KING 5 had me on the news at 4 to talk about Is The Mountain Out, the app I built to answer the most Seattle question there is. Fitting for the day, the mountain was nowhere to be seen. Wildfire smoke had the whole view socked in.
What the app does
ITMO gives you a live read on whether Mount Rainier is visible right now, reported by people who are actually looking at it. Open it and the first thing you get is the map, covered in hexes showing what folks are seeing from Olympia to Tacoma to Seattle.
It is not a yes or no. There are five statuses, because some days The Mountain is out in Tacoma and completely hidden from Seattle.
- Report the status from where you are in one tap
- Add a photo of the view once you make a profile
- See what everyone else around you is reporting
- Check the webcams
- Climb the leaderboard
Tahoma Tokens
Tokens are how the app says thanks to the people doing the reporting. A basic report earns some. Adding a photo earns a little more. Being the first person to call it out on a clear day earns more than that.
Right now it is a collection phase. I have ideas for what they could unlock later, and most of them involve the shop. Merch tie ins. Maybe something only available in the app. Maybe a flash deal that shows up when The Mountain is out. Nothing promised yet.
Your location stays on your phone
Privacy has been a focus since the website, and the app works the same way. Your report snaps into a hex roughly a couple of city blocks wide before it goes anywhere. Your exact GPS coordinates never reach our servers and never hit our database.
On the map, reports bubble up into a larger hex covering a wider area. Once enough reports come in from one region, that hex breaks into smaller ones, so you can tell which part of Tacoma is getting the view without anyone giving up where they are standing.
How it got here
This started in 2013. I was living up by Green Lake, commuting to downtown Seattle, and I tweeted every time The Mountain was out because I wanted the answer to that question myself. That turned into Rainier Watch, and over the years thousands of people started tagging the brand whenever they caught a clear view. Instagram and Twitter would blow up.
A couple of years ago my brother and I built isthemountainout.com to answer the question in one place. This year I finally decided to turn it into a phone app. I started building it May 1, worked nights and weekends, and dozens of beta testers across the Northwest helped get it there.
It had been live about a week when the KING 5 segment aired, with hundreds of downloads already.
The main quest and the side quest
Rainier Watch is an apparel brand. That is the main quest. Making products inspired by this mountain is what pays for everything and it is what I have been doing for years.
The app is the side quest I decided to go on this year. It has been the most fun I have had building anything.
Where to get it
The iPhone app is live. Android is next, and you can get on the list for updates. If you would rather not download anything, the web version works in any browser.
Get Is The Mountain Out or read the story behind the site.
Not our first time on KING 5
KING 5 Evening ran a piece on Rainier Watch back in 2022, before there was an app. Good to come back with one.
About Rainier Watch
We make small batch gear for people who love this mountain. We are a 1% for the Planet member, and we have given more than $20,000 to Washington's National Park Fund and the National Park Foundation since 2020. If you would rather wear the question than just ask it, the Is The Mountain Out collection is in the shop.
