Home > Trip Reports > 05/28-29/2011, MRNP - Muirly a Kegger

05/28-29/2011, MRNP - Muirly a Kegger

5/28/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4050
5
Posted by Radar on 6/3/11 5:41am
It's Memorial day weekend again when people get together with friends, fire up the BBQ, celebrate the "unofficial" start to summer, and remember those who gave their lives for our country. For some of us, it's also time for a Muir Kegger. Why? Because this is friggin 'Merca, and we like beer, mountains, and doing things the hard and ridiculous way.

The day started off on the 28th at 3AM in the Paradise parking lot with everyone waking from their cars/snow caves and getting the gear ready for the haul. After securing the keg, enough tents and some wine to the sleds we were off to Muir.

We cruised right along in the dawn and reached Pan face in about an hour and a half. Thankfully the steepest and hardest part would be in the beginning while we were all relatively fresh. We had to take 3-4 rest brakes on the way up but made it up the face in about 30 minutes, a huge improvement on last year.



We had reached the top of the cloud deck at the top of Pan point and were treated to some wonderful morning views of the mountain while we caught our breaths and grabbed some food and water.



The rest of the slog up the snowfield was pretty uneventful. Slow going with 200lbs of keg pulling you back in addition to your pack. The weather stayed mostly clear with a gently breeze for most of the way up. Besides the grueling weight it was very pleasant!



Along the way three day hikers joined the madness and helped haul from about 8500ft the rest of the way to camp. Thanks Ed, Gordon, and Doug for the help!

We finally reached camp Muir around 1:30PM or so, unhooked ourselves happy to be sled dogs no more, and sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labors. The weather was nice, but clouds were starting to roll in and the wind was picking up. No rest for the weary...time to set up camp.

The conditions deteriorated rapidly and by the time we were finished setting up our tents it was snowing and blowing quite hard. The party would have to wait...into the tents for the rest of the day/night.



With no plans on summiting, we awoke at a leisurely 7am and started milling around camp. We found that the public shelter was emptying rapidly and started filtering inside to melt water for the day. Someone then had the genius idea to move the keg inside; the party was on. First beer: 8AM. Shenanigans quickly ensued as we were determined to lighten the keg as much as possible for the return trip. Beer brats were made, and were quite possibly one of the best things I've ever had at altitude.




Eventually the party moved outside, as the weather had quickly shaped up into a beautiful day. With the sun above us and the clouds at our feet, 10,080ft kegstands were realized, and we treated the other inhabitants of Muir (and the day hikers just arriving) to some delicious beer.



With the keg killed, we packed up, strapped everything back to it's respective sled and started down. Those of us who were skiing took the sleds while the others walked. Skiing with an expedition sled, while doable, isn't exactly fun and we were having problems keeping them upright through anything but an extremely slow turn. The solution? Carry the keg over a shoulder and pass the sled off to a hiker. Worked great!




Conditions on the snowfield were great above 8000ft. Corn was beginning to set in nice with increasing heaviness and stickiness as we descended. Pan face was heavy taters and everything below was complete jank. It was still fun passing everyone on the trail with a keg over my shoulder though.

Back in the parking lot by 2pm, sunburned, tired, buzzed, being gawked at by tourists, and feeling totally full of win.




PS: If you were up at camp Muir on the night of May 28th and stayed my green Hilleberg tent, you're welcome. You should have asked someone in our group before picking up a random tent off of our sled and staying in it. Gear is not a free for all.


Everyone else; don't leave your tent unattended or this will happen. This is the only known photo of the mystery tent squatter
Wow!  Sounds like a real party! The Tent Squatter- a new mountain relic has been discovered  :D  Great TR!

Totally awesome; great TR!

Was it Rainier beer as the keg cover implies?

author=Erik Henne link=topic=21034.msg89893#msg89893 date=1307140133]
Was it Rainier beer as the keg cover implies?


Indeed it was; it couldn't rightly be anything else :D

The keg koozy was actually made by one of our guys to try to prevent the beer from freezing overnight up there since the temperatures were foretasted to be below the freezing point of Rainier (~27*F in case anyone was wondering). It worked out great actually and we won't leave home without it next year!

Brings back some fond memories of a weekend in late March this year. As I recall, the approach on that trip was a bit easier on the sled team. Sorry I missed out on this one.  I vaguely recall some discussion of the planned Rainier adventure.

The picture is from our "training event"

Great TR.

Gary

Reply to this TR

8696
05-28-29-2011-mrnp-muirly-a-kegger
Radar
2011-06-03 12:41:20