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A poetic, delightful look at Mount Rainier in the early percentage of this century-now in paperback.

Schmoe's love affair with Rainier started out for the duration of the winter he and his new bride expended caretaking Paradise Lodge, which was exclusively buried beneath the snow until the Fourth of July. His cognition of natural history, his photographic talent, and his refined and tasteful writing combine to formulate a rich portrait of this beloved mountain.

With 20 b&w photos and 30 illustrations.

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5 of 5 humans found the following review helpful.
Mt. Rainier like your Grandpa would tell it...
By Kathryn C. Stevens
I wish I could have lived even a day of the life Floyd Schmoe describes in this colorful and modest account of life on Mt. Rainier. As a comparatively new resident to Western Washington, I purchased this book as an undertake to acquaint myself with one of the regions best-known and best-loved landmarks. I was not disappointed. In fact, I was intrigued.

In this four-seasons look at the life of a couple who lived year-round on an active volcano for the duration of the early 1900's (ie: 1920 and beyond), I was struck by how frankly each detail was described. This surely is not a scientific book, nor is it an all-inclusive documentation of Mt. Rainer National Park, but it is a realistic one, one you might imagine your Grandfather sitting down to tell you over various weeks at the dinner table.

Schmoe uses all of his resources to describe life on the mountain; he tells it through his own eyes, his wife's eyes, and the eyes of the visitors who crowded into the Inn each summer. He retells suspenseful stories of lost climbers and park staff, close encounters with bears and cougars, firsthand accounts of hiking the mountain, and large-scale bouts of inclement weather.

But it's not all adventure and action. In fact, a good deal of of the most unforgettable elements of A Year in Paradise are those when Schmoe writes of being win a victory over by the beauty of wildflowers breaking through snow in spring or the determination of Rainier's littler wildlife to survive over winter. He likewise writes when it comes to the sometimes-laughable domestic situations that may arise when humans try to play house on a real-life mountain.

When all is said and done, you'll feel not only like you've read a book in regards to the outstanding outdoors, but when it comes to the inhabitants (humans, animals, and plants alike) that make it worthy of the name Paradise. Oh yes- and a good deal of added bonuses are the home photos and nature sketches throughout.

1 of 1 persons found the following review helpful.
Excellent Book when it comes to a Wonderful Place
By A. Courie
Floyd Schmoe's essay "A Year in Paradise" is a fantasti little book chronicling a year living on Mount Rainier. Schmoe was a not so long ago discharged WWI vet, newly-married, broke, and a forestry student at the University of Washington when he took a occupation as the winter caretaker for the Paradise Inn - one of the snowiest places on earth.

His occupation started with a 7-mile hike for him and his wife up to the Paradise Inn, which was buried in snow. They expended the winter there, with Schmoe most times hiking back down the mountain for furnishes and contact with the NPS Rangers.

Paradise Valley on Mount Rainier is a distinctive place - climatically and ecologically. Schmoe describes their long, cold winter as caretakers at the inn, and then how winter tardily slide into spring as the animal and plant life awakened. Summer on the mountain is short (Schmoe writes, "As spring lengthened into mid-July") and finelooking with meadows full of wildflowers and a brief flurry of humane activity. The fall that Shmoe writes when it comes to was a few years later when he, his wife, and their young son (conceived for the duration of that cold, lonely winter as caretaker of the inn!) hiked/rode the 100-mile trail that circles the mountain.

Shmoe's love for this gorgeous place shines in this book. Those who have visited Rainier will gain a new appreciation for it, and those who have never visited will long to visit after reading this. As a forestry major, Schmoe writes at length on the flora and faunae he encounters, a bit too much for my taste, but not sufficient to detract from the book.

This is just a terrifi book when it comes to a fantasti place.

0 of 0 persons found the following review helpful.
A Year in Paradise
By swampydave
Floyd Schmoe writes so well, you may feel the Chinook Wind in the spring and the aches in your legs snowshoeing from Longmire to Paradise Inn. He makes you feel like you are walking with him tramping along the Wonderland Trail or making a rock climb.
It is made up of short chapters so it is easy to fit into a busy schedule but is is also hard to put down.. It makes a nice gift for any individual who likes the outdoors, exceptionally Mt. Rainier.

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