Did we ski the Inter Glacier or the Interglacier?

Rainier Burgdorfer's book refers to the Inter Glacier in the form of one word, Interglacier. USGS maps, the brochure the park service gives out and Mike Gauthier's climbing guide all refer to it as two words, Inter Glacier. Despite this, up to now I figured the one-word form is the most proper as Amar Andalkar's website uses it. However my world was recently turned upside down when I read a TR of Andalkar's in which he used the two-word form!<br><br>So I pose to the TAY collective: which form of Inter Glacier should I use? And, slightly more interestingly, how many glaciers have transitive verbs or prefixes for names?<br><br>Gaper Jeffey

Hmm it's two words on the topo, and when it came to place name disputes I'd always heard that what's on the topo is the final arbitrer unless there was something even more binding like a land deed. I always thought it sounded more "Euro" to call it Interglacier a la Interlaken in Switzerland, but I guess I shall have to give that up.<br>I also remember climbing up it in 1981 and thinking "this isn't a glacier, there's no crevasses" (which of course scientifically isn't the real definition of glacier but what the hell did I know I was just a kid). And in that context the one word version meaning "something that is between two glaciers" made more sense. Since then some reasonable size crevasses have been showing up in greater numbers, I think I remember hearing that someone even managed to fall into one in a bad way once.

I tend to lean towards wolfs second opinion.<br><br>Is it a named glacier or is it something that is not a glacier but yet not a snowfield, an interglacier.<br><br>There are writing type folks on this website that I would most certainly defer to if it was a question of semantics.<br><br>Moderate thread drift Squock or Squak.

Johannesburg or Johannesberg? Oh, the horror of the unknown!

The Inter Glacier definitely has crevasses. I can tell you from personal experience that route finding down it in the dark in October with strong wind gusts and firm conditions, the crevasses can be scary as hell.

According to my copy of "Mount Rainier A Record of Exploration" by Edmond S. Meany, (c) 1916, you skied the Inter Glacier (two words).<br><br>On Page 310 Meany writes:<br><br>"Inter Glacier. On the northeast slope. It was named by Major E.S. Ingraham in 1886 when he attempted but failed to ascend the mountain from the north side. The name was suggested by the glacier being hemmed in by a rim of rocks."<br><br>J.P.

Becky would also be considered as an authority on the naming of mountains and features in the Cascades. In fact he labels this feature the Inter Glacier. More interestingly (as much as this can be interesting, I suppose) within his description of Rainier's glaciers, he follows with a list of the smaller "secondary" glaciers that fill in the spaces between the principle ones. Here he calls all of them "inter" glaciers, one of which is actually named Inter Glacier.<br><br>So, in addition to his using the two word name, his explanation seems to refer to a reasoning for the two word usage. He gives no reference for further exploration. I think that is a good thing...<br><br>Alan