Home > Trip Reports > OCT 29 Muir

OCT 29 Muir

10/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
79420
33
Posted by Scotsman on 10/29/09 1:48pm
What a difference a day makes.
Snow Bell and I got to the gate today at 9:00 ish . Gate opened at 10;15 ish.
Rainiing hard at paradise. I was ready to bag it. Joe says" will be snowing up there".
We skinned from carpark up trail.
Wind howling and knocked me off my feet once. Rain follwed us up all the way until I ran out of motivation at about 8,800. Raining hard at 9000 ft.
Ski down was survival skiing in porridge.
Managed to ski to car park with a couple of carries where trail is now rocky.
Very wet, very windy and hypothermic weather.
There was brave couple who started up after us but we never saw them above Pan Point. I think they had sense.
We were only car at paradise when we got back down, soaked to the skin.
Wednesday was the day.
Could be a skating ring when it freezes again.
Wow.  I was up there last Thursday.  Posts a day or two ago made mine look horrible.  Yours makes mine look great!

I think I'll wait another two weeks!  It's hard though.  Just bought a whole new suit and want to put it to the test!

author=drew0620 link=topic=14321.msg59923#msg59923 date=1256881642]
Wow.  I was up there last Thursday.  Posts a day or two ago made mine look horrible.  Yours makes mine look great!

I think I'll wait another two weeks!  It's hard though.  Just bought a whole new suit and want to put it to the test!

Yep it was nasty, if you look at the telemetry there was some high max wind speeds. It would blow  steady for a while and then you'd hear a wave coming in and brace yourself.
Definitely a snow eater today and hope enough base remains for the weekend so people can skin from the car park bu tit was getting iffy in some spots.
Yep, its hard , we're all champing at the bit to get this season started.
Saved my streak though!!

We were the couple behind you guys.  I was going to ask if you were Scotsman but I could never quite catch up to where you were.  I have seen your car before.  I figured anyone smoking (cigarettes) and skiing had to be European (are you really a Scot??).  It sounds like you guys didn't go to much further then we did.  Skiing Washingtons finest freshest slush while dodging rocks wasn't the greatest day skiing I have ever had but a day skiing still beats a day at work.  It is pre-Halloween skiing after all.  Did manage to set off an east facing foot thick wet slab slide.  It didnt have any room to run but I was surprised with as little snow that it was actually able to let go.  There were a few natural releases also.

author=solsoul link=topic=14321.msg59929#msg59929 date=1256910778]
We were the couple behind you guys.  I was going to ask if you were Scotsman but I could never quite catch up to where you were.  I have seen your car before.  I figured anyone smoking (cigarettes) and skiing had to be European (are you really a Scot??).   It sounds like you guys didn't go to much further then we did.  Skiing Washingtons finest freshest slush while dodging rocks wasn't the greatest day skiing I have ever had but a day skiing still beats a day at work.   It is pre-Halloween skiing after all.   Did manage to set off an east facing foot thick wet slab slide.  It didnt have any room to run but I was surprised with as little snow that it was actually able to let go.  There were a few natural releases also.


No the slide at the start of the snowfield was a natural. It has run before we got there. The snow was getting saturated. It was a wild day wasn't it. Yes I'm a Scot. You must have seen me having my pre-skin cig at the car.

Wow, nice work guys- I cannot believe you made it up that high with that nasty of conditions. Sure shows your perseverance.

Any pictures of the horrendous conditions? Between the two of you there was probably none but I figured I would ask.

Glad your swine flu is better.

author=skierlyles link=topic=14321.msg59938#msg59938 date=1256924322]
Wow, nice work guys- I cannot believe you made it up that high with that nasty of conditions. Sure shows your perseverance.

Any pictures of the horrendous conditions? Between the two of you there was probably none but I figured I would ask.

Glad your swine flu is better.


No ,it shows our stupidity!
No pics.

author=Scotsman link=topic=14321.msg59941#msg59941 date=1256926246]
No ,it shows our stupidity!


Speak for yourself stupid!

I was out having tough guy practice.  My cushy life of sleeping in, hanging out with kids and sitting in my recliner necessitates artificial adversity to keep my man index high.  Besides, all of my ski gear got washed.

author=Scotsman link=topic=14321.msg59932#msg59932 date=1256915579]
No the slide at the start of the snowfield was a natural. It has run before we got there. The snow was getting saturated.

There was another slide on the ridge just below the natural that we came across that I saw on our way down.  That must have been the one that they let loose.

Wow, you really did have it bad. Sounds worse then H1N1.

Must be the antibiotics I'm on. I felt nothing like that yesterday morning.

author=Snow Bell link=topic=14321.msg59943#msg59943 date=1256926929]
Speak for yourself stupid!

I was out having tough guy practice.  My cushy life of sleeping in, hanging out with kids and sitting in my recliner necessitates artificial adversity to keep my man index high.  Besides, all of my ski gear got washed.
There was another slide on the ridge just below the natural that we came across that I saw on our way down.  That must have been the one that they let loose.


I didn't want to be the one to call quits and obviously neither did you. In the end, I was the quitter and even your optimism ,"we could be mssing out out on powder 1000' higher", not enough to bring me around. :-[

The rain @ 9K was indisputable.

My thoughts of powder 1000' higher gave way to the realization of another 1000' of driving rain and wind.

Can you imagine had we continued to Muir and sought refuge in the shelter how miserable it would have been to re-emerge in those conditions soaked to the bone?  That would have sucked much worse than the simple transition in the rain @ 9K.  Good thing I had the voice of reason and experience along.  ;D

Courageous. I need to increase my manliness by a factor of 2.1. Does biking in the rain count?

author=CookieMonster link=topic=14321.msg59956#msg59956 date=1256936908]
Courageous. I need to increase my manliness by a factor of 2.1. Does biking in the rain count?


Only if you wear shorts and no gloves. ;)
Nothing courageous in our trip nor implied, sometimes revelling in the glory of bad weather becomes its own reward when the skiing is bad.

perhaps "ardently hoping" for snow is just not enough... but look on the bright side:
survival skiing is an important skill in the ski-mountaineering repertoire.  You are now better prepared for life changing descents.
Also, being an x smoker, I attest that the universe hates cigarettes. I expereinced a 67.5% increase in vert feet of powder as soon as I quit.

I went outside without a jacket on the other day.

Yeah, pretty manly.

author=RuSki link=topic=14321.msg59960#msg59960 date=1256941513]

Also, being an x smoker, I attest that the universe hates cigarettes. I expereinced a 67.5% increase in vert feet of powder as soon as I quit.

How did you give up smoking, cold turkey, nic patches, chantex???
I've tried them all.
Cold Turkey-- the people I live and work with made me smoke a cigarette because I was so irritable.
Nic Patches-- Had to pull over in my car once as I just heard some bad news about a job we were working on , started smoking  as a result with a nic patch on that I had forgotten about. Nearly had a nicotine ovedose and felt like I was fainting as I was driving.
Chantex, dulled the effects of the nicotoine so I smoked more to try and "beat" it. Gave me weird dreams aswell.

Wanting to give it another try though

author=Marcus link=topic=14321.msg59961#msg59961 date=1256942326]
I went outside without a jacket on the other day.

Yeah, pretty manly.

Lol,
It was like being back in Bariloche again Marcus.
Thats what I said to Snowbell,
"last time I skied in conditions as shitty as this I'd caught 5 planes , travelled for 36 hrs and spent a lot of money, at least this is much cheaper".

I was thinking also how two people have brought up I was smoking, not that I mind , I don't but it made me realize that heckling somebody for smoking has become socially acceptable in America even if you are not doing it in their vicinity.
I mean turn the tables.
Lets say
I was standing in Paradise and noticed a skier in another car who was say obviously overweight eating a hamburger would it be socially acceptable to then say in a post " I noticed you where eating a hamburger and thought you might be American as eating hamburgers when obese is very American"
or
If somebody had posted a TR and had a picture of themselves obviously overweight, would it be socially acceptable to say " I noticed in the photograph you are eating again and obviously a bit overweight, you will get more vertical if you cut back on the food intake chubby." :D :D
HAHHAHAH it's a weird world we live in and I find the continual evolution of social mores fascinating.

Having skied with Scotsman a few times, I will admit I would never catch up to him if he didn't stop to take a puff now and then...I don't think it's slowing him down one iota.

BTW, was it me with the hamburger?

author=Rusty Knees link=topic=14321.msg59972#msg59972 date=1256956191]
BTW, was it me with the hamburger?


Well I didn't want to say anything at the time and the double whopper at the trailhead was just carbo-loading right ?  , but when you brought out your Macdonald's Happy Meal at the top of Table mountain and then complained and started crying because you didn't get the Princess Leia toy , I knew you had a problem!

the trick Scotsman, is to put some money into it. You gotta get a smoking buddy who also wants to quit and make a bet. First person to smoke (yes taking a drag counts) looses. Works every time. No cigarette is worth a few hundred bucks. And you gotta trust this dude, otherwise it turns sour quickly.
I suggest getting a little drunk first, it helps to make the bet in the first place.
On that note Im through with telling a perfect stranger how to live his life.
Best of luck man!

I've smoked plenty that I'd have paid $100 for.

Many of them have been scottie's.

The 11th essential.  Well maybe 12th.

author=RuSki link=topic=14321.msg59976#msg59976 date=1256959310]
Best of luck man!


Interesting, make it like a competition with pride and money at stake. Sound perfect for me!
Finding a buddy who smokes, wants to give it and who I trust...mmmm..... thats gonna be very hard.
The wife smokes a bit, wants to give it up but... I don't trust her! Damn. ;D

No problem on the advise, I actually appreciated it, shows you care about your fellow man. My comments regarding it being socially acceptable to heckle smokers just my observations and internal musings on why one thing is OK and another not which I truly find fascinating.

author=PNWBrit link=topic=14321.msg59977#msg59977 date=1256960688]
I've smoked plenty that I'd have paid $100 for.

Many of them have been scottie's.

The 11th essential.  Well maybe 12th.


Now that I think about it,it probably won't work as there have been times when I would have paid $2000 for a cigarette. Like on the 11 hr flight to Santiago. There was a brief moment when I thought " Only a $2000 fine for tampering with the toilet smoke detector, It would be worth it."

You and I really are reinforcing the stereotypes though, both European skiing smokers.

BTW You still owe me $100 for that one I gave you at 13K on Rainier when you had run out.

Chris, it was really easy for me to quit. Did it cold turkey, last smoke was in the ER parking lot just before they rolled me in to the cath lab, 4 years since the heart bypass and I only get the urge daily. Vicious habit. Good luck.

author=Team Wally link=topic=14321.msg59980#msg59980 date=1256966992]
Chris, it was really easy for me to quit. Did it cold turkey, last smoke was in the ER parking lot just before they rolled me in to the cath lab, 4 years since the heart bypass and I only get the urge daily. Vicious habit. Good luck.

Thanks Craig good advice,
                                          Unfortunately I'm a bad case and fairly fatalistic about it. 15 Years ago I was in the IR with two blood clots  in my chest and my wife told I had a 50/50 chance of surviving. Few days later, still in the ICU, I set of all the alarms by unplugging myself from all the monitors, running down the corrdior with my ass bare in that stupid hospital gown they give you and out through an emergency exit. Managed to get a smoke in before they found me and took me back to the ICU and plugged me back in. I'm a lost cause!

                     Water skiing over for the year ?. Is that your place in the pic?See  you soon at the FOG table at High Campbell.

Scotty,
It's good that you are getting this addiction out in the open.
You can do what ever blows your hair back with your health.
Speaking from my personal addiction of skiing, over time it gets more difficult to find willing suckers to go touring with me.
Even though a biopsy of your lung could fuel a coal furnace for a week, my addictive mind says I would hate to have to look for another ski partner who can tolerate my demented sense of humor.
Also, I am going to write my legislators and have smoking banned from the outdoors, (sorry my Rasta ski brethren). The second hand smoke that Scotty produces after a huge trail bust is killing my lungs. Nothing like a big 2nd hand cig hit in the great outdoors, after trying to catch my breath from breaking a vertical skin track.
I guess one benefit for me is, while your black licorice lungs are still trying to recover at the summit,  Chugach and I will be tearing up all that great powder, while you try to find the last morsel of tissue that will absorb oxygen.  :D

I got news for you buddy, Chugach has started smoking as well. Caught him with a pack of camel lights with the neighborhood dogs. Since Pierce county has just banned smoking in all their public spaces and parks, I'm running out of legal places to smoke and the NPS can't be far behind. Damn you all!!

I have to smoke to protect my lungs from your farting on the skin track! ;)

If I give up, will you promise to let me have first tracks for a full season???????

author=Scotsman link=topic=14321.msg59984#msg59984 date=1257017145]
I have to smoke to protect my lungs from your farting on the skin track! ;)

If I give up, will you promise to let me have first tracks for a full season???????


Let's analyze this one at a time.
If my BC flatulence is a lingering death trap, it must have wicked hangtime to be able to reach your coal miner lungs 100 yards or more behind me breaking trail!

And I would gladly let you have first tracks if you quit smoking, and if keeps you from skiing in my down tracks. Plus it gives me a sucker to test avy conditions.
Sounds like a win/win.

As hypocritical as it sounds, I am going to start carrying smokes with me. If I can get $100 a smoke then I can get a new quiver in no time if I ski with you and Rob.
Capitalist greed always supersedes a good cause.

author=Joedabaker link=topic=14321.msg59985#msg59985 date=1257019892]
Let's analyze this one at a time.
If my BC flatulence is a lingering death trap, it must have wicked hangtime to be able to reach your coal miner lungs 100 yards or more behind me breaking trail!

Capitalist greed always supersedes a good cause.
[/quote
;D


The Answer is
YES
and
YES
;D

"Plus it gives me a sucker to test avy conditions. Sounds like a win/win."

funny

Joe, it sounds like you should read some Ayn Rand or watch some Gordon Gecko: capitalist greed is a good cause!

Maybe Gary Vogt is reading this thread and smiling. in the old days we would try like hell and catch him and we always did when he stopped for a fag. Next time Chris I'll tell you the story of the JApanese Malboro man guide on Fuji.

author=Robie link=topic=14321.msg60005#msg60005 date=1257135201]
Maybe Gary Vogt is reading this thread and smiling. in the old days we would try like hell and catch him and we always did when he stopped for a fag. Next time Chris I'll tell you the story of the JApanese Malboro man guide on Fuji.


Looking forward to hearing that story Robie, Thanks.

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oct-29-muir
Scotsman
2009-10-29 20:48:24