Edmonds Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Nearly eight years ago, this column featured the story of three women from Edmonds (Michelle Clyborne, Ruth Arista, and I) climbing to the summit of Mount Rainier, Washington’s most famous of peaks, and of the lessons we learned on the way.

This past week, the same trio ascended Mount Baker, another of Washington’s most beautiful and technically challenging volcanic peaks.

Much has transpired since the first climb, adventures and joys and trials and sorrows we could not have imagined, but the friends who climbed together then are part of a loving community that helps us through the mo...