Just two weeks ago, Becky and I were hiking up the Muir Snowfield on our way to Camp Muir and the summit of Rainier the following day. At the time, the snowfield was a melty mess of dirty exposed ice, runnels, and sun-cupped neve- more or less unskiable, or a the the very least a really unpleasant ski. Its always amazing how one good storm can cover up the late summer mess and make slopes skiable again.
Over the week, we eagerly watched the weather telemetry and webcams as the early season storms started covering the mountain with its first blanket of snow. We figured by the weekend it should be time to get the skis out. The new snow won't last...a few days of sunny weather will cook it off again, but for the short-term, one could pretend that winter had arrived.
The weather was overcast and cool as we shouldered our packs and headed up the trail. There was a dusting of snow as low as the Paradise parking lot. The hike up to the toe of the Muir Snowfield at 7,500ft went quickly and we'd occasionally catch glimpses of the upper mountain through the clouds.
We broke out into the sunshine as we switched from our sneakers to skis and boots...the weather was warm enough we were in short-sleeved shirts. The skin up the snowfield went quickly, we'd occasionally cross paths with parties of climbers and we saw the first couple skiers heading down- the snow looked great.
As the morning wore on, the clouds started to climb up the mountain and we were occasionally enveloped in a whiteout, but with the cattle-path of boot prints running up to Camp Muir, it was easy to tell where to go.
We were a little disappointed upon arriving at Camp Muir that the clouds limited our view to about fifty feet...not ideal for skiing. We took a long break and waited to see if things would improve, but it didn't seem likely, so we started our slow ski down in wonderful, almost powdery snow with limited visibility. Fortunately, we got a few breaks in the clouds and could ski full-speed. At 8,500ft, we put the skins back on and climbed for another lap...the snow was too good and it had been too long to just limited ourselves to one lap on the snowfield. Back up about 1,000ft to the top of the best slope and then down again. By this time, there was a steady stream of day-trippers and other skiers on the snowfield too.
As we descended, the clouds got thicker, it started snowing in earnest and we had to don our rain jackets. At 7,500ft it was time to rack the skis and start the hike down. Heavy wet flakes were falling and it was far from the mostly sunny forecast that was slated for today.
Nice to get the skis back on the snow and run around in some stormy weather after so many weekends of dry, hot weather.
