September 13, 2005, Muir Minefield, Mt. Rainier

Encouraged by the reports of absolutely awesome skiing from this past Sunday, I took the first ski day I could get and headed up to the Muir. I was joined by Matt, a long lost ski partner who, inexplicably, decided that this September would be a great time to start his own ski streak, and by Matt's hiker friend Carrie Lee. It was sunny and warm at the Paradise parking lot, the Mountain was completely out, and we could see that the Muir looked very white with the new snow. The Paradise meadows had that fall look and smell to them, and there were yummy blueberries to be eaten (is that allowed?). The trail was devoid of snow until above Pebble Creek, where the distinctive rolls of "permanent" snow have withered dramatically. While we were stopped for a food break, Lowell appeared.

Carrie Lee decided to hike around below the snow, and the rest of us headed up the snow, soon coming across Stefan just finishing a run. The new snow, where not trampled away to brown snow/ice, had compacted to 2-4 inches deep with moderate grain size, soft and moist on top. When we got through the patches section and onto the actual Muir snowfield, about 8400 feet, a closer look revealed that there was a layer of clear ice over the dirty old snow at the base of the new snow, apparently from refreezing of melt water. This made me hopeful that our skis wouldn't be slicing through to the rock-embedded ice. The view up at the rolls along Moon Rocks, however, was not encouraging. Last year on September 5 this area had been fairly smooth, if somewhat brown, but now it looked like a minefield, with moguls and all kinds of ski-catching features hiding under the thin layer of new snow.

Matt thought that going higher on the Muir would just be too overwhelmingly fun and decided to ski from the top of a little finger of untracked snow under Anvil Rock, but Lowell and I decided to "leave good snow to find better" and kept on hiking. The main hiking route was easy to follow - a brown line in the new snow - and we started encountering the substantial crevasses which have been revealed on the Muir. We stopped just short of the last rise to Camp Muir (the map suggests 9700 feet), had a snack and geared up.

The snow here was a little stiff, not having thawed completely, and I found it very difficult to get into a skiing rythym. There were several types of hazards that could seen - ice moguls and ridges, crevasses, and melt water slots - and several I could vividly imagine lurking just under the thin cover of new snow - small rocks frozen into the ice surface, ice bollards, and more crevasses and slots. We stayed skier's left of the up track for a little bit, then made our way west across the track to get more room to choose a route through the mine field, crossing a number of crevasses along the way. At that point, maybe around 9400 feet, the skiing got better and actually fun at times as the snow softened, the ice moguls were smaller, and we could find relatively smooth corridors in which to link turns.

Here's a photo of Lowell on one of the fun parts:


The new snow was moist and somewhat slow, which was good in this case because it gave time to scan ahead for things to avoid. At the flats below Anvil Rock we traversed east to the rocks and skied down Matt's line, where the snow hadn't been trampled by hikers. Several good stretches of turning along in here. The clouds had been building up and we were in varying degrees of fog from there down to Pebble Creek, with one last skiable stretch after a carry through small patches. The hike back was pleasant as we emerged from the fog and enjoyed the early fall colors, smells, and light.

From an objective point of view, the skiing was terrible. From the subjective point of view of what it would have been like just four days earlier, and what I was expecting (fearing?), the skiing was great! Today looks like another relatively warm and sunny day, so my guess is that if you are not up there skiing right now, it may be too late as there may be very little new snow left by tomorrow.