedition a total of 10 miles and 1,242 feet was on the map in the combine system. Two miles of surveys were done during the expedition. And a permanent headwall survey had been done for future explorations of the cave system. And a total of 75 miles we had hike during the expedition.
Others teaming with Mark Vining were two British Columbia cavers Gerrit Van de Laan and Clarence Hronek, the father of Vancouver Island caving. Charlie and others IGS Members ran wild in the course of a two week mapping expedition. By the end of the expedition Charlie total number of trips into the cave was 208 and passed Don Counoyer's record.
It was soon evident that the reunited cave contained the headwaters of both Stevens Creek and the Paradise River, and had miles of passages between and around them. Everywhere we turned we found new networks begging to be explored and mapped. Some of the passages were ice and snow, and some in every stage of compaction. By the end of 1973 the map of the Paradise Glacier Cave System showed more than ten miles of mapped cave passage.
In July 6, 1974 further progress seem to be hanging in the wind. As late as August 15, every basin entrance was still snowed in except around the headwall. The snout entrances were still deeply buried. Mark and Charlie turned our recollections to the geothermal spring on the basin wall. The spring was warm enough to support a distinct plant life and its warmth provided enough beat to open Surprise Entrance. Now we had two tortuous soppy hours from any corridor with ice. Charlie gave a report to the National Park Service that the Paradise Glacier Caves System has passed ten miles on the map. This figure was from total cave surveys including the collapsed part since the project started.
On June 8, 1974 Charlie got a grant of $1,000 from the National Park Service was accepted. The grant was for IGS to study and map the Paradise Glacier Caves System. On August 2, 1974 IGS made a trip to the Paradise Glacier Caves System. The members were Charlie was the trip leader and other members were Mark Vining, John Wilcox, National Park Service (NPS), Dr. W.R. Halliday, Rod Crawford, UW, Clarence Hronek, Gerrit Van der Lann, Bob Brown and Curt Black. The purpose of this trip was to impressed John Wilcox (NPS) as to the size and complexity of the Paradise Glacier Caves System. Also to demonstrate to the Park Service that the IGS will meet the requirements specified by their grant.
Upon reaching the caves we were delighted to find Surprise Entrance was open. Charlie and Mark took John Wilcox through the cave first, while the rest of the stayed outside the cave. John was on a tight schedule so they had to hurry. Charlie, Mark and John set a new speed record going to the Big Room and back to Surprise Entrance in less than two hours. John Wilcox was very impressed about the maze of passages in the Paradise Glacier Caves System.
John gave Charlie an oral promise for a grant of $2,000 per year and a radio for use while in the cave to keep in touch with the rangers. John also gave me and my team free accommodations at Paradise, free transportation to and from the park and other equipment and the service of Park Rangers who would help Charlie explore and map the cave. The Park wanted a map of the cave system in case a tourist got lost somewhere in its 10 miles of passages.
Mark and Charlie took the rest of the cavers into the Paradise Glacier Caves system, and we started exploring the cave. The first part of the cave system the caves meant crawling on your hands and knees up the middle of Paradise River Section. This section was like crawling up a freezing mountain stream at night and you have a pretty good picture of what it was like.
Most of the way was standing up, but it seemed like endless miles of cave when had to crawl. As Charlie and Mark were leading the savers through the water passage, the cave was constantly dripping from the walls and ceiling of the passages and collected in the middle of the rock covered floor. Thus was created a raging torrent of water in every passage that we entered. The ice cold water also tends to drip off the ceiling and fall right down our backs. Also the ice-cold water from Paradise River that we were crawling up flowed right into our boots and gloves and down our sleeves and pants legs.
This was a real spine-chilling experience we had. Soon we broke into a real maze where side passages were going off in all directions. At one junction we counted five different ways to go. Charlie and Mark knew this part of the cave well and so we didn't get lost at all. We finally arrived at a large ice chamber and one of the first things we noticed here was the walls of the Big Room. They are made of thick deep blue glacial ice. At this point in the cave, we are so far underneath the Paradise Glacier that the weight of the snow and ice above us has compressed the ice walls so hard that it has literally squeezed the ice bubbles out of the ice. The ice is so clear; you can shine your headlight several feet back into the ice.
And then Charlie started taking pictures of the Big Room. Charlie still had his strobe unit out he had Mark hold it up next to a large ice column in the middle of the Big Room. Charlie told the savers to turn their headlights out and then Charlie shot off the strobe into the ice column. The ice glowed an eerie green color for several seconds after the strobe went out. Bill Halliday was quite impressed with my demonstration of fluorescent ice as were the rest of the cavers. Clarence Hronek and Gerrit Van der Laan started surveying the Big Room and Charlie and Mark started another survey in a side passage.
The rest of us took pictures in the Big Room. Mark Vining noticed a large boulder over my head while he was surveying this room. Mark suggested to me that it might be a good idea to move out from under the boulder that was stuck in the ice. No sooner had Charlie moved to a safer place then the rock came crashing down right where he had been standing. Charlie narrowly escaped being killed. After surveying this passage Mark and Charlie started back to the Big Room. About 2 hours later both the surveying teams were back in the Big Room. After we had lunch we started back to Surprise Entrance. On the way out Rod Crawford got out his collecting bottle. Rod started probing the ice with a pair of tweezers. Rod was looking for ice worms and collected one right away and put it in his small bottle. The ice worm was about one millimeter long and its body was as clear as the ice it lives in. The ice worms have some sort of natural anti-freeze in their bodies and are able to bore their way through the ice. After Rod finished collecting the ice worms and other specimens, we started out of the cave. It was not very long before we were at Surprise Entrance.
Once at the entrance we started back to Paradise Rangers Station where we left our cars. Charlie was logging close to his 300th trip into the Paradise Glacier Cave System. On September 2, 1974, Mark and Charlie saw Stevens Creek suddenly and inexplicably rise more than a foot within seconds. Stevens Creek level remained constant for 24 hours until the stream dropped back to its previous flow. This was the second time that Charlie and Mark have been in the Stevens Creek Section of the cave and seen the creek rise. The first time was September 11, 1973 when Charlie, Mark Vining, Gerrit Van Lann and Clarence Homek were in Stevens Creek near Suicide Passage.
It was not long after the September 2, 1974, trip when the winter’s snows started coming. On August 30,1975, Mark and Charlie found a small passage of crystal ice off Stevens Creek. The passage was about a hundred feet long and came into a large dome room. Into this chamber other passages opened and beyond and up the dark passages Charlie and Mark could
See ice bridges, waterfalls and light walls. The roof was vaulted like some great cathedral and everywhere was diffused light. The whole area was filled with the richest blues and greens imaginable.
As Mark and Charlie were looking above, there were areas of pearly white and everywhere streaks of clear ice as though painted on the walls. There was every imaginable shade of blue and green from the sunlight from the back entrance. During September through November 1975 IGS teams were studying and mapping the changes in the Paradise Glacier Caves System. Then the winter snows began to fall and the exploration came to a halt until next year.
Since 1975, the global pattern changes again and the winter snows again slacken and fade each summer. In 1976 through 1977, IGS Exploring and Mapping Teams continued to map and explore the changing cave system. IGS Exploring Teams were doing other glacier caves studies. These other studies were done at Big Four Ice Caves-Mount Baker WA., Crater Firn Caves-Mount Baker WA., Carbon Glacier Caves-Mount Rainier WA., Crater Firn Caves-Mount Rainier WA. and Helm Glacier Caves, Canada B.C.
In the mean time, there is frenzy among the Park visitors to get into the Worlds Famous-Glacier Caves System. Park officials point out the very real dangers of trying to enter then under the present conditions. These real dangers of Flake Falls and entrance collapse are continuous in the present hot weather. Some of the Firn Tunnels wander for several miles under the glacier, which could lead the unwary cave explorer to much trouble. Also the water temperature poses a real threat if one becomes wet and cold. Park Rangers ask the visitors to use caution and restraint not to enter the caves at this time.
Almost daily surveys are being carried out by IGS Mapping Teams. If the Paradise Glacier Caves can be safely entered, the public will be notified. Walking on top of the Paradise and Stevens Glacier is hazardous at this time. The melting of the glacier has caused a number of thin parts in the glacier surface, which can collapse and drop a hiker 15 to 30 feet into the cave system. This happened to a hiker in 1925 and caused his death. This story was from the SIGNPOST on August 25, 1977.
As of May 28, 1978 the length of the Paradise and Stevens Glacier Caves System was 8.23 Miles (13 1/4 km) or 43,560 Feet long. This was the most ever on the map at one time. When the Paradise River section of the cave was segmented at Surprise Entrance during the following summer, the length figure dropped to about 7.4 miles (I 1.9 km) but regained the gate figure in the winter of 1979. The depth (as determined by topographic maps) dropped from 855 feet to 490 feet, and similarly returned to the earlier figure. More than 15 miles of mapping was required to reach these figures and much remains to be accomplished. Because of change in cave system in the recession of the glacier.
From 1980 to 1991 Charlie and other IGS Members made two or more trips a year mapping the changes of the recession of Paradise and Stevens Glaciers. The Glaciers are in rapid retreat up the mountain. IGS Members also map the change in the caves entrances during this retreat of the Paradise and Stevens Glaciers.
Other IGS projects were Big Four Glacier Caves-Mount Baker, Carbon Glacier Caves-Mount Rainier, Helm Glacier Caves-B.C., and Mount St. Helens Crater Firn Caves. These studies were from 1982 through 1994.
On August 24, 1991, Mike Anderson, Heather Olmsted, Bill Dales and Charlie made a trip to the Paradise and Stevens Glacier Caves System. We started from the Paradise Ranger Station on the trail to the glacier caves. Charlie noticed that there was a little Firn cave at the beginning of Avalanche Alley along Paradise River. As Mike, Heather, Bill and Charlie went along the trail to the caves we all noticed the Stevens Lobe of the Paradise Glacier has changed a lot. The glacier had retreated up past the Rockslide Room and Paradise Lost where we found an entrance on Stevens Creek.
The Park Service put up a sign about the dangers of the cave falling in. There were some hikers looking into the ice caves and no one was inside. Mike Anderson put a cave register outside the cave entrance for the hikers to sign. As we started in the cave system the hikers were going to follow us into the cave. Charlie told them it was to dangerous to go into at this time and that we were exploring and mapping the caves for the Park Service. The hikers turned around and left the cave as we all went on. The blue and green light was at its peak in the main passage. There were flakes in several places that we had to watch for. Charlie started taking videos of the cave and the rest of the IGS members. There were three passages taking off the Big Room and leading off to the back entrances. Mike Anderson and Charlie started exploring some of the passages going to the back of the glacier. There Charlie found a large flake hanging on by not more than three feet of ice in a large back entrance. The flake was about 20 feet high and 5 feet wide. The flake was a very dangerous place to be near so we did not go any further.
Mike and Charlie started back to meet Heather and Bill where we left them in the Big Room taking pictures. It was not long before Charlie and Mike reached the Big Room and we all started out of the cave. Then we started going on the surface of the glacier and found lots of holes where the cave had collapsed. It was a very dangerous trip on the glacier. This was because of the holes all over the glacier and one could fall through the thin cave ceiling. On August 31, 199 1, Charlie and Doug Paasch were back at the caves. There was a big change in the caves and glacier. The glacier was almost gone. There was only on one Big Room left and several passages leading off of it. Doug and Charlie entered the cave and started exploring. The play of the light from the outside on the fantastically scalloped and fluted walls.
The chromatic range of its shading from delicate green to the deepest ultramarine produces an effect of a fairyland place of sparkling precious stones. Charlie started taking SUPER VHS Videos of Doug in this passage while he was exploring. This passage led back to the back entrance along the headwall where Charlie found the big flake on August 24, 1991. The flake now was 20 feet high and 4 feet wide and hanging on by I" inch at the top of the flake. At this point Charlie started leading a route past the large flake. There was a lot of flake fall in this room and we had to be careful not to fall through the ice to the rock floor below. It was not long before Charlie started taking videos of this room and the large flake. Doug also wanted to take some videos of this flake from a different angle.
Charlie let Doug do some filming of the flake and back entrance. At this point Charlie was still exploring while Doug was filming him. Then Charlie turned around and saw Doug fall through the ice to the rock floor. Doug did not get hurt and he was lucky he only fell three feet down to the rocks on the cave floor. After taking pictures and exploring this passage we started back to the Big Room. It was not long before we got back to the Big Room.
Doug started exploring the water passage and Charlie was taking pictures of Doug. The passage had a large stream flowing in the middle of it. The cave walls were a dark blue and green just like a fairyland of sparkling precious ice. After Doug finished exploring and Charlie taking videos we started out of the cave.
After we left the cave we started exploring and filming the glacier to the back end. There was a lot of water in Stevens Creek because of the melting of the glacier. As we looked up at the headwall to the upper Paradise Glacier, Charlie noticed some more new caves forming in the glacier. Doug also saw some new caves above the headwall going in the direction of Camp Muir. This might be the new Paradise Glacier Caves in the future. After we finished exploring and putting the survey on the map we started back to the Paradise Ranger Station. This was the end of a good trip to the Paradise Glacier Caves System.
The two decades since have brought the steady deterioration of the caves. In the fall of 1991 the ceiling of the last Big Room finally collapsed according to the Tahoma Woods, which is a National Park Service newsletter. This was the end of the Paradise Glacier Caves System or is it? There are still more caves above the headwall and this might be the new Paradise Glacier Caves. Or are the Paradise Glacier Caves heading toward the summit of Mountain Rainier where the steam caves are. Only time will tell about these caves.
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