July 19, 2009, Muir Snowfield

The conditions on the snowfield ranged from really tough to 'maybe I should just walk'.  Mostly walked up as the size of the suncups made skinning a little more effort that booting.  The suncups are fast becoming sunkettles.  We tried banking along the insides to ski them.  Tons of work.  There were a couple patches of smoother areas that were great skiing.  Unfortunately, they were short stretches.  We went up to the little lobe to the east of the bottom of the snowfield (~7600 ft).  That was untracked and smooth resulting in a nice run.  Probably not worth carrying up the skis for awhile unless you are trying to get somewhere else.

Wildlife report: Two attack hummingbirds (at 9000 and 10000 ft!).  A pair of mating marmots below glacier vista and lots of marmots eating the flowers (don't they know they'll get in trouble for that!).