October 24, 2004, Muir Snowfield
10/24/04
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3009
3
Greg, Alan, and I skinned up to Camp Muir today. There were about 30 other people with the same idea. We got to Longmire in time to wait 25 minutes for the gate to be opened at about 8:40.
We still need a couple more weeks for the skiing down to Paradise to be pleasurable. It was icy and thin, but you can pretty much skin from just above the parking lot. We got in the skinning line pretty quickly. It was a little tricky finding the way through the rocky section around 6,000+ft, the party behind us found it pretty well and we backtracked to their path.
It was definitely a day for having a GPS. Not having one, we followed others closely, and got in with a friendly group of fellow Seattleites. It was pretty much cold, wintry stuff for quite a while and we were constantly second guessing where we were in relation to the snowfield. All the drainages look alike when you can't see more than 30 feet.
The forecast looked like it would provide for a slight chance of an afternoon break.
Around 8600ft, the group of 7 that we had become after joining another decided to get some turns in one of the short breaks that we were occassionally seeing, but after about 300 ft of descent, bodies started popping out of the fog and the visibility really improved. So we skiied to a dead halt, slapped on the skins and started racing back upward. I think we made Muir around 2:30 or so, in clear blue skies.
After enjoying the company and the sunlight and a snack, we started down the snowfield.
The snow was nice and light about 4 or 5 inches deep, frequently punctuated by pressure ridges. As we descended down between 8 and 9,000 ft it was probably the best, with some nice leads of soft snow. Down below 8,300 or so, it was white. Below 7,000ft, we didn't really see anything that wasn't icy, and we were just trying to follow the tracks down through the white.
Overall, it was a fun day to be outside. And we are soooo glad that we kept climbing up and didn't stop at 8600ft on the snowfield or we would have missed the good stuff.
We still need a couple more weeks for the skiing down to Paradise to be pleasurable. It was icy and thin, but you can pretty much skin from just above the parking lot. We got in the skinning line pretty quickly. It was a little tricky finding the way through the rocky section around 6,000+ft, the party behind us found it pretty well and we backtracked to their path.
It was definitely a day for having a GPS. Not having one, we followed others closely, and got in with a friendly group of fellow Seattleites. It was pretty much cold, wintry stuff for quite a while and we were constantly second guessing where we were in relation to the snowfield. All the drainages look alike when you can't see more than 30 feet.
The forecast looked like it would provide for a slight chance of an afternoon break.
Around 8600ft, the group of 7 that we had become after joining another decided to get some turns in one of the short breaks that we were occassionally seeing, but after about 300 ft of descent, bodies started popping out of the fog and the visibility really improved. So we skiied to a dead halt, slapped on the skins and started racing back upward. I think we made Muir around 2:30 or so, in clear blue skies.
After enjoying the company and the sunlight and a snack, we started down the snowfield.
The snow was nice and light about 4 or 5 inches deep, frequently punctuated by pressure ridges. As we descended down between 8 and 9,000 ft it was probably the best, with some nice leads of soft snow. Down below 8,300 or so, it was white. Below 7,000ft, we didn't really see anything that wasn't icy, and we were just trying to follow the tracks down through the white.
Overall, it was a fun day to be outside. And we are soooo glad that we kept climbing up and didn't stop at 8600ft on the snowfield or we would have missed the good stuff.
Nice report, gusk.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Nice TR, Gus. Good to meet you, Greg, and Alan; thanks for bringing us some luck with the cloud break! We were just as surprised that not only was the October powder more than delightful, but we were also able to get back down to the parking lot on the minimal cover without any real ski damage. Too bad el nino took away our dream for a strong Monday storm that would fill up that pavement...
Dig the photo-
Thanks Guys,
Seeing the mountain on the way to work this morning, it sure looked good.
See you guys out there next time.
Seeing the mountain on the way to work this morning, it sure looked good.
See you guys out there next time.
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