Climbing Fees At Mount Rainier National Park To Increase....By $1

Submitted by NPT Staff on October 24, 2012 - 12:01pm

Climbing fees at Mount Rainier National Park are going to increase next year...by $1.

Superintendent Randy King says the fees will go to $44 for climbers 25 and older, and to $31 for those 24 and younger.

This climbing cost recovery fee is a special use fee that supports climbing management and services on Mount Rainier, park officials said in a release. The fee was first implemented in 1995, and was last increased in 2011 following a series of public meetings held in Seattle, Tacoma and Ashford. Minor shortfalls in fees collected as well as inflation over the past two years necessitate the nominal fee increase in 2013.

Each year, around 10,500 people set out to climb the mountain (though the number that summit is smaller). The climbing cost recovery fee is a special use fee that offsets some of the costs involved in managing and supporting climbing on Mount Rainier. All funds generated by the cost recovery fee are used to support climbing and climber services, including:

* Keeping the mountain clean – by processing and removing over two tons of human waste from the climbing high camps and other climbing-related locations around the mountain, and promoting “Leave no Trace” practices.

* Staffing the mountain - with experienced seasonal and permanent climbing rangers to manage, supervise, and staff the high camps, contact and brief climbers, and perform patrols on the different climbing routes – as well as perform rescues on the upper mountain and provide emergency medical services.

* Staffing the climbing information centers - at Paradise and White River to register climbers, share route and weather condition reports, update the web-based climbing blog, and answer climbing-related questions on the phone, by e-mail and in person.

* Provide gear, equipment, training, and supplies to perform the above tasks.