Home > Trip Reports > October 14, 2015, Mt. Rainier, Muir TAY COMPLETE!

October 14, 2015, Mt. Rainier, Muir TAY COMPLETE!

10/14/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3460
4
Posted by kciari on 10/15/15 9:19am
It's no secret that October is traditionally one of the worst months for TAY. With Wednesday off and sun in the forecast, Theresa (turquoise tutu), Amar (hates fun and refused to wear a tutu), and I (pink tutu) set out to see what turns we could find.

Surprise of the day? They were great!

We made it to Paradise and were hiking at the crack of 10:54am. With only a handful of cars in the lot we encountered few hikers on the trail and only a two parties above pebble creek. We made quick time, reaching "skinnable snow" a few hundred feet above Pebble Creek by 12:15pm. Theresa and Amar opted to skin, but I'm a better hiker so I kept on hiking until about 8400', when you get to really solid snowfield action. It's true you CAN skin from about 7400', but with a significant carry I don't recommend it. Easier to just hike.

Skinning was quick, albeit a little icy in places and a little slushy in others. With a few breaks, we found ourselves at Muir around 2:45. We discovered someone has built a fantastic new "sun deck" so we took off our boots and kicked back for a while. Once Amar recovered from his near fainting episode from getting too close to Theresa's stinky boots, we broke out our Rainer beers, Amar made snow coozies to keep them cold, and took a little cat nap in the sunshine.

We left Muir at 4:30pm and made it to the car just after 6:30pm. The skiing was skiing in October, but we found some good patches of white stuff that had corned up quite nicely. Overall the skiing was much better than I would have expected, and we all recommend heading up there asap if you have a chance. We were happy to mark our TAY anniversaries together: 4-years for me, 5-years for Theresa, and 13 or 14-years for Amar. Who can keep track? ;-)

The sunset on the way out was spectacular. I wish I had some good photos - but you know how zee mountain is: so hard to capture her true essence with an electronic device (or on film if you are like a hundred years old).

Watch out for small crevasses, mostly shallow and full of running water, on lower elevations. Be careful to also listen for shallow snow covering raging rivers. Have fun!
Thanks for the fun report and congrats on adding another year to the TAY count.  I suspect that this October will end many a streak.  It would be interesting to see graphed streak ends versus months over time.  I'd expect clusters in September and October of dry years.

Another excellent report. thanks

I have a different kind of streak going. Ski mid boot fresh in either Sept or Oct on muir, ruth, helio. 5 years on the line now. two weeks to go.

Nice going! Sounds and looks like a great day, snow beer coolers.......perfect!  But I think I want to be in Mr. Brittons dust for the boot top pow, that's the ticket!

Now I think we all want to get on board with Mr. Britton's plan! I'll bring the beer!

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october-14-2015-mt-rainier-muir-tay-complete
kciari
2015-10-15 16:19:51