Just imagine how calm Mt. Whitney would be today, if Rainier still was as tall as it was 4900 years ago (15,700 feet), before some big land slide/mud flow took 1600 feet off the top.
Doug posted something a couple of weeks ago about GPS surveying putting Rainier's elevation at a few dozen feet higher than Whitney - which would be a bummer, of course, for Sierra addicts. From what I was able to glean, it's not an official USGA survey measurement, so Whitney's status appears safe for now.
I've hiked a couple of trails in Rainier NP (Rampart Ridge, Fremont Lookout), but I don't think I'd ever try the mountain itself, due to most of the concerns listed above and my lack of ice/snow skills. From the Fremont Fire Tower at about 7500 feet - often above cloud cover in the PNW - Rainier looks like it takes up the entire freakin' world, climbing out of the clouds! That is one massively big mountain. A lot of that comes from it's apparent elevation of over 14,000 feet, but it's also just
big.
