This is Mount Adams, on the edge of the Yakama Indian Reservation, 60 miles southwest of Rifftides world headquarters, at 10 o’clock this morning.
At 12,307 feet, Mount Adams is the second highest mountain in the Cascades chain, after Rainier at 14,410. The Yakamas call the mountain Pahto. Here’s a line from the annals of the U.S.-Indian Treaty Councils:
The great white mountain represents the ways of the past – the pursuit of game on the foothills, the gathering of wild plant foods on the lower slopes and the snows which give life to everything. Most of all, Mt. Adams symbolizes the strength of the People, who in spite of years of adversity, forged a truly strong and great Nation.
To learn about the Yakamas’ myths and legends of Mount Adams, go here.
What does this have to do with jazz? Nothing. The subtitle of Rifftides is “…and other matters.” Adams was too beautiful to resist this morning