Mount Rainier in the context of "Mountaineer"

A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and explosive eruptions. Some have collapsed summit craters called calderas. The lava flowing from stratovolcanoes typically cools and solidifies before spreading far, due to high viscosity. The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high to intermediate levels of silica (as in rhyolite, dacite, or andesite), with lesser amounts of less viscous mafic magma. Extensive felsic lava flows are uncommon, but can travel as far as 8 kilometres (5 miles).

The term composite volcano is used because strata are usually mixed and uneven instead of neat layers. They are among the most common types of volcanoes; more than 700 stratovolcanoes have erupted lava during the Holocene Epoch (the last 11,700 years), and many older, now extinct, stratovolcanoes erupted lava as far back as Archean times. Stratovolcanoes are typically found in subduction zones but they also occur in other geological settings. Two examples of stratovolcanoes famous for catastrophic eruptions are Krakatoa in Indonesia (which erupted in 1883 claiming 36,000 lives) and Mount Vesuvius in Italy (which erupted in 79 A.D killing an estimated 2,000 people). In modern times, Mount St. Helens (1980) in Washington State, US, and Mount Pinatubo (1991) in the Philippines have erupted catastrophically, but with fewer deaths.

A snow field, snowfield or neve is an accumulation of permanent snow and ice, typically found above the snow line, normally in mountainous and glacial terrain.

Glaciers originate in snowfields. The lower end of a glacier is usually free from snow and névé in summer. In the upper end and above the upper boundary of a glacier, the snow field is an ice field covered with snow. The glacier upper boundary, where it emerges from under a snow field, is ill-defined because of gradual transition.

Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington state to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington, a U.S. Founding Father and the first U.S. president. Washington borders the Pacific Ocean to the west, Oregon to the south, and Idaho to the east and shares an international border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. Olympia is the state capital, and the most populous city is Seattle.

Washington is the 18th-largest state, with an area of 71,362 square miles (184,830 km), and the 13th-most populous state, with a population of just less than 8 million. The majority of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry on Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords and bays carved out by glaciers. The remainder of the state consists of deep temperate rainforests in the west; mountain ranges in the west, center, northeast, and far southeast, and a semi-arid basin region in the east, center, and south, given over to intensive agriculture. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, after California. Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the state's highest elevation at 14,411 feet (4,392 meters), and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous U.S.

Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports in their own right. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering are also considered variants of mountaineering by some, but are part of a wide group of mountain sports.

Unlike most sports, mountaineering lacks widely applied formal rules, regulations, and governance; mountaineers adhere to a large variety of techniques and philosophies (including grading and guidebooks) when climbing mountains. Numerous local alpine clubs support mountaineers by hosting resources and social activities. A federation of alpine clubs, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA), is the International Olympic Committee-recognized world organization for mountaineering and climbing. The consequences of mountaineering on the natural environment can be seen in terms of individual components of the environment (land relief, soil, vegetation, fauna, and landscape) and the location/zone of mountaineering activity (hiking, trekking, or climbing zone). Mountaineering impacts communities on economic, political, social, and cultural levels, often leading to changes in people's worldviews influenced by globalization, specifically foreign cultures and lifestyles.

The Cascade Range, or Cascades, is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as many of those in the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades. The small part of the range in British Columbia is referred to as the Canadian Cascades or, locally, as the Cascade Mountains. The highest peak in the range is Mount Rainier in Washington at 14,411 feet (4,392 m).

The Cascades are part of the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean. All of the eruptions in the contiguous United States over the last 200 years have been from the Cascade Volcanoes. The two most recent were Lassen Peak from 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Minor eruptions of Mount St. Helens have also occurred since, most recently from 2004 to 2008. The Cascade Range is a part of the American Cordillera, a nearly continuous chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that form the western "backbone" of North, Central, and South America.

Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's 58 counties. Northern California in its largest definition is determined by dividing the state into two regions, the other being Southern California. The main northern population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area (anchored by the cities of San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland), the Greater Sacramento area (anchored by the state capital Sacramento), the Redding, California, area south of the Cascade Range, and the Metropolitan Fresno area (anchored by the city of Fresno). Northern California is coterminous with the natural range of the coast redwood and the giant sequoia, with many well-known old-growth forests and smaller groves. It contains most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta (the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range after Mount Rainier in Washington), and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. Northern California is also home to Silicon Valley, the global headquarters for several of the largest most powerful companies in the world, including Alphabet Inc. (Google), Apple, Meta, and Nvidia.

The Northern California Megaregion, one of the 11 megaregions of the United States is centered in Northern California, and extends from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east across the Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe–Reno area.