July 5th - Camp Muir @ Mt Rainier

Tuesday, July 5th - Camp Muir @ Mt Rainier

I had been waiting with a lot of excitement for a chance at Camp Muir, or more realistically, Anvil Rock.  But with 7 hours of effort, which did include stops for ice ax arrest practice and a number of visits with interesting people, we didn't even reach Pebble Creek, which marks the start of the Muir Snowfield. But we were close, oh so close. :).

But my main goal for the day was to introduce Robert to snow climbing, to give him ice ax arrest practice, and to see how he liked it.  I think it is fair to say, that Robert is a quick study, mastered ice ax arrest practice quickly, and was a real trouper in snow climbing.  My biggest problem all day was just keeping up with him.  And he discovered that sitting glissades are a great way to come down. In fact, descending in snow, generally is just easier and quicker than on dirt and rock trails.  We descended in 1 hour and 45 minutes, from an elevation of about 7,200' to 5,600', the parking lot at Paradise.

We had some stunning views of Mt Rainier, and great views of Mt Adams, Mt St Helens and Mt Hood in the distance.  Mt Adams looks as big as it is....huge :).  And of course, Mt Rainier is the granddaddy of mountains in the lower 48 states.

One of the more interesting things to happen on the ascent was when Robert took a photo of a lady glissading down a slope.  He offered to email it to her, and heard an accent. When she said it was Estonian, Robert immediately began conversing with her in fluent Russian for the next 10 minutes.  Turns out that Robert studied Russian for years (in addition to Spanish and Latin), and had even visited Russia.  The things you learn about your friends on a hike...I never knew any of this about Robert :).

Here are some pictures from the day, which was  glorious from start to finish.  After we got back to the parking lot, we headed out for an interesting Nepalese dinner at the Wild Berry restaurant, just outside the park, and we finally got  home at 11:30pm that night.

You can see Robert's version of this hike on his blog:  The Inca Diaries.

Robert at my house in Maple Valley, ready to head for Mt Rainier.  This is July 5th, and we were entertained past midnight the night before on the 4th, with wonderful earbusting fireworks that gloriously burst into the air long past midnight. Gotta love the fourth :).

Robert by Van Trump Creek on the way to Paradise

Here's Robert Smith, planking on a rock wall overlooking glorious Mt Rainier.  "Planking" is a current craze, where people lay out flat in all sorts of places all over the world.  My most serious attempts at planking recently have involved a lot of photoshopping :).

Next, Robert was paying homage to a goddess of the Mountain, near as I can tell.

As good a way to start a hike as any :).   That is the Paradise Guide Building in the background, and our trailhead up the snow is on the left, with quite a few people on it.

Here we are part way up the mountain. The alpine skiers descending towards us have summitted Mt Rainier earlier in the day, and are on their way back to Paradise.

Robert and I a ways up the Mountain, about ready to do some ice ax arrest

The composting toilet at 7,000' is nestled under a gigantic boulder, and made of rock, with the quaintest door. It was really a work of art wrought of stone.

Here's Robert at 7,000' with the Tatoosh Range and Mt St Helens in the background.

 

Here I am with Mt Adams in the background, over the Tatoosh Range

 Here's what Mt Adams looks like over the Tatoosh Range from Panorama Point on Mt Rainier - Stunning! On the left is the steep north side of Mt Adams. Our route goes up the gentle south slope, partially visible on the right side.

Mt Rainier with Robert in the foreground, at 7,200', about as high as we went today.

Here I am resting. Robert told me it was the sorriest "planking" he'd ever seen, but what he didn't know was that I was "reprising" my photo from 2004, where I was nearby, resting similarly. See my 2004 photo next below.

See the similarities?  Here I am resting comfortably, same boots, same gaiters, same blue foam, I think.  I had just climbed an 800' snow tongue out of the Nisqually Glacier valley  below with Melodie Wulfekuhle (who took the picture), and we both rested before heading back down over the Muir Snowfield.

 Here is Robert in one of his first real sitting glissades, zipping down like a trouper.

Here is Robert, finishing with a flourish of snow which nearly hides him...Yippee Aie Yay Robert!

Now we are glissading down about 800' from Panorama Point, a really long serious glissade.

Robert Smith is somewhere out of sight at the top.

Yippe Ay Yay Cowboy, here he comes a rip roaring down the glissade path :).

And closer at the speed of gravity :).

In perfect glissade form, Robert roars into view :).

With perfect aplomb and perfect glissade form with ice ax at the ready for emergency arrest, Robert has descended in about one minute what took us nearly an hour to go up. Now THAT is what glissading is all about :).

And so here we are, an hour and 45 minutes from the high point of our day, back at the parking lot.