Camp Muir

Posted by aiddy on Tue 29 July 2008

Rainier from Paradise

Mount Adams was closed (a case of forest fire) so we decided to try a little day hike from Paradise (5,400ft) to Camp Muir (10,188ft)

that's a long way to go

Paradise meadows was still partly under snow

spring on the mountain = wild flowers

but spring flowers were making a show wherever they could.

Chris and Aiddy

Chris and Martin

Panorama point made a good spot for piccy's of the crew...

St Helens

Adams in the distance

...and of Mount St Helens (or what's left of it) and Mount Adams to the distant south.

climbing up the the Muir Snowfield

Martin and Chris on the Muir Snowfield

Next was the climb up to the Muir Snowfield...

increasing cloud...

Looking down the Nisqually glacier

...with views up to the summit of Rainier and across to the scared valley left by the retreating Nisqually Glacier.

Looking up to Camp Muir in the cloud

After a long slog up the snowfield: Camp Muir appeared through the misty cloud!

Destination: Camp Muir

Camping at Camp Muir

Where we pitched the tent and cooked up some lunch
(a different tent from the picture 'cause I forgot to snap Chris')

Looking down the Muir Snowfield

not quite a white out

Going down, the clear weather changed to foggy as the predicted 12,000ft cloud base came in at about 5,000ft.

Martin and Chris starting a glacade

Going down was quicker thanks to a spot of glacading.
Martin, aka chief shoot spotter, and Chris, aka Mr. Speedy, led the way with Aiddy, aka I feel a bit tom-and-dick and need to check the GPS every 10mins so we don't slide off a cliff or into a crevasse, followed some distance behind.

snow, stream and wild flowers

fog on the way down

Back to Paradise just before 7pm in the gathering gloom.
I conveniently didn't get a piccy of Chris beating me in a run back to the car (Martin correctly observing "it's all a bit matcho").

Good day out. Can't wait till the boys can give it a go :-)

Big thanks to Fay & the Boys for the day pass.

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Tags: hikes