Historic Hood River
Early Climbing Party
4-10-2017
Notes
I wish this were labeled with more than “Early Climbing Party,” but that’s what we’ve got to work with. What’s your guess about the era? The clothing, cameras, and climbing equipment should help narrow it down.
Charlott
I am most certainly no expert, but I rather doubt if this group are actually climbing the mountain, just from the "unsafe attire" they are wearing. My guess is that they are just playing around in the snow. My take is that with the hats they are wearing they are NOT the "hearty mountain climbers. If they attempted to climb dressed thus, it is douftful they they got very far.
Melody Shellman
My guess is 1905, give or take a couple years.
L.E.
I took a quick glance through past HHR photos of hats. I didn’t find any matching ladies and their hats.
Any clue where they are on the mountain?
It appears that the younger ladies wore the shorter skirts, but the older ladies stuck with the long skirts that drag in the snow. Yuk!
Kevin
Mt Rainier from Muir snowfield?
Arthur
Good call, Kevin. This does seem to be Mt. Rainier. I’m not sure if these are Hood River residents or if this is a random image that wound up in our collection. The tag mentions Crag Rats, but I think the image is from before the founding of the Crag Rats.
L.E.
Thumbs up to Kevin!
That might be why there are couple of Park Ranger looking dudes?
charlott
Yes, it is prior to the founding of the Crag Rats, just from the way the women are dressed.
Darryl Lloyd
Yes, it’s definitely above Paradise on Mt. Rainier.
Lesa L. hanners
As a tailor and historian, with an emphasis on historic costume, I do not wish to disagree with Charlotte, but I must, since the ladies are dressed as women would have dressed from the 1890’s to the 19 teens while hiking, mountain climbing, or any number of athletic activities that were opening up for women at that time. The fourth and fifth ladies are clearly wearing the button down split skirts that first came into more common usage from the 1890’s onward. The 9th lady from the left is wearing the bloomers from that same period as is the last women in the line.
My husbands grt. grandmother, Anne E. Krout-Scearce,(resident of Mosier and Hood River), had a very famous sister, Mary, who traveled to Hawaii in 1894 as a newspaper correspondent for a Chicago newspaper. She rode horseback and climbed to the heights of Kilauea volcano, wearing clothing much like this. She not only lived through the adventure, but wrote a very good book describing her travels in Hawaii, called, "Hawaii And A Revolution. In it she says she wore a blouse of peacock blue and a long split riding skirt.
A quick search search of Googe images for 1890’s women mountain climbers makes for a very interesting viewing.
I believe they could have rode horses up a trail to this location. They were still using horses on the trails when I hiked there in the 1970’s.