May 8, 2004, Mt Rainier - Muir Snowfield

With the forcast I thought there might be some freshies if I go high enough.  When I pulled up at 8:30am the lot was already riddled with cars.  There is still alot of snow left.  The visibility was clear up to Camp Muir but clouds loomed overhead.  Temps felt comfy as I only wore a wick layer.  The skin conditions to base of Pan Pt was generally soft with firm patches in the shade.   I observed what appeared to be 40+ people on the Niqually Glacier below probably doing glacier rescue.  Anyway as I started the boot up the clouds rolled in and it started to snow.  From the top of Pan Pt to McClure Rock was white out conditions (visibility~50ft) with only fresh boot pack and markers to follow.  Every now and then I would catch up to some hikers.  It was nice to see them in front of me to give me some perspective.  Once I passed McClure Rock the sun came out and it looked awesome.  There were ribbons of wind blown all over the place.  I was thinking Paradise Glacier since strong west winds usually scour snow from Muir onto PG.  Well that didn't last long.  By the time I reached base of Moon Rocks a storm blew in.  Now things started to really ice up.  I kept going until I said f this and turned around about 9200ft.  Weather was brutal!  By that time about 20+ climbers started making there way down.  I waited for a while as they scattered into distance and disappear.  I even bumped into some skiers who were walking down.  When I asked why they said too many people fall off of cliffs around here in these conditions.  I said is that so and said have a good walk.  The ride down was worth the misery.  Ribbons of wind blown everywhere.  I noticed boot tracks filling in.  Must have been anywhere from a few inches to boot deep in places.  Underneath was generally smooth with bumps where you would transition to the next ribbon.  I ended up using hikers as markers all the way down to top of Pan Pt.  Hikers are sure easier to see than those markers and allowed me to open up alittle more.  Overall that Prior is a tank.  I ended up cutting thru variable without feeling a thing.   Navigating top of Pan Pt is getting ever so tricky as the snow melts.  Well the ride down Pan Pt was not as bad as I expected.  Was firm but somewhat smooth where I rode down.  Buy this time there was a dusting of fresh on everything just about all the way down to parking lot.  Made the ride down real fast.  My car even picked up an inch throughout the day.  If weather clears up tomorrow the Paradise Glacier should be awesome.