Meeting a local legend on the trail

News and Adventure from Glacier National Park

It’s not too often that you get a chance to meet a local legend while hiking. But that’s exactly what happened to my wife and I while hiking the Skyline Loop in Mount Rainier National Park in 2013.

As we were descending from the highest point on the loop, we happened to pass an older woman ascending the trail. As we stopped and chatted for a few minutes, my curiosity finally got the best of me. I had to ask how old she was. She replied, stating she was 88 years old! In our conversation she also mentioned that she had climbed Mt. Rainier 11 years earlier – at the tender age of 77! She said she made the ascent in 19 hours straight, and bypassed the normal overnight bivouac at Camp Muir. We asked what her name was, and she mentioned that the local press had covered her climb, as she had become the oldest woman to ever climb the 14,410-foot peak.

So, when we returned home a couple of weeks later, we did a little research on Bronka Sundstrom. We promptly discovered that she’s a bit of a local legend. She and her late husband have hiked, snowshoed and skied in the park on hundreds, if not thousands of occasions. We also found out that Mrs. Sundstrom was a Holocaust survivor, having been a prisoner of the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps during WWII. Looking back now, we really wished we could have spent more time talking with her. If there’s a takeaway from our chance meeting, it’s to live life to the fullest: do the things you like more often, and if possible, do the things you dislike less. An article on the Washington Trail Association website notes that, “While official records aren’t kept, it’s likely that she has made the hike up to Camp Muir more times than anyone, except for a few professional guides.” Her last hike up to Camp Muir, located at 10,188 feet, was made at age 90.

Bronka passed away in 2023, at the age of 98. She’s quoted on The Holocaust Center for Humanity website as saying, “If it weren’t for the mountains, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. The mountains teach us of independence, strength, confidence and beauty.”

The local PBS station aired a short biography on Bronka in 2024:

You can also read about our hike along the Skyline Trail (which is among the top hikes I’ve ever taken).

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Virtually no one went hiking before the 19th century. What occurred that inspired ordinary people to take a walk through the woods for pleasure? Ramble On: A History of Hiking explores the rich history of hiking, and how it evolved into one of the most popular pastimes in the world.