Home > Trip Reports > June 4-5, Mt Rainier, Camp Muir (first ski)

June 4-5, Mt Rainier, Camp Muir (first ski)

6/15/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3665
7
Posted by BrianT on 6/20/11 1:35am
So to start off, I owe Amar everything but how bad I am when it comes to this post. Without his awesome pictures and stories I would have never wanted to try this, so thanks again, maybe one of these days I'll meet you! With that being said, I'm from Texas, had a bit of skiing experience, I'm not the best skiier, but not the worst either.

Our weather was really bad, here's what it looked like from Paradise



Our plan was to skin up to Muir, hit the summit and hike down since I'm not a great skiier and then ski down from Muir to Paradise. Buddy who lives in Tacoma told me to go ahead and get started, so I started off on the trail and about 30-45 miutes later he caught up to me at Pan point on our way up. I've never had a chance to skin ice before so this was interesting for me as I fell a few times and it took me some time to get up the steep face. After finally taking the boots off and booting over the gliside trail, I was able to get atop pan point, take my first break and soak in the rays.



By the time I had reached pebble creek, this Texan noticed something that he had experienced on previous Rainier trips, except it was on the back of the foot.
Here's a shot of April 2010  just for fun


Except this time, it was that but with 3-5 skin layers missing on my heel. (Damn me for not using a convection oven for molding my boots) After putting some gel on it, and duct taping it up, I made it up to Muir with my climbing pack on, in record time 5:15 minutes for me (yay) plus the weight of ski equipment.

I went into the hut, and tended to my foot and pretty much stayed holed up as it hurt to do anything on it. I felt bad as I knew our chances on the Gib Ledges was out that night. I could probably make it to the summit, but didn't want to chance being a liability for my climbing partner or a ranger up there. Plus I may be moving to Seattle from Austin so the mountain will always be there.

The next day after holing myself up in a bag for 12+ hours, we decided to get our gear, and head down. This is where the mistake was made. You see, skiing in a resort on groomers with no pack, vs skiing with a HUGE mountaineering pack on that weighs as much as a fully grown cow can throw some extra curves at you. Plus I hadn't had a chance to do my 'bunny slope warmup.' So with going down the muir snow field (something I would feel fine doing w/o a HUGE pack on) I was a bit freaked out. Making very large and wide turns. ANd taking my time down, and falling quite a bit. I did manage to break the LCD on my coolpix camera in ths process of going down.
Images of me looking cool but not being cool



By the time I had gotten about 1000 feet down, I realized I was pretty much in over my head at thi spoint, but decided that skiing down would be the fastest way to get down. I made it down to the top of pan point with a few falls, however skiing down pan face was out of the question. I had taken a fall before the actually face and had issues getting my pack back on, my self uprighted. Some folks had helped me out, I booted it to the top of Pan face, carried my ski's down and took the gliside path down the proper face. After getting down, I hooked back in the ski's and did a slow slush ski back to paradise. I did take 1 rad fall, with some boarders behind me say "Woah, is that the same dude we saw earlier? Yep it's him!" They asked me if I was ok, I was able to get up and finish the shlog to Paradise. We got out, had a few laughs and I figured I'd be a lot more comfortable before I skiied that with a pack.

Had a good time, I learned and that's what's important.
FWIW, my first time up there was worse than that  ::)

Thanks for sharing your adventure.  I enjoyed your recap of the events as you travelled up and down the mountain.  We've all been beginners and most folks don't share their early adventures. 

Excellent read.
If it's any consolation it took me 4 tries to get to the summit before I succeeded when I first moved to WA.
Additionally, the first time I went to Muir with skis , I actually skied down with my climbing skins ON not because I didn't know that you were supposed to take them off , but because I was like a giraffe on a skating rink and I figured that the skins would slow me down.
Good effort.... keep going!

Thanks for the replies. I've tagged the Summit 2x on Rainier now, my 2nd and 4th time on the mountain (this was my 5th)
First time I was wicked out of shape
2nd Time I was wicked out of shape but sucked it up made it to the summit and took a dump in the crater!!! WOOWOO talk about steam jets!
3rd time I got hit by a blizzard -20 degree weather and a white out (scarest moment of my life)
4th I rocked the summit
5th (this trip report)

author=saxybrian link=topic=21215.msg90830#msg90830 date=1308603135]
made it to the summit and took a dump in the crater!!! WOOWOO talk about steam jets!

You are an inspiration to us all.

author=saxybrian link=topic=21215.msg90830#msg90830 date=1308603135]
Thanks for the replies.

Sometimes we all have to get after it any which way we can.  :)

I'm from Texas, too, and also owe much to Amar's penchant for thorough chronicles. Be careful if you transfer to Seattle. You may end up loving it and never going back...

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june-4-5-mt-rainier-camp-muir-first-ski
BrianT
2011-06-20 08:35:37