Hike to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier

Despite the horrible weekend that surrounded this trip, I must say I don’t regret going up there and I’m proud of my accomplishment! We had only briefly discussed the trip a few days before, and we didn’t get the plans solidified until the evening beforehand. This would be an especially big day for me because I had to work the night before and the night after the hike. I knew I wouldn’t get much sleep in the car, so I’d be awake from when I woke up Saturday morning straight through until Monday morning. Like an adventure race, weee!

Very bundled at the start... not for long!

I headed to work Saturday night with all my stuff packed – we met at PT’s house in Bellevue since it was only about 2 miles from my work. We left PT’s at 7:30, heading for the big mountain. Stopped for breakfast at McDonald’s (breakfast of champions!), and we started our hike around 10:30… a little later start than we had hoped for! It was cloudy and chilly, with a light mist that is so characteristic of the PNW. I applied sunscreen in the car to my face, and we packed it (thank God!!) for in case we climbed above the clouds.

Stripped down, still in a cloud

I was surprised by the difficulty of hiking in the snow. It was wet, slushy snow, so with each step I slid back a few inches. I wish I had two trekking poles instead of one, but without PT, I’d have none! Within 10 minutes, I de-layered clothes so that I was just wearing a t-shirt, pants and gloves. The guys opted to zip off their pant legs, but I kept mine on. The climbing was work, but not strenuous, but I did start to get a headache early on. I combated it with “pressure breathing” – forcing out my exhalations through pursed lips – to give the oxygen longer time to exchange, which helped the headache disappear.

Still in a cloud!

It was eerie breaking through the clouds into the blue sky and sun… the clouds seemed to be turning a darker shade of gray until the mist finally broke. The looming rock formations were magnificent against the bright blue sky. The sun was warm, and we re-applied sunscreen… however it was impossible to tell how much we actually covered because it was the evaporating spray sunscreen. I will admit, we were very careless with the application of sunscreen.

Breaking through the cloud

Brilliant sun + blue sky!

The climbing got tougher in the sunny Muir Snowfield, mostly because the air was starting to get thinner around 7,000 feet. We started at around 5,000 feet and had 3,000 more to climb! It was nice to fall in line behind a guided group because they kept the pace and they were employing the “rest step” where you pause for a second at each step. Although it slows the pace, it makes for less breaks because we weren’t out of breath.

Kind of surreal...

Rocks covered in snow

PT with Mount Adams peeking out there

Almost there!! I think we were about an hour out

The last 1000 feet we ended up leaving PT behind … we just wanted to get there! We saw the camp and Derek estimated it’d still take 45 minutes of hiking to get there… it ended up taking 35 minutes, and I had pushed ahead since I just wanted it to be over with! It took just under 5 hours to climb the 5,000 feet to Camp Muir.

From this spot, it still took about 20-25 minutes to reach the buildings

Kind of tilted, but you can see Mt. Adams!

Here comes PT, pushing to the finish

PT joined us a bit later and we got to cooking up some burgers and a tuna steak – making many others at the camp very jealous! We layered our clothes back on and packed up our bags, ready for the hike down at around 4:45, a lot later than I wanted to leave since I had to work at 11pm. I knew we’d have to hustle back down.

We glissaded (slid on our butts, on sections of plastic mattress bags we brought) down the steeper sections, which was great fun but a little scary.

The hiking downhill was more strenuous than I’d thought and I wished I hadn’t layered up so much. The sun was beating down on our faces on the descent. Once we reached the edge of the cloud, I tilted my head back, welcoming the mist on my face and neck. I think at that point I realized how badly I had gotten burned. It got downright cold glissading after we were in the misty cloud. My hands got so cold inside my wet cotton gloves that I freaked out about frostbite and knew I needed to go at a much faster pace to get my circulation going. Without a word to my buddies I took off jogging, ripped my gloves off my hands and stuck my fingers in my mouth. After about a quarter to a half mile of jogging like that I had finally warmed them, and I had arrived at the final glissade near the bottom. I waited there for Derek and PT, surprised that we had made it down in just under 2 hours!

Watch Derek’s video and see his photos of the trip on his website: www.derekrippephoto.com.

We went into the visitor’s center to strip off wet clothes and use the restrooms – and I was shocked and terrified of how badly I had burned myself. The pain had not set in yet (except for my lips) and I knew I was in for a lot of pain to come. The whole ride home I wrestled with the idea of calling in sick, but ultimately decided to go to work because I knew the family’s day nurse had called out sick. Boy did I learn my lesson! Check out the post When it Rains, it Pours.

24 hours post-hike... sooo swollen!!

48 hours post-hike. The next couple days, the skin got really dry and tight around my lips then peeled off.

To Sum it Up:

The hike to Camp Muir requires a full day commitment – it isn’t fun to be pressed for time. It requires a moderate level of fitness, but I think anyone could make it up there if they made up their mind to do it. It is not technical, and even in low visibility like we had in the cloudy part, we had no trouble following the markers. We didn’t need a map or compass, although if a storm hit, that could definitely pose a huge problem with navigation. Although unneeded, we had extra food, water, warm clothing, and first aid equipment in case we had to bunker down in a storm.

We completed: 8.3 miles, 5300 feet of elevation gain/descent in 6 hours and 45 minutes.

Next time: