Yelm’s Fay Fuller First Woman to Summit Mount Rainier

Posted 8/25/16

Evelyn Fay Fuller was born Oct. 10, 1869 in New Jersey.

In 1882, Fay’s father, Edward N. Fuller, brought his family to Tacoma, then a growing town with a population of 6,000. Fay was 12 years …

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Yelm’s Fay Fuller First Woman to Summit Mount Rainier

Posted

Evelyn Fay Fuller was born Oct. 10, 1869 in New Jersey.

In 1882, Fay’s father, Edward N. Fuller, brought his family to Tacoma, then a growing town with a population of 6,000. Fay was 12 years old, overflowing with energy, and drawn to exploring the western wilderness.

In 1885, at the end of Fay’s sophomore year, her high school was closed. She continued her education on her own while teaching children at Tacoma’s Longfellow Elementary; then she accepted teaching positions at Rosedale and at Yelm.

Philemon Beecher Van Trump, storekeeper and later postmaster at Yelm, and his friend Gen. Hazard Stevens, had been the first to make a verifiable ascent to the highest point on the mountain in 1870. Van Trump also climbed Mount Rainier in 1883, with George B. Bayley of California and James Longmire. It was on the 1883 climb that Longmire, another Yelm resident, discovered mineral springs in a meadow, later named Longmire’s Springs. He claimed the property and developed a summer tourist business there.

Fay first visited Paradise in the summer of 1887. She hiked up the snowfield past Panorama Point to an elevation of about 8,700 feet. From that point she was able to see a flag that had been left by surveyors at Anvil Rock, elevation 9,584 feet.

Goal: ‘Climb to the Summit of the Great Peak’

Fay was delighted by a full view of the mountain and made it her goal to someday “climb to the summit of the great peak.”

In August 1890, Fay Fuller was invited to join the Van Trump family on an outing to Paradise. Their group, plus two parties that arrived later in the day, raised the temporary population of Paradise to a total of 26 people.

Philemon Van Trump gave Fay permission to join a Seattle climbing party, headed by Rev. Ernest C. Smith, for an attempt at the summit. On Saturday, Aug. 9, 1890, the Smith party climbed to Camp Muir, where they were joined by Leonard Longmire.

At 4:30 Sunday morning five climbers, consisting of Fay, W. O. Amsden, Leonard Longmire, Robert R. Parrish, and Rev. E. C. Smith, were awake and ready for their ascent.

Fay blackened her face with charcoal and wore goggles to modify the sun’s glare. Her climbing outfit included heavy flannel underwear, a thick blue flannel bloomer suit, woolen hose, heavy calfskin boy’s shoes with caulks, and a small straw hat. She later commented that her costume was assembled “at the time when bloomers were unknown and it was considered quite immodest.”

Dangerous Ascent

and Descent



A burning hot sun beat down on the party, as the men took turns cutting steps for their icy ascent. The going was very slow. Several dangerous showers of rocks rained down from Gibraltar Rock onto the narrow ledge of their route.

Their only rope was used as a “hand line” for particularly difficult and slippery parts of the climb. A member of the group said Fay refused assistance at some difficult spots. She is quoted as saying if she could not achieve the goal without their help she would not deserve to reach it. The climbers slipped several times during the ascent and descent. The safety line helped Fay and the others regain balance.

About noon the party stopped for a half-hour near the top of Gibraltar Rock to eat lunch. It was after 4 in the afternoon when the top, Columbia Crest, was finally reached. Fay described standing on the top of Mount Tahoma as “a heavenly moment; nothing was said — words cannot describe scenery and beauty, how could they speak for the soul! Such sensations can be known to only those who reach the heights.”

It was too late in the day to risk descent. The party decided to spend the night in an ice cave created by steam vents. Each climber found the sulfur smell from the vents to be disagreeable. Some, including Fay, turned down cups of soup because they felt the queasy nausea of altitude sickness. Despite her discomfort, Fay slept reasonably well. She awoke occasionally to hear the roaring of avalanches.

Facing gale winds, the party started down 6:30 a.m. Monday Buffeted by the winds and having to cut new steps in the icy surface of their route, they made a slow and dangerous descent.

Resting, Recovering and Reporting

Five days were spent at Paradise resting and recovering. According to Fay’s account, despite the use of charcoal blackening, “our lips, noses and almost all our faces were swollen out of proportion … for several days the pain was intense.”

Fay’s father was editor of several newspapers in Tacoma, including Every Sunday, The Tacomian, and The Tacoma Ledger. Fay was a city reporter for his papers. When she became the first woman to stand on the summit of Mount Rainier, he gave her a byline for a column called “Mountain Murmurs.” The column specialized in mountaineering and social events that happened at Paradise and other mountain areas. She also reprinted and provided comments on climbing accounts shared by earlier Mount Rainier climbers.

Her passion for mountain climbing and her talent for igniting public interest contributed to the growth of the climbing community in the Pacific Northwest. In 1891, she helped form the Washington Alpine Club and supported the beginning of the short-lived Tacoma Alpine Club in 1893. On the top of Mount Hood on July 19, 1894, she and climbing friends agreed to form the Mazamas, a climbing club in Portland.

In 1897, Fay was one of the party of over 200 Mazamas who camped at Paradise. She was one of the 58 to reach the summit, where she and seven other climbers stayed the night. This was the second time that she slept on the summit. She did not mention experiencing altitude sickness on this climb.

Fay was also well recognized for her writing talent. In 1900, she left Tacoma and continued her journalism career in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York. It was in New York that she met and married attorney Fritz von Briesen. Fay ended her journalism career when she became Mrs. Von Briesen. She continued to champion the climbing capabilities of women.

Mrs. Fritz von Brieson, a resident of California, died May 27, 1958.

— Source: Tacoma Public Library, in partnership with Washington State Historical Society and The Tacoma Mountaineers