He has reached the summit of Mount Rainier more than 50 times in his career. But even today, world-renowned mountaineer Dee Molenaar remains touched by the very sight of Washington’s tallest, perhaps most majestic peak.

“It’s different every time I see it, the different moods,” said the 91-year-old legendary climber, geologist and alpine artist. “Those who have climbed it the most are also those who have the greatest respect for its many moods.”

Molenaar, long since retired from monumental climbs, shared his life experiences as a climber with the audience at the Wesley Homes Lea Hill Campus last week. Molenaar, who lives with his wife on a farm in unincorporated Kitsap County, presented “A Neophyte’s Guide on Mount Rainier”, a slide-and-storytelling presentation.

The discussion included his days spent on Mount Rainier as a guide in 1940-1941 and park ranger in ’47.

He made the first of his many climbs up 14,411-foot Mount Rainier in 1940. He has used more than a dozen different routes, including three first ascents, to reach the top during his career.

The mountain remains “an alpine dream” to him.

Molenaar went on to study geology, earned a degree with a minor in art at the University of Washington. He is best known as the author of “The Challenge of Rainier”, first published in 1971 and considered the definitive work on the climbing history of Mount Rainier.

Born in Los Angeles in 1918 to Dutch immigrant parents, Molenaar has climbed peaks throughout the Western States and Alaska, Canada, the Alps and the Himalayas. He participated in major expeditions to Mount St. Elias in Alaska in 1946 and in the ill-fated 1953 American expedition to K2 in the Karakoram Himalaya in 1953.

His artwork and maps have appeared in books and art shows throughout the world.

His book “The Challenge of Mount Rainier” is in its ninth printing.

Today, Molenaar continues to work on art and map projects, and writing and lecturing about mountaineering and geology.

As for his present-day assessment of the Mount Rainier, an active volcano, Molenaar replied: “It is not dead. It can still erupt and cause a lot of damage.”