Under the Needle: Rainier Ranger Makes His Way to Washington, D.C.

He still walks to work, so there's that. And he continues to deal with big egos, with driven colleagues and another type of inveterate climber.

Otherwise, everything is different for Mike Gauthier, the former lead climbing ranger in Mount Rainier National Park. Gauthier participated in more than 200 rescues in his 19 years on the mountain, helped build the modern climbing rangers program and knows Rainier so well he's the author of one of the peak's leading climbing books.