Camp Muir Attempt #1
VacationMy brother Bruce (pic -->) and I had a great attempt at proving our masculinity last labor day, by trying to make it to Camp Muir, at 10,200 feet. We were semi-prepared, taking a backpack with warmer clothes for the top, food, and water for an 8 hour journey.
Starting at Paradise, (5,000 ft) it was a beeuteyful sunny day at 82 degrees and dry. It was just awesome, little brooks with
colorful flowers everywhere, marmots running around. We hiked up to Panorama point, the usual stopping place for the Burklins, with no problem, and headed up the mountain, confident that we'd make it. (Me@panorama-->)
The first thing on the Muir trail is a big sign saying !Extreme Danger! Death Awaits even Experienced Climbers! We laughed at the lesser men this might scare off. We climbed a bit, and it was really easy, and then snow appeared...and the trail disappeared! It was just snow and loose, martian looking rocks. We hiked up snow (without poles, in tennis shoes...STUPID) and rocks (giant really loose boulders...STUPID x2) and it was really amazing, the environmental changes. The temperature reminded me of descripitons of the moon...when there is cloud cover, it gets icy quick. When the sun is out, its blazingly strong. We saw a few people up there who obviously forgot the sunscreen, and thier faces were peeling off. The air got thin, and on the snowfields, I was gasping for air, taking two steps, and stopping for deep breaths, making the travel extremely slow. We ended up making it to Anvil Rock, at about 9,500 feet, because of the slope and slipperiness I could not actually move forward anymore without falling down. It was truly exhausting, but pretty satisfying as the first attempt up there. Bruce could have made it higher, but my extra 50 pounds in basketball shoes stopped us. There you go Bruce, it isn't your fault jackass.
Once you get to a certain height, you really are someplace else. You see nothing green or manmade anymore, just mountain tops. It's funny, Mount Rainier snow is white from a distance, but around panorama point its the icy blue deep freeze color. A little bit into the snowfields, it is actually red! There is red algae living in the snow, and with the red rocks up there, it really is more martian than earthlike than you'd think. But it was a remarkable experience, it felt good doing something like that in light of our resigned sedentary years after college. (<-- Bruce, with Summit in Background, at our highest point).
Exhausted, the trip back down the mountain was much faster, as all we had to do was fall down and let gravity and the low coefficient of friction between ice and my ass do the rest. At one point, I was sliding down an ice chute so fast, I didn't make a 90 degree turn the path went through. I was launched in the air, and fell about ten feet down into a somewhat hard patch of snow. It was fun, it hurt like hell, and I was laughing through it all. It actually still hurts now when I sit on a hard surface (two weeks later.) (<--Artist's rendition of my ass post-trauma)
So anyways, that was my Anvil Rock adventure, it was a lot of fun. Hopefully next year we make it to Camp Muir!
