Tag Archives: Mt. Rainier

Back Two Backpacking

After a recent series of hikes, it feels about time for another post. We’ve been doing some “fun” backpacking trips lately, also known as hiking in, camping, and hanging out, rather than pushing all day until night falls and unpacking in the dark. There’s a time and a place for long grueling backpacking trips, and the past few weeks were not the time. We also did a great hike with some friends last weekend, which I’ve combined into this one big post covering the end of August and early September!

Summit Lake

Our first trip, a few weeks back now, was to head south towards the border of MRNP, and camp at Summit Lake. The trailhead lies more than six miles up and into the mountains at the end of a somewhat rough forest service road, though the rangers assured us it was ‘far from the worst’. Since dogs seem to be banned from campgrounds in the NP Summit Lake drew a lot of dog owners hiking in for the night. We made a relatively quick ascent, heard there was a sweet overlook campsite, and bee-lined for that.

The rest of the day was spent taking in the views of Mt Rainier, and hanging out at Summit Lake proper, lounging until a dinner of re-hydrated food. Mmmm. The evening and morning lighting made for even better photos.

In the morning we packed up, headed out and got a great breakfast nearby in an old Saloon.

Olallie and Talupus Lakes

The following weekend was labor day weekend, and after plans for a larger three day surfing trip fell through, we opted for another fun, easy backpacking trip, this time near Snoqualmie Pass. The forest road up was much smoother and the lake views were great, especially with some weather patterns moving through creating interesting clouds. Dylan joined us as well for the relaxing afternoon in the lake basins.

The morning fog rising off the lake was a nice treat. On our way back, we stopped at the Falls, since Dylan hadn’t been.

Heliotrope Ridge

Our friend Ian suggested we do a hike together, and because of his love for glaciers, opted for Heliotrope Ridge. After staring at topos all last winter, reading TRs and debating when the best time to ski it was, it was awesome to finally make a trip up from the valley that’s one of Mt. Baker’s main melt outflows. Ian, Tanya, their daughter Lily, Catherine and I all met at the trailhead and started up. It was a gorgeous day for hiking and sightseeing.

All in all an awesome day! Ian was a champ carried a sleeping Lily both up and down the trail. The trail itself was more taxing than one would’ve expected, moderately gaining elevation throughout, and included several fun creek crossings. I can’t wait to head back this winter. The trailhead is also the starting point for one of the main climbing routes, so we encountered more than a few mountaineers making for the summit.

Camp Muir Classic

Sean, Tim and I did some mid-summer skiing just about a week ago. We day tripped over to Mt. Rainier and though we didn’t really luck out with the weather, we had a great time.

We got a reasonable start at Paradise, with plans to take it as we went, and immediately ran into this:

Thick fog the whole tour up. Luckily the NPS and guide services had kindly flagged the standard route to Camp Muir the whole way up, and I was somewhat familiar with the mountain from my last visit.

Our best view until we broke the clouds, the Nisqually terminus below Panorama point. We made good progress up the first half of the tour, but began to slow down through the multiple transitions, and lack of visibility. The whole Muir snowfield is fairly safe in good weather, with many parties ascending and descending, flags, and fairly distinct ridges to either side. Nevertheless with poor visibility, we stuck together to took it slow and steady, especially with the recent accidents on the mountain.

Tim snapped about half the photos of the trip on his own camera.

Sean and I during a snack break.

Higher up, we continued following the well-worn path and flags, without much change.

We were getting a bit demoralized by the fog, and weren’t originally planning to go all the way to Muir, but heard Muir was only a short ways ahead when my phone died ~8700 ft. Just as we were cramping up and having thoughts of stopping, we broke through the clouds.

We trudged the last bit up to the Camp and took it easy for awhile at 10,000 feet. Finally we got some well deserved views. It was fun hanging around. Other groups were mainly camped out, with a few other skiers getting ready to descend, who kindly took our picture.

After some rejuvenating snacking, we geared up for a slow descent into fog.

The first 20 or so turns were creamy, and fresh from a few inches the night before, making the whole thing worth it.

Sean heads off.

Me vs. the fog.

Tim coming to join us.

Then it was back to fogginess and low visibility, which meant, follow the flags and tracks, and stick together.

We got slightly separated at one point, since visibility was that bad, but met up fairly quickly at the next transition point, and stuck together the rest of the way back to Paradise, marking just about a 5k vert day.

On our way out, we saw some local wildlife.

Of course the clouds were hanging right at Paradise, so descending down the mountain held some great views.

On our way home, the weather decided it was about time to clear up and become gorgeous.

And finally, we were back to Seattle.

See you guys on the next tour!

June-uary on Rainier

For the first time of my life, I’ve skied a volcano. It’s a cool thought, although many people make the trip to Rainier, and yesterday was no exception. After eye-balling topo-maps, NWAC, and talking with a local shop, I decided to head to Rainier solo and see what it’s all about.

I’ve learned that even when conditions in the PNW are lame, Rainier can still be good, and it was awesome corn skiing…in January. NWAC was reporting green light conditions due to warm temps and consolidation, along with blue skies.

Upon arriving, I learned the stories I’d heard were true. The Paradise gate is locked until 9 a.m. A bit unfortunate, but it gave me time to gear and wake up. My intended trip plan was to stick to the classic Muir Snowfield route, and follow some people up. It begins at the Paradise parking lot, which is at ~5400′. Luckily I met Jeff and John who were great company and we veered slightly off the beaten path onto some variations of the route. It was also the maiden voyage for my Movement Response-X skis, which I was quite fond of by the end of the day.

Our first look up at Panorama Point. Our route took us left around behind the rocks and shrubs to the climb.

Booting up. Almost broke out the boot crampons here. Ski crampons were used later.

Jeff and John on the point. Snack time.

The views were pretty good, too. Mt. Hood is visible on the far right.

More booting. I switched back to skins + crampons.

It was a gorgeous day, and by the afternoon temps on the mountain were ~50 degrees.

Rainier, up close and personal. The Nisqually glacier is front and center with the chutes on lookers right. It was great to finally get a closer look than staring at it in the distance from the city, or even Crystal.

Things were looking good as we neared 8600′, give or take a bit.

Adams as the backdrop as we neared our transition. We also got a good look at Mount St. Helens.

One more look at Rainier.

We hugged the other side of the ridge from the Muir Snowfield up-track, away from the masses, careful not to dive too far skier’s left down into glaciers. Suddenly the views we’d been getting sank in and I realized, man, Rainier is huge!

John, with some incredible relief behind.

The first few hundred vertical were decent, though the Movements made for a bit of a bumpy ride on uneven wind-scour. Then it turned to sweet corn and it was grins all the way down.

McClure Rock face. I quickly measured it with the ol’ inclinometer at 52 degrees +/- human error from where this photo was taken. Steepest face I’ve skied in awhile at least. You couldn’t see much but the bottom while looking down on it.

John and Jeff had some fun on a steep face, which may have been slightly iffy, if there hadn’t been a few tracks and a snowboarder landing into it sideways, then side-slipping half of it.

The Movement’s performed excellently on steeps, corn and firmer snow. I almost forgot what it’s like to lay over a ski narrower than 100mm underfoot. I was able to ski confidently on them at speed, and the flex didn’t feel weak or too soft. We’ll have to see how they perform in powder, whenever we get some more snow in the PNW. And another thing, the mixed skins from Movement felt great.

The trip took us approximately from 9:45 – 3ish. Jeff broke out his goPro so there may be some footage out there in the works.

An awesome introduction to Rainier!