June 2-3, 2006, Muir Snowfield and again and again
6/2/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1601
1
My old copy of the Burgdorfer book refers to one tour as a fine alternative to 'Oh, No! Not Muir again! Fortunately, RonJ & MadDog had the antidote set up for Sunday (see separate TR), but I was on my own for Friday & Saturday after various plans with various people didnt pan out, so I figured Muir was the most straightforward solo option.
Skinned up Friday under dry conditions. Top ~800 vert from Camp Muir was a horrible crust. Next couple thousand or so vert was absolutely perfect snow - what a contrast! Then a rather sudden transition to sticky transportation skiing for the balance of the 4660' descent. Just one brief but intense rain shower near the bottom.
Saturdays weather was very nice. Skinned up to Camp Muir again - the previous days crust had disappeared! Skied down 3100' - with only relatively minor stickiness at the end - past Pebble Creek and veered off to the right down the first half of a broad face, then found a nice flat place to re-affix skins and headed back up to Camp Muir. Vis was in & out for this second run, and just a hint of a crust was started to reform up high, and some serious stickiness was developing about halfway down. Took a right after Pebble Creek and skied the broad face all the way onto the edge of the Nisqually Moraine so as to max out the interesting vert, although this of course made for a long traverse back to Paradise. Also provided a nice view of what Ive always seen in the reverse perspective from the Nisqually Bridge, as shown below.
Additional pics available here, although you folks have probably seen all of these over and over again already:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jonathanshefftz/album?.dir=/62aare2
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jonathanshefftz/album?.dir=/ce93re2
Skinned up Friday under dry conditions. Top ~800 vert from Camp Muir was a horrible crust. Next couple thousand or so vert was absolutely perfect snow - what a contrast! Then a rather sudden transition to sticky transportation skiing for the balance of the 4660' descent. Just one brief but intense rain shower near the bottom.
Saturdays weather was very nice. Skinned up to Camp Muir again - the previous days crust had disappeared! Skied down 3100' - with only relatively minor stickiness at the end - past Pebble Creek and veered off to the right down the first half of a broad face, then found a nice flat place to re-affix skins and headed back up to Camp Muir. Vis was in & out for this second run, and just a hint of a crust was started to reform up high, and some serious stickiness was developing about halfway down. Took a right after Pebble Creek and skied the broad face all the way onto the edge of the Nisqually Moraine so as to max out the interesting vert, although this of course made for a long traverse back to Paradise. Also provided a nice view of what Ive always seen in the reverse perspective from the Nisqually Bridge, as shown below.
Additional pics available here, although you folks have probably seen all of these over and over again already:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jonathanshefftz/album?.dir=/62aare2
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jonathanshefftz/album?.dir=/ce93re2
I don't think I ever get tired of Rainier trip reports, especially with pictures!
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