The Inter Glacier is a cirque glacier visible from the Sunrise area. Typically, cirque glaciers are small glaciers that occupy a bowl-shaped basin at the head of a mountain valley. Cirque glaciers are usually the remnants of much larger valley glaciers. In this case, the Inter Glacier rests on top of triangle-shaped Steamboat Prow, a landscape formation on the east side of Mount Rainier.
Have you noticed Inter Glacier when looking at Steamboat Prow from Sunrise? It is easy to overlook compared to the much larger Emmons and Winthrop Glaciers that descend from the summit of Mount Rainier as valley glaciers on either side of Steamboat Prow.
NPS Photo of Steamboat Prow with Inter Glacier in the middle, with Emmons Glacier on the left and Winthrop Glacier on the right, viewed from Sunrise, August 2024.