It's Even Cooler At Night...

Even as far north as Washington, I'm not a summer person. As I learn more about mountaineering and winter travel, I become even less of a summer person. Sure, I like the clear skies and warm weather, but it starts to get annoying above 70 degrees, and I hate sunscreen and sunburns. It's even worse on glaciers and in the high country. It's too hot already, and then all the sun reflects back off the snow to make it miserably hot up high in the day time. So, Josh and I decided to climb to camp Muir at night. We also wanted a good taste of what a real summit attempt would be like, because all summit attempts should start at night.

We got to Paradise at about 6:30pm, geared up and headed out. We ran into a few people coming down, but no one else was going up. The snow was firm, but it was very rough. It was like walking on a beach, but sometimes the bumps in the snow would give, and sometimes they wouldn't. After about a mile we came to a long steep slope the led up to panorama point, and stopped to put on our crampons so that we could have better traction going. It was a long steep slope, but little did I know it was to be one of the easiest hills I climbed that night. Once at the top, we stopped at panorama point to take some picture and take off our crampons. Then we followed the dirt trail to pebble creek and stopped to fill our water bottles. The pure glacier melt water tasted a lot better than Lakewood tap water.

We started up the mountain again and up the never ending slope towards Camp Muir. I started out too fast, and soon my thighs started burning. After a while we stopped to rest at some rocks. A few minutes later we met a climbing ranger who was on his way down. He stopped to talk to us for a few minutes and I asked him what the conditions were like. He had an altimeter and told us that we were at about 8,000ft and so we have 2,100 feet about two hours to go. It was a little after 10pm. I stretched, drank some water and had a snack, and took some pictures and was ready to go again. After what seemed like half an hour Josh pointed out a ridge running across our path and said that once we go to the top of it, we would be able to see Camp Muir. This was encouraging because My thighs were really starting to hurt. Josh started to lead and kick steps, which helped and gave my thighs a chance to rest and recover.

I didn't bring a watch on the trip, so I had little sense of time, but occasionally I asked Josh about the time. The sunset was beautiful and since we were so high up, there was light on the western sky even until 11pm or after. From Panorama point until it was completely dark every time I turned around, I could see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt Hood and every mountain in between. It was an awesome sight to see the sunset cast shadows and leave a reddish orange hue around these mountains. At one point I turned around to see that the sun had set but was still shining at the top of Mt. Adams, which lit up the summit compared to the surrounding area.

Once it was completely dark we stopped to put on our headlamps as we passed a party in the tents off to our right. They had camped a good distance below Muir and were up and about melting snow. I don’t know where they went because we never saw their headlamps coming up after us. I was again encouraged because I knew that people camping meant we were getting close to our destination. I was feeling ok, but starting to feel the 9,000 ft elevation. The slope seemed to just go on forever. Sometimes it was not so steep, but we were always going uphill. We could only the dark outline of the mountain and the small circle of snow lit up by our headlamps. It reminded me of documentaries I have watched about exploring the ocean floor. At about midnight I could see lights in the distance and wasn’t sure if they were at Muir or further up, but I knew we were close. I kept trudging forward, concentrating on my breathing my steps, and then a while later I looked up and I could see lights coming from the windows of the shelter and headlamps moving around. I picked up the pace and soon I could smell the outhouse, and then were there; Camp Muir, 10,188 ft. I put on some warm clothes and ate part of an MRE. We sat for about 15 minutes and watched the RMI groups getting ready to go. We both wished we could go with them, because it would be a perfect day to summit. Someday I’ll climb Rainier.

Below camp Muir, the snow was hard and mostly frozen. It was difficult to go down because it was too bumpy it most places to glissade, but the snow was so hard that I couldn’t really get my heels to bite into it. As we descended, the snow softened up, and we made excellent time downhill. Whenever we needed to check to make sure we were still on route, we would turn off our headlamps, and the starlight was bright enough to illuminate most of the terrain features.

At one point about halfway down the Muir snowfield we Josh stopped, turned off his headlamp and sat down. I did the same and we spent some time relaxing and looking around. Never before in my life have I seen such a breath taking display of stars. There were a few lights at Paradise, and across the valley I could see the starlight reflecting off the snow off the Tattoosh range. In the distance I could see the outline of High Rock, there was a dark shadow were Mt. Adams was, and I could see light on the horizon from Portland or Kelso. Behind us there I could glowing lines where groups of climbers were halfway to the summit. It was indescribably peaceful, and I think that even more than actually reaching the Camp, this was my favorite part of the trip.

An hour later we were back in the parking lot at paradise after 8 hours on the mountain. We packed up and headed home, and I stopped at the first gas station to buy some Hot Tamales to keep me awake. By the time we were home it was 5:30am and completely light outside. I went to sleep and woke up a 11am, have no memory at all of Ariele’s alarm going off and her leaving for church.

It was a painful and awesome experience. My legs will be sore for a few days, but they will be stronger because of it. I enjoyed the hike and am glad that Josh kept me going up. Now I want to see Muir in the day light. I can’t until until my next trip to the mountains. July 7-8 I will be summiting Mt. Baker, 10,778 ft with my climbing class. Two weeks later, Mt Adams, 12,276 ft. Someday I will climb Mt. Rainier.