[2][1][3][4] In 1910, Rusk led an expedition to Mount McKinley and when he returned, they moved to the area of Grants Pass in Oregon where his parents were living.

He became the editor of the Benton Independent published in Prosser, a position he held for a year before selling the paper and resuming law practice.

He continued his practice until the spring of 1915 when he was appointed to a four-year term as the receiver for the United States Land Office in Yakima.

He felt that it was high time that it got the recognition it deserved and in 1919, he wrote the short booklet Mount Adams–Towering Sentinel of the Lower Columbia Basin, in which he laid out his case for the Yakima National Park as he called it.

[2][1] In 1922, the members of the Cascadians presented Rusk with a Swiss ice-axe as a gift for being an inspiring leader and being the first president of the club.

In addition to being justice of the peace, Rusk worked his father's Lucky Spot mine on the weekends, walking 14 miles there and back.

Rusk, about two months prior, requested that some members of the Cascadians take his ashes and place them in a cairn on The Castle of his beloved Mount Adams.

While Rusk had some close calls and got himself into some hair raising situations, he had very few accidents while climbing and often saved others from extreme danger.

[10] One of the novelties of mountaineering in the late 1800s and early 1900s was to burn a large red fire on the summit of the high peaks and so "illuminate" it.

In 1891, Rusk and several others attempted to illuminate Adams, but were turned back at the false summit by a storm with hurricane force winds.

This endeavor was only partially successful due to smoke and logistical problems and only the parties on Hood and Adams were able to communicate.

[15][16][17] The Mazamas returned to Adams in July 1902 and Rusk joined them with a small group from eastern Klickitat County.

[25][26] In 1910, Rusk led an expedition to Mount McKinley sponsored by The Pacific Monthly, The Oregonian, the New York Herald, and members of the Mazamas club.

Rusk named four peaks at the head of this tributary glacier: Mounts Sholes, Mazama, Glisan, and Lee.

As he wrote in his article detailing the expedition, they "realized that it would require perhaps weeks or months in which to explore a route to the summit, we realized how utterly impossible and absurd was the story of this man [Cook], who, carrying a pack, claims to have started from the mouth of the Tokositna on the eighth of September, and to have stood on the highest point of McKinley on the sixteenth of the same month.

[27][28][29] There was another expedition led by Professor Herschel Clifford Parker and Belmore Browne attempting to summit McKinley at the same time.

They also failed to reach the summit due to similar circumstances and later reinforced Rusk's conclusion by finding the very rock that Cook took his famous picture on.

Sometime while they were on the Ruth Glacier, one of the members attempted to kill Rusk by hitting him with a snowshoe, but could not bring himself to finish the job.

[2] Rusk returned to Adams in 1918, making a brief visit to the east side with Joe G. Hill and S. E. Sampson and verified the infeasibility of climbing the whole of Battlement Ridge.

In Tales of a Western Mountaineer, Rusk describes his original intent as "[j]ust beyond the southernmost ice-fall of Wilson Glacier rises a high abrupt precipice and we agreed that it might as well be christened 'Roosevelt Cliff.'"

On this attempt, Rusk was able to reach an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,000 m), but turned back for fear of avalanches and his concern for Green's safety.

On this attempt, they reached the lower extreme of the summit ice cap somewhere near 10,500 feet (3,200 m), but were turned back again by falling rocks that Rusk described as hurtling "down the slope with the speed of a rifle-ball."

That same year, 1920, the Cascadians mountaineering club was formed and with Rusk as a leading member, they decided that a record box should be taken to the summit.

This party consisted of Clarence Truitt, Harold Carey, Vern Mason, Joseph R. Vincent, Rolland Whitmore, Wayne E. and Fern Richardson, Rolfe and Alice Whitnall, and Rusk.

Rusk climbed Stuart again the next year with Wayne Richardson, Truitt, Rolfe Whitnall, Max Hiscock, and Jimmie Frisque.

On the way back down, Rusk had one of his few climbing accidents, losing his footing and sliding quickly down the slope for a short distance.

Rusk closed his Tales by stating "[m]y third of a century of mountaineering was more than rounded out, and, if this should be my last journey to the ice-bound heights, I could not complain.

"[34] While Shasta was the last mountaineering adventure that Rusk wrote about, he would continue to climb peaks around his Grants Pass home including Mount Thielsen.

However, the boat they took to reach the head of the bay that is the access point to climb the mountain accidentally dropped them off on an island.

[2] Rusk was a very good writer, with beautiful flowing prose and fabulous descriptions that make the reader feel as if they are there with him.