I was invited last minute on a "quick day hike" to Rainier's Camp Muir with a group of guys from our church. I have hiked Mt. Si, Twin Falls, and the usual day hkkes that have some adventure in them, so I felt like this would be "doable" - and lest I give anyone the wrong idea, in the end it was "doable" - however it was a TON more effort and endurance than I imagined. For completeness, I am 34, in average shape, run a few miles a week, hit the gym..well, maybe once a week, and eat fairly well. We left from Snoqualmie at 7AM March 20, 2010 and reached Paradise Ranger station at 9AM. The idea was to carry Ski's or snowboards on our backs, hike up, and ski down. For those curious we carried our ski boots locked in our bindings (as if the ski's and pack weren't enough weight). Luckily I had purchased a pair of decent hiking boots (Asolo from REI) as I would say they were barely enough. They were great for the first 2.5 miles until the snow pack was harder and we kept hitting inclines that called for kicking your toes in. There were 11 of us hiking (9 guys, 2 girls), with two guys and one girl being very experienced hikers/climbers - one on his way to completing the 7 summits. Thankfully they were of tremendous help since about 1.5 miles in these guys came and grabbed some extra weight from a few of us 'slackers" and took our ski boots to carry for us. It was a great clear day for hiking, otherwise I can see how one could eaily get lost in the expansive views, peaks, snow, etc. there were several inclines that I would call "severe" although no Ice axe is really needed for the most part as long as you have hiking poles. Many of us had ski poles and a few had nothing. After what seemed like all day (it was really about 4 hours in), I finally had Camp Muir in sight. It was exciting, but I did not realize that at that altitude, and at my slow speed it was still about an hour away. It was probably 1000 feet ahead, but still, I was exhausted, in need of breaks frequently, and moving at a snail's pace. It was really a new degree of atience that I had never tapped into. Even as I approached the camp within 25 feet, I was stopping for breaks and making one slow step after the next. The last 25 feet took about 15 minutes. Once at the top when I could shed my pack and skis, I quickly crawled into the brick building to get out of the 50 mph wind that had quickly whipped up. Inside, it was quiet and calm and a great break from that exhausting climb. After about 20 minutes of rest, since the rest of my group had ben there for at least 45 minutes already, we crawled out, clicked into skis, and began the trek down. In the end it was 5 hours up and 1.5 hours down on skis.
Key Points:
- Its harder than you think (in snow - perhaps its easier in summer)
- If you don't use gators, your socks will get wet and that is aweful
- Bring some sort of pole or ice axe if you have no hiking poles
- It can get cold fast. We were sweating one second and then stopped for a protein bar - it got freezing within 2 minutes and was hard to warm up
- Bring lots of water of course
- Bring many protein bars, peanut butter sandwhiches, etc
- I run a 5k with decent elevation gain in about 29 minutes and this was still very hard
- Bring lots of layers
- Sunscreen (even up your nose because the snow reflects the sun) is important
- Sunglasses that cover all around your eyes are important
- Plan for an ALL day deal - we got back to Snoqualmie at 9PM
