Camp Muir

Hiked up to Came Muir on Sunday morning, departing from Paradise at 8am.

Weather was beautiful, and the route was relatively uninhabited by hikers at that point. This was my first visit to Mt. Rainier, and my first attempt up to Camp Muir. I was a little annoyed that none of the trail signs around Paradise specified which of the outbound paths from the TR took you to Muir (also the visitor center and ranger station were closed) - so I guessed that it was the Skyline Trail and was lucky.

Fortunately, the path up to Pebble creek was very straightforward (had no idea i'd be spending that much time on pavement and rock steps - not easy on the feet for the start of a hike). Once I hit the snowfield, it was very easy to follow the trail of footprints and glissade chutes up most of the way up to the camp.

I arrived at Muir at 11:40 am. The sun was just starting to heat up, and I just began to sweat during the last half-mile (I was just wearing running shorts to keep cool). I enjoyed lunch with a view and headed down at 12:30 pm, after changing into soft-shell pants for the glissading. Now it got HOT.

Passed about 100 people on my way down, 90% of them were on their way up, including a dozen or so people with snowboards or skis strapped to their backpacks.

The snow became pretty soft by 1:00 and was very slippery - I ate it a few times during my standing/ski glissade.

Overall it was a beautiful day and I had a blast.

One thing to note: HWY 7 had a long detour that added about 40 minutes to the drip in each direction on the drive from/to Tacoma, so be sure to add that into your calculations when planning a trip out there.