Conditions on Muir snowfield?

[brukb]

Anyone been up the snowfield since the weather has started calming down from the last storm cycle? Hoping to do some boarding from Camp Muir, wondering if there's wind crust/slabs that would make boarding difficult. How about Avy conditions up to Pan point? Thanks, Bruk

[AllYouCanEat]

Brukb, you don't go to Muir for the snow. It is never good. If you want good snow, go elsewhere. Conditions anywhere on rainier change by the hour. I'm not getting on your case, this is just the facts.

[philfort]

I wouldn't say never, but rarely. I've skied from Muir in a foot of fresh that wasn't wind-affected.

brukb, why don't you check the telemetry data for Paradise... the wind speed from the past few days might give you an idea of how hammered the snow is there. Probably pretty hammered.

[lizard_brain]

I've boarded down from Muir before and the snow sucked. Don't know if I would do it again. (Now watch me go and do it agian this spring.)

What I'm wondering is if I'm going to do a deathmarch conditioner up there this Saturday, should I bring snowshoes or crampons?

[jobe]

I think it is always a good idea to bring crampons up there during the winter. When I was up there in January there was some bulletproof ice where crampons were a necessity. I'm sure a few groups got turned around because of it.

[lizard_brain]

Yeah, come to think of it I was up there last February with just snowshoes, and it was a bitch trying to use them as crampons on the last 800' of ice. I'll probably wind up taking both. Or staying home and drinking beer and eating cheeseburgers. Depends on the weather.

[AllYouCanEat]

I've skied from muir since I was five. I'll admit there had been a few fesheez, but not many. I go up to muir when there is nothing else to do, and that is usually because I am too lazy to think of anything else. Also, I like to ski before noon, and Rainier doesn't allow for that these days...

[Lowell_Skoog]

I agree that the skiing on the Muir snowfield is usually poor. But you can still have an awesome experience there. Ski it by moonlight. Muir is unique because there's a cabin up there where you can hang out until the moon comes up. Then as you're coming down you've got the snowfield and the entire horizon glowing before you. Here's a trip report I wrote a couple years ago when my brother and I skied it during the winter solstice full moon:

http://groups.g oogle.com/groups?q=muir+by+moonlight+group:rec.skiing.backcountry&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&selm=844abv%24g2e%241%40brokaw.wa.com&rnum=1

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: Lowell Skoog ]

[Self_propelled]

People go to Muir in the Winter? Dang, I've only skied the sweet corn after Memorial Day! With this years snow pack Muir should have 5K' of good corn snow into late July or August. mmmhmmmhhmm Sweet Corn!

[Bug]

Boilerplate interrupted here and there by windslab except where there are rocks.

[glennm]

Of course, there's some satisfaction to skiing chracter building snow. And if you run it out to the bridge it's a hoot.

[kashmir]

If your looking for good snow in Rainier the only place you'll find it right now is in the Tatoosh.The snowfield right now has a little bit of sketchy ice on it with the occasional turnable snow. The snowfield is however a great ski/board but i'd wait until we get more snow, the freezing level has been high and its been raining to like 7000 feet. If your a good skier I'd recommend the snowfield variation that takes off on to the nisqually at 9000 feet the snow will be alot less wind blown there.