August 30, 2008, Muir Snowfield
8/30/08
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2574
2
Left Mill Creek @ 5am. Arrived at Paradise @730 and on the trail at 8.
Foggy and misty. Decided to boot up and leave the trasil runners in the car since I assumed the snow level was still low. SHould have also left the skins in the car and brought crampons. Whippet would have been useful on the upper snowfield....maybe
Met another skier who had just taken some turns on the lower patches and mentioned that he did not want to mess with the vizz. Since this was my hall pass for the week, I decided to take advanatge of what I could. Hiked up to Pebbel Creek and met a father and son coming down. He mentioned the snow was around the corner and blue skies up ahead. THis got me stoked so I rambled on. Found the blue around 8k, and it rose to 9 while I was hiking up. Much warmer above the clouds. Arrived at Camp Muir @ 1130. The upper snowfield has some blue ice spots with patches of fresh remnants here and there. Very slippery. The crevasses (which are getting big) were filled with whatever fresh came dwon last week.
Left Muir @ noon and hugged skier left to avoid the ice and ripped some fun turns down the white hard corn for about 1k. After that it was pea soup and snowing. Lost the trail and had to wait and hear or see folks to find the right path since vis was about 50 feet.
Turns down to Pebble Creek were good, suncups were filled in and it was relatively flat and not rock hard, just firm.
Saw at least 100 people head up as I went down. I saw 4 people as I headed up. Back at the car @ 130 and on the road to the family dinner at home by 5pm.
Great August turns!
Photos are bad, only had the camera phone today
Foggy and misty. Decided to boot up and leave the trasil runners in the car since I assumed the snow level was still low. SHould have also left the skins in the car and brought crampons. Whippet would have been useful on the upper snowfield....maybe
Met another skier who had just taken some turns on the lower patches and mentioned that he did not want to mess with the vizz. Since this was my hall pass for the week, I decided to take advanatge of what I could. Hiked up to Pebbel Creek and met a father and son coming down. He mentioned the snow was around the corner and blue skies up ahead. THis got me stoked so I rambled on. Found the blue around 8k, and it rose to 9 while I was hiking up. Much warmer above the clouds. Arrived at Camp Muir @ 1130. The upper snowfield has some blue ice spots with patches of fresh remnants here and there. Very slippery. The crevasses (which are getting big) were filled with whatever fresh came dwon last week.
Left Muir @ noon and hugged skier left to avoid the ice and ripped some fun turns down the white hard corn for about 1k. After that it was pea soup and snowing. Lost the trail and had to wait and hear or see folks to find the right path since vis was about 50 feet.
Turns down to Pebble Creek were good, suncups were filled in and it was relatively flat and not rock hard, just firm.
Saw at least 100 people head up as I went down. I saw 4 people as I headed up. Back at the car @ 130 and on the road to the family dinner at home by 5pm.
Great August turns!
Photos are bad, only had the camera phone today
I think I was one of the 100 you passed on your way down right above Pebble Creek. Red boots with skis on my back.
My story is similar, but with a later start from Paradise (11:30am). Got to Muir at about 3pm. The clouds had indeed risen and I didn't see sky until 9500'. I wore trail runners up to 9000', where I switch over to my AT boots when I saw slush and ice and realized I needed something to kick steps with.
You can thread around the patchy parts just below Camp Muir but you may hit a rock or dry patch or two and mumble that you might have to get the bases repaired (they are OK).
Visibility was abysmal. Maybe 30ft. I tried to stay as close to the bootpack as possible, but still lost it and had to traverse left to get back on track. Just enough visibility to stop if there are rocks ahead. De-skied and went back to trail runners just above Pebble Creek.
Great turns for August! Tomorrow and Monday should be great if the weather clears.
My story is similar, but with a later start from Paradise (11:30am). Got to Muir at about 3pm. The clouds had indeed risen and I didn't see sky until 9500'. I wore trail runners up to 9000', where I switch over to my AT boots when I saw slush and ice and realized I needed something to kick steps with.
You can thread around the patchy parts just below Camp Muir but you may hit a rock or dry patch or two and mumble that you might have to get the bases repaired (they are OK).
Visibility was abysmal. Maybe 30ft. I tried to stay as close to the bootpack as possible, but still lost it and had to traverse left to get back on track. Just enough visibility to stop if there are rocks ahead. De-skied and went back to trail runners just above Pebble Creek.
Great turns for August! Tomorrow and Monday should be great if the weather clears.
That trip looked hella rad. I'm going up on Friday if you can take the day off...
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