Muir Snowfield, Mt. Rainier, May 1st, 2004

Helen, Mason and I hiked up the Muir Snowfield on the south face of Mt. Rainier on Saturday, May 1st, 2004. We camped Friday night at the Sunshine Point Campground along the Nisqually River. It's a small campground, and very convenient. We got up around 6am, and the temperature was in the mid 40's, so we huddled around the propane stove and made breakfast for an hour before we really got around to packing up the car and heading to Paradise.

We started from Paradise which is at 5,557ft and our goal was to get to Camp Muir at 10,188ft. The hike takes you up the Muir Snowfield, which is a permanent snowfield between the Nisqually, Cowlitz, and Paradise Glaciers. The entire trail was snow covered, with roughly 14ft of snow at Paradise.

It was a beautiful, clear day, and the temperature at Paradise when we set out at 9:30am was in the mid 50's. The freezing level was forecast to be around 12,500ft that day, and I think it was pretty accurate. As the day progressed we got a lot of high clouds around the mountain, by they stayed away from the mountain itself. There was also a nice breeze for most of the hike. By the time we started our decent, the clouds cleared and it got sunny again.

Mason made it up to Camp Muir first, which was no surprise to Helen and I given the fantastic shape Mason is in. He could have made the hike in half the time if he hadn't waited for us, frankly. Helen made it up well before me as well, and I'm sure she could have gotten there even faster but she also waited for me a lot. I had a whole lot of trouble the higher we got, and I found it very difficult to get my breath. It was very painful. I sat at Camp Muir for less than 5 min before I declared that I was ready to leave... never in my life have I worked so hard to get someplace that I was then so desperate to get the hell away from :)

The Muir Snowfield was not in as great shape as it was on April 3rd. It's more cut up, and the snow quality was much lower. The lower we got, the stickier it got (no surprise), and we ended up using our hiking poles to help move us along through some of the flatter parts. I still had fun on the ride down, though... any day on the snow is a good day.

All-in-all, it was a great day and a good time was had by all.

The pictures below are a combination of shots from Mason, Helen and I.

Our camp site Friday evening.

The view of the Nisqually River from the campground.

Our camp fire :)

Mason and I getting the gear ready. Our destination is probably visible with binoculars off in the distance. It's along the ridge above the tall pointy tree on the right of the picture.

Helen and Mike just at the top of the steepest part... lunch will be tasty...

Mason and I relaxing at lunch.

Helen at lunch. Look carefully, and you'll see Mt. St. Helens over Helen's shoulder.

The view up the snowfield. We're somewhere around half way there at this point... Camp Muir is perhaps 2.5 miles away at this point.

Helen and Mike.

Mason at Camp Muir. You can see Mt. Adams just to the left of him.

Another shot of Mason at Camp Muir.

One of the shelters at Camp Muir. From below, this looks like a big building that's two stories tall. It made us think we were closer than we really were, which was annoying at the time, but it's funny now :)

Another shot of Camp Muir.

Helen at Camp Muir.

Mike at Camp Muir.

Another fine addition to the series of pictures of me with a pained look on my face :)

Mason skiing down. You can see the shelters at Camp Muir in the background.

Me riding down the Muir Snowfield.

Mason again. Helen is in the distance. It's most than 4,000 vertical feet from where we are to the top of the mountain.

Helen kicking ass as usual.

Me again.

I like this shot of the snowfield. There was a very thin ice crust over most of the field near the top. Mason said it looked like there was a layer of tin foil over the whole thing, and it kind of felt like that.

Mt. Adams is in the distance.

Mt. St. Helens.

Another shot of Helen riding down.

There we are, back in the parking lot completely exhausted. Clearly, we all had a lot of fun :)