Home > Trip Reports > October 22, 2005, Muir

October 22, 2005, Muir

10/22/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
29396
23
Posted by TonyM on 10/22/05 4:30am


Headed down just before noon from Camp Muir.  Skied past a number of skiers heading up, so looks like several people were able to enjoy the day. Had nice smooth corn conditions from Muir to just above Pebble Creek (with a short carry at Moon rocks). The snow was absolutely perfect all the way down.

The boot track crossed over 2 small open crevasses (far fewer compared to a month ago). Bluebird day and pleasant temperatures up and down.
hey Tony:  i think that was our crew that you passed on your descent.  wasn't the weather nice?  i was surprised to find such nice conditions too -- silky smooth.  here's a photo of Skip gliding over the smooth stuff with spaceship-like clouds hovering above.  beautiful day!

Thanks for the report and great pic of conditions, Tony.
Kam - sweeeet photo.  
Glad all you guys found such great conditions.

Hey Kam, There's a Muir in Virgina? Looks pretty nice!

Hey Kam, There's a Muir in Virgina? Looks pretty nice!


oh, didn't i tell you?  the mountains of VA are amazing.  just recently a few volcanoes started popping up.  i'm thinking about putting together a campaign to attract skiers.  what do you think of this ad?

Thanks to all who made this a great day!

It was great to meet and ski with a whole bunch more TAYers. And it was nice to see Kam back from the snowless Hades otherwise known as Virginia.  ;)

Hannah started half an hour after us, and smoked us all to the top. It must have been the blue skirt power. We spent some time buckling boots, trading lies, and shaking hands in the (new?) hut. JibberD cracked me up when I introduced myself.

"I thought you were 50!"

Apparently my youth does not translate through the text-based medium of TAY. ;) The others expressed similar sentiments, I'm flattered.

The snow was wonderful, several inches of compacted fresh. While varying depths and densities made sure to test our balance, I had an absolute blast, even on my 'light' gear. I was having way too much fun to stop and take decent photos, but I snapped several when I had to stop due to lactic acid buildup. :)

Since the UW upped my server space, I'll dump a whole bunch of pics here (more in the directory). Ctrl+W closes your browser window, making it easy to quicly close pics.

[Dave">
[Hannah">
[Dave">
[Skip">
[Allyson">
[Michael">
[Michael">
[Hannah">
[Dave">
[Jessica">
[Kristina">
[Amar">
[Kam"> heads home.
[Panorama">

Amar suggested that the snow wasn't as great as I thought it was, so maybe it wasn't. But after what we found in September, I sure was happy.

Cheers!

-Paul

PS. If a photo of you is in here and you'd like a hi-res version of the photo, email me at pbelitz 'AT' gmail 'dawt' com.

Nice pictures, guys, sorry I missed it. It looked great from the window of Alaska Flight 314, though.

A great day out for sure; I have no complaints about the fast, buttery snow! :)  Great to see/meet everyone up there yesterday!
Some additional pics from the trip

Creamy, buttery, goodness was definitely a phrase of the day! It was wonderful to see so many TAYers out there, and missed a few, as well.  Here are a few more pics:

http://static.flickr.com/25/55327848_f1aaf72af5_o.jpg (TAYers in parking lot)

http://static.flickr.com/31/55327791_6182d509f0_o.jpg (Doug at Muir)

http://static.flickr.com/24/55327753_c397e47557_o.jpg (Rainier from Paradise)

http://static.flickr.com/24/55327677_d86ea9826d_o.jpg (Greg on snowfield)

http://static.flickr.com/26/55327633_45ab69bc03_o.jpg (Greg & Drew on snowfield)

http://static.flickr.com/28/55327595_62b52861a4_o.jpg (Gang at Camp Muir)

http://static.flickr.com/31/55327492_ac3a2a6bd9_o.jpg (Doug, Greg, & Drew in hut)

http://static.flickr.com/29/55327366_56b45df1a2.jpg (Rainier summit with tracks)

Yes, Muir was outstanding yesterday!  I guess you have to take those bluebird spring-like days when you can find them, even in late October.

What super and serendipitous crew of TAYer to pass a day with as well.  This community continues to please...

The Muir hut has been refurbished and is in prime form with new cabinets, cooking area, paint, concrete floor and expanded bunks which should be able to accomodate close to twice as many climbers as before.

Pbelitz: for me at age 38, 50 isn't old at all.  Somehow I guess, your mature writing style led me to believe you were older than you are.  Great to meet you and all the others yesterday!

What a fabulous day with fine folks!
I've never skied during my birthday week before. This glorious blue bird and buttery-sweet-corn day was a true gift. Thank  you all for your presence. Kristina, I especially appreciate your company during our long lunch. Lovely photos from all to remember this for a long time. Thanks!
Hope to ski ya soon!

What a great day and perfect weather window! Seeing the weather today I am so glad we were out there yesterday!

Thanks for all the great pix to everyone, it was great to see the usual TAY crowd (where the hell was the RonJ team though ;-) ?) as well as some folks I hadn't seen in years.

PBelitz: the "unkown skier" is Kristina, doing her first descent on the Muir snowfield.

yes, this was a fabulous day--a nice surprise too, because i was not expecting it to be that good.  fun seeing the whole gang up there, but i agree with michael--


...where the hell was the RonJ team though ;-) ?


your presence and your infamous delectable bbq items would have been the icing on the cake! 8)

Thanks, Michael. Noted and edited!

I think sheisn'tpiste's smile pretty much sums it up here.

;D

author=Michael & Allylink=board=tr0509;num=1130027432;start=0#11 date=10/23/05 at 18:17:42]... where the hell was the RonJ team though ;-)
Michael and Ally - that's very kind of you to think of us.  We were with you in spirit and talked about you guys the following day (Sunday).  We were all pleased that you managed to hit such a great window of weather and skiing conditions.  May we all hit many more together.
On Sunday Jeanette, Jerry, Darryl and I were doing recon work that we expect will ensure great skiing as well as camping this winter for us all.
Rock on.

It was great to put faces to so many names.  The TAY community never fails to impress me with the quality of its members.  Thanks!

To those who went on this trip, how long was the walk (in minutes and/or in vert) before you finally put on your skins? How long was the skin up afterwards?

You can start to skin around ~7400 feet - just up from where you meet Pebble Creek; it's approximately 2000' vertical from the lot before you hit continuous snow.  From there I was able to skin up the whole of the snowfield, though some took off their skis for a short carry-over at one point.  Same for the ski down.

The skin time from 7400'  I'm not so certain about.  The memory is fuzzy today, but I can say in total we spent in the neighborhood 4 hours from the lot at Paradise to Muir.  Likely you could cut off 30 minutes or more from this if moving at a decent clip.

Wow looks like fun! Sorry to have missed such an awesome gathering....next time  

It was great to meet a bunch of TAYers. I planned to wait to ski down with the posse, but the call of the corn was just too strong. Next time! ;)

it was great to see everyone!  more photos below.  it was fun exercising my camera in the mountains again.  i find that practicing in the urban environment of Richmond isn't quite the same.

photos
1. Skip approaches the mountain.
2. Skip and Paul Russell on the move.
3. Amar.
4. Cass and Skip give me evil eyes in a Muir shelter.
5. Allyson at Muir.
6. Michael with a smile.
7. Michael again. Now you can really see the hat...
8. Cass leaves Muir behind.
9. Skip below icefall.
10. Allyson sprays.
11. Dave Coleman near cracks.
12. Amar points 'em.
13. Skip with an "S".
14. Hannah.
15. ahh, come on doood!  where's your hat?
16. Jessica.
17. friends.
18. kinda reminds me of Virginia...
19. tall.

enjoy and i'll see you next month....

Verrry nice. The 'friends' pic is particularly heartwarming.  :)

Verrry nice. The 'friends' pic is particularly heartwarming.  :)
I concur.
Great photog work Kamster.
Hope to see you next month.

Nice pics Kam - finally good to get out with you since the course...it's been too long.  Thanks for everyone's company, it was a fun day under bluebird skies  8)

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october-22-2005-muir
TonyM
2005-10-22 11:30:32