WTF kind of name is Alma?
Our camper is nicknamed Alma after Alma Wagen, the first female guide employed by Mount Rainier National Park.
The OG Alma was born in 1878 and raised in Minnesota. Given the ZERO mountains in her area, she resorted to climbing the windmill at her grandparents’ farm, clearly it was in her DNA to climn. After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1903, she moved to Tacoma, WA to work as a math teacher at Stadium High School. Much like many PNW transplants, she spent her spare time climbing in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains.
When World War I draft created a shortage of mountain guides in 1918, Wagen jumped at the chance to join the National Park Service as the first female guide to work in Mount Rainier National Park leading tourists on hikes and occasionally leading parties to the summit. Alma knew this accomplishment was an opportunity to bring other women into climbing.
“At last I had found the time and the place to climb, and I climbed hills and mountains and learned everything I possibly could about climbing,” she said in an interview with American Magazine. “Then I looked for new fields to conquer and found my life’s work. I wanted to teach other women the joy of climbing.”
Rainier’s Guide Manager Joe Hazard could not dismiss Alma’s technical expertise and understanding of the mountain.
“Miss Wagen is capable, resourceful, has nerve, judgement, discretion,” he told Sunset Magazine. “Forget that she is a young woman, highly educated with a most charming personality. Miss Wagen is holding her place on Mount Rainier for the reasons that she is a superlatively good guide. No more is to be said.”
So that’s Alma in a nutshell, a pretty badass pioneer in women’s alpine sports. We can only hope that our Alma will provide a tiny fraction of the adventure and exploration that she did, charming personality and all.
Read more about her in this great piece from The Mountaineers.
