April 29, 2006, Camp Muir MRNP

The forecast was for clouds and light showers, and Sunday looked better, but 2 friends leaving Monday for a himalayan trek wanted a last conditioning hike on Saturday with rest Sunday, so four of us went for up to Muir, me alone on skis. All systems looked go on the road up, with the mountain in full view, obviously windy on top with lenticulars spinning off and mares tail clouds and sun overhead, and clouds mid level. We stopped to watch a beautiful yellow and red fox scamper up onto a perch in the rocks in the sun near Narada Falls. 
Started in full sun at 10:30 with just shirts and light pants and were really warm in very soft wet snow that was sliding on gentle traverses. At Pan Point, we were up to cloud level with low vis, and met a couple (Aussie?) confidently skiing out after summitting via Gibraltar ledges up and Ingraham Direct down, who reported clouds up to 9500'.  I booted up the steeper slope at Pan Pt due to slide concerns. Then skinning up was fine, in a 20-25 mph W wind. The hikers were postholing to waist deep in places, but it did lighten up with in-and-out visibility to Muir and several skiers coming down. Arrived at 2:45 at the nicely renovated hut, sharing with a trio of randonee skiers, left at 3:30, and skied down through wind packed and variable snow to about Anvil Rock when the weather closed in COMPLETELY in classic Muir fashion. Couldn't see 5 feet. After some tedious tight little turning back and forth across the boot track and compass checking, I gave that up and hiked with our group in stay together mode collecting most of my wands. Then the sleety snow came, with good wind, and the HD clothes went on, and we felt like our faces were getting sandpapered. Glasses got iced up within a minute of clearing them, so much so that I couldn't see footprints or read the compass or see someone 5' away without stopping to clear the ice. That laser surgery is sounding better. This kept up all the way down to the Pan Pt slope. We looked like we'd been out on a crabber in the Bering Sea. Ice on everything. Then, below 6400', it calmed down, snowing lightly, and I got in a little skiing! On a few inches of fresh wet snow, fast on newly waxed skies. Back to the lot at 5:30.  We saw a grouse on the way out, but there was no grousing among our carload after another day in Paradise. The blackberry shakes at Copper Creek Inn were really good. This spring is more like winter than last winter.