Mount Rainier National Park | Who carries the load?

In this episode, we interview Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who has stood on top of Mount Everest fifteen times and who in 2003 climbed it faster than any human being ever had. He now runs a small restaurant a mile from the park gate because he wanted his kids to have the schooling he never got.

Mount Rainier is a volcano wearing a coat of ice. This episode explains what a lahar is and why kids in the valleys below this mountain practice lahar drills. We explain how a mountain gets big enough to make its own weather, what's hidden inside the summit (miles of steam-melted ice caves and the highest lake in North America, buried under 160 feet of ice), and why the Coast Salish nations call it Tahoma: mother of waters. And we talk about what's happening right now: the glaciers on this mountain are melting six times faster than their historic rate, which means the mountain my kids climb as adults will not be the one we climbed this week.

Also, Ada tries to walk six miles. She has never walked anything close to six miles. Wish us luck.