Muir snowfield photos, Oct 21st, Skiing stoke! Options

[Jeff Huber]

For those in the club who don't know this, I have a very serious skiing problem: I have to ski each month of the year regardless of how miserable the condition are or how long I have to hike to get to snow. A week and a half ago we went up to Rainier to get in our October turns. This was my 36th consecutive month of skiing. Most of our summer/fall skiing is done on the various glaciers of Hood, but for variety we also visit Rainier and other volcanoes occasionally.

The most accessible backcountry skiing on Rainier is the Muir snowfield. It is a permanent snowfield like the Palmer snowfield on Mt Hood except much bigger, there are no lifts, and the scenery is much more spectacular. In late summer and early Fall it can be heavily suncupped and rutted, but fortunately some of the precipitation in mid Oct fell as snow and smoothed it out for us. The snowfield itself is casual and can make for a good introductory ski tour.

This is Rainier a bit above Paradise at the end of the day. The snowfield we skied is the horizontal looking strip of snow that extends to the right in the middle of the photo:


It was about a 3 mile hike from Paradise to where the snow started. When we reach the snow, we attach climbing skins to the base of our skis which provides traction to ascend on the snow (we remove these for the descent). Here I am skinning up pointing to the Nisqually Icefall for some reason:


It’s just a few hours to Camp Muir, which is the point at the top of the snowfield. Here’s looking down from Camp Muir with Adams in the background:


And then it’s time to de-skin and ski. Me (note Camp Muir is part of the building in the mid right):



My friend Aaron:





...continued in next post...

[Jeff Huber]

The snow wasn't as smooth as above all the way down (as is often the case on the volcanoes). Here’s me where it was a bit more bumpy:


Aaron doesn't like to take his skis off. Here he is about ready to jump over the rocks in front of him:


On our hike back down we found a miniature snowman someone had made:


And St Helens letting off some smoke:


The End

PS: The precip that’s starting now should be a good base for the season – though the snowlevel needs to drop a bit.

[Win Goodbody]

Awesome, Jeff! Looks fun. Ah - movement on ski. Almost time...

I came back from the waxing clinic last night and tenderly got out the tour lites for a look. Waxing is a nutty art that you can get way too absorbed in.

2007 - Year of the Wax

Hope to ski with you this year, Jeff.

[Diep]

The snowfield itself is casual and can make for a good introductory ski tour.

How exactly does one go about getting introduced to ski touring?

I ditched the alpines a few seasons ago to perfect the tele technique so I could eventually earn my turns. That trip looked awesome and reawakens my desire to get out where you don't have to dodge snowboarders sitting at the top of every run!

[Running Bear]

Whoa, most Epic photos Jeff! What amazing weather and mountain views! Thank you for sharing your cool adventurous trip with fellow Lizards. I am getting way psyched for the snow season and all winter sports again! Let's hope for big snow this year again! Snow Bear ~Erika

[Raven Runner]

Hey Jeff, AWESOME photo-story!!!! I'm glad you were able to get out on the Muir snowfield during that sunny stretch. What a day. The credit belongs to those that are in the field...glad you ventured out there to live the life. I've caught that zany-snow-dance-fever and can't wait to get out there.
Thanks for the inspiration ~ Mimi

[Win Goodbody]

Diep, best way is to just go along with others who have experience. In the PNW, getting into ski touring is a lot easier than other places because we have some great practice slopes where there is no avalanche danger. Avalanche science is a complicated domain that takes years to figure out. It's hard to try to master that and all the ski technique stuff at the same time.

We should head up to Timberline when it snows. Timberline is an ideal place to get in lots of skiing and hone skills. It's 2600' from the east lot to the top of Palmer. Perfect for cranking off a few laps. Top secret altitude training will help your running!

For me the spring and summer are the showcase backcountry seasons around here. The weather clears up, the sun comes out, the snowpack is frozen solid, and numerous multi-thousand foot runs on the gentle giants of the Cascade range await. Let's do it. Skiing the SW face of Mt. Adams is one of my faves. Let's plan for it next June.

Here's a nice collage showing that run by jhuber:



Check out the rest of Jeff's photos!

http://www.jeffwhuber.com/photos/skiing/

[Cougarbait]

Those are terrific pictures Jeff, you must have some serious skills to be able to ski in those conditions.