Rainier Day 2 – Muir Snowfield
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Day 2, we all gathered at the RMI base camp, then took a bus to paradise. Most of the day would be spent hiking the Muir snowfield up to our base camp at Camp Muir.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect as we all loaded onto the bus. I always love the build up to a big mountain, as you get the anticipation and butterflies in your stomach. We finally got to Paradise, at the base of the mountain, and got our first really good look at what we’d be up against.
The mountain was beautiful, as was the surrounding area. We hiked up through lush, green hills where we saw birds, marmots, and all sorts of other animals and onto the snowfield.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the hike, particularly when we hit the snowfield. As had been previously noted, Backpacker had rated it their #5 most dangerous hike.
We donned the expedition boots, and headed up the snowfield. Along the way, two of the 15 guys in our group were exhausted from the hike and the altitude and headed back with one of our guides (who would later rejoin us.) The entire trip, including the intro hike would be a learning experience. Our guides focused on efficiency during breaks (having important gear accessible, and having a plan for maximizing rest during breaks.) We learned about rest stepping and pressure breathing (http://www.bodyresults.com/e2altitudecoping.asp) in order to combat the affects of altitude. We focused quite a bit on maintaining nutrition, hydration, and thermal regulation as well. In a lot of ways, this reminded me of endurance length triathlons – the body monitoring is quite similar.
The remaining 13 of us made it to camp Muir, which was absolutely gorgeous, sitting on a ridge on the mountain. As you can see from the photos, the weather was fantastic and we were all in good spirits.
Camp Muir
Cowlitz Glacier as viewied from Muir
View from Camp Muir
Then the sun went down, it got chillier, and we all made dinner and hit the sack early. I can’t speak for everyone, but I was giddy at the thought of putting on crampons for the first time and putting the ice axe to good use the next day.
Sunset at Camp Muir
Tags: camp muir, climibing, high altitude, rainier | Posted in rainier | No Comments »
