September 4-5, 2015, Mt. Rainier, Freshies!

Thought September turns wouldn't be that great, was pleasantly surprised Friday night around 6ish as we pulled into the Paradise parking lot and saw snow on the ground. Felt like winter up there with everything covered in a nice blanket of snow. By the time we got to glacier vista the snow felt super soft with no crust, I was floored at the snow quality. We went up to the lower snow field and camped somewhere around 7800ish. We were treated with an very dark sky as both Portland and Seattle were below the cloud layer, making for great star gazing.

We heard some people passing by early morning and decided to follow ...slowly. We reached Muir camp probably by 1130ish and took a lap down to 8000ish feet. Amazing snow, hadn't been sun effected yet and was boot top fluff with the occasional island of ice and rock to keep you on your toes. It was so good we went for a second lap..slowly. Second lap was a little more sun effected and heavy, but super rip-able.  Came down to a full on slush storm and elected to stay in the tent until it passed, ended up at the car by 6.