We still made a trip out of it and got to test all of our gear in some nasty conditions and we saw a new side to the beauty around Paradise and the Muir Snowfield. A wet one :-)
We had all of our gear and the cloud ceiling seemed to be a couple of thousand feet above the visitors center (5500 feet) so we decided to head to Muir and camp for the night or to turn around and call it a day hike if the weather was too nasty for our likings.
We crossed the creek at 7200 feet and jumped on the snowfield. An extra large group of Alpine Ascents climbers were eating and staging here so we chatted and enjoyed some respite from the Northerly winds coming off of the ridge. Our gloves came out of the packs and we got ready for war with the weather as we could see that visibility was going away in about 400 feet.
Soon enough we were surrounded by grey and stepping up in unison with the Alpine Ascents group. A large RMI group passed us on their way down the mountain when we were told that they made it up to 13,000 feet in a summit attempt and were in some very precarious weather. We gave them a smile and moved on.
The rain turned to sleet and then snow and we kept moving up. We crossed a small land spike
We had pulled ahead of Chad, our fifth climber and we waited at about 9200 feet for him. We got cold, then colder and our outlook wasn't so good.
We voted on spending a miserable night at Muir camping or getting a beer and some blackberry cobbler at the Copper Creek Inn. Cobbler and Beer it was! That is the beauty of living on the doorstep of Rainier, if things aren't right then just wait until they are...we'll be back!
1 comment:
good trip report. nature wins again. dad
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