Jul 31, Aug 1, Muir - Paradise Two-Fer
7/31/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
25056
5
I've never kept track of my trips to Muir, this one was somewhere around #thirty, more or less. But I am proud of my time - a personal best of 23 1/2 hours from the parking lot to my lunch break. Punctuated by naps of 1-2 hours and 12 hours, dinner and breakfast. Ahhh, nothing like acclimating.
Personal Firsts:
- Trip to Anvil. Anybody know the story of the rock and mortar wall and concrete pad up there? What a view of the Cow! That is one impressive broken up monster.
- First Solo trip to Muir. Just me and several hundred of my closest companions.
- First solo ski of the Paradise. Actually - NOT! But I did do an evening "circumnav" of Little Africa (that rock island about 1/3 of the way down?)
- First aborted solo ski down the Paradise. Saturday, after going on up to Muir, I planned on skiing down and hiking out 4th crossing. But a few hundred yards below the rock island, I started to cross crevasses, on skinny bridges, and chickened out when i couldn't see a route through them to the bottom. I've not seen so many on the Paradise before, and I've skied it late season - twice in August last year. So I crossed back over to the Pebble creek patch, and went back down the way I came up.
- First time yelling at people for meadow stomping.
- First time being ignored by meadow stompers.
- Second Two-Fer in my 106 months.
I may change my name to Creaky Knees pretty soon.
Personal Firsts:
- Trip to Anvil. Anybody know the story of the rock and mortar wall and concrete pad up there? What a view of the Cow! That is one impressive broken up monster.
- First Solo trip to Muir. Just me and several hundred of my closest companions.
- First solo ski of the Paradise. Actually - NOT! But I did do an evening "circumnav" of Little Africa (that rock island about 1/3 of the way down?)
- First aborted solo ski down the Paradise. Saturday, after going on up to Muir, I planned on skiing down and hiking out 4th crossing. But a few hundred yards below the rock island, I started to cross crevasses, on skinny bridges, and chickened out when i couldn't see a route through them to the bottom. I've not seen so many on the Paradise before, and I've skied it late season - twice in August last year. So I crossed back over to the Pebble creek patch, and went back down the way I came up.
- First time yelling at people for meadow stomping.
- First time being ignored by meadow stompers.
- Second Two-Fer in my 106 months.
I may change my name to Creaky Knees pretty soon.
Thanks for the report! I've always preferred mellow Anvil over madhouse Muir.
Anvil Rock was the site of a fire lookout from 1916-42:
http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington/fire_lookouts/anvil_rock_lookout/mount_rainier_245.htm
I couldn't find anything online, but the park photo archives have great shots of spike-shod mule trains carrying firewood up to this lookout, including one of a mule in a crevasse!
author=Rusty Knees link=topic=34446.msg142096#msg142096 date=1438626162]
...Anybody know the story of the rock and mortar wall and concrete pad up there?
Anvil Rock was the site of a fire lookout from 1916-42:
http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington/fire_lookouts/anvil_rock_lookout/mount_rainier_245.htm
I couldn't find anything online, but the park photo archives have great shots of spike-shod mule trains carrying firewood up to this lookout, including one of a mule in a crevasse!
Yes!
Pretty straightforward and obvious to switchback to Muir? Were some Paradise Glacier turns worth the trouble?
Maybe we should pick a Sept. date soon.
Pretty straightforward and obvious to switchback to Muir? Were some Paradise Glacier turns worth the trouble?
Maybe we should pick a Sept. date soon.
What a great report! I couldn't tell from your FB pics that you had the skis with, but stoked now to learn that you did.
Here's a couple pics of you and crevasse situation Aug 31 '13:
Here's a couple pics of you and crevasse situation Aug 31 '13:
author=vogtski link=topic=34446.msg142098#msg142098 date=1438628507]
I couldn't find anything online, but the park photo archives have great shots of spike-shod mule trains carrying firewood up to this lookout, including one of a mule in a crevasse!
That would definitely be worth a click. Please share! :D
author=r1de link=topic=34446.msg142124#msg142124 date=1438922966]
That would definitely be worth a click. Please share! :D
Sorry, I spent a fair amount of time searching online, but came up empty. Decades ago, one could just pop into the park library and spend a rainy day perusing the fascinating historic photo albums, but I suspect that's no longer the case:
"The Mount Rainier archives consist of official park records, manuscript collections, historic images, motion picture films, and other collections. The museum archives are currently in the process of being re-catalogued. For research requests, questions, and other inquiries, please email the park's Museum Curator."
http://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/historyculture/archives.htm
I did find one text reference, tho:
https://books.google.com/books?id=xv4qlIPaSLUC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=mules+on+Muir+Snowfield&source=bl&ots=mEK1nLT7Ym&sig=OAyRBf9aq6zIAbupfsUt5ypwLlY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBGoVChMIptO-8qSXxwIVlzGICh31bgJ6#v=onepage&q=mules%20on%20Muir%20Snowfield&f=false
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