Mount Rainier, Washington, USA
August 2005
 

Tuesday, August 23, 2005:  We left Cougar Rock Campground at 8:30am in a light drizzle and 53 degrees F.  We drove into the clouds at 4,000ft.

We had got permits the night before so we just got our gear packed and started out for Camp Muir at 10:40am.  Robert's pack weighed just over 50 pounds and mine was just over 40 pounds. We hiked up in the clouds all the way up to 9,000 ft, when we finally got above the clouds.  It was a cold, wet hike on rock and snow all the way.  There were even a few small crevasses just before we got to Camp Muir which we had to jump over.  There were several other groups heading up with us.
 

We got to Camp Muir at 5pm, which made it 6 hrs 40 minutes to get up there, which was 20 minutes longer than it took us the year before.

Robert found us a nice, level spot for our tent so we quickly set up camp and then went to chat with others who were up there.

I found a clean patch of snow to one side and started collecting snow to melt for water.  The trick is to first have about 1/2" of water in the pot then slowly add snow.  If you put snow in the pot without the water the pot burns and you have burnt tasting water.  I made several liters of water then made dinner.  At around 7pm there was almost nobody in sight as everyone had gone to sleep in preparation for getting up at midnight and the long hike to the summit.  We had decided to spend the next day at Muir to rest and then only set out that next night.
 

Wednesday, August 24, 2005:  We spent all day lazing around, reading and generally resting.  I stayed in the tent most of the day as I didn't want to get sunburned, as I so easily do from the sun reflecting off the snow.  We each had a book to read so we read and dozed on and off all day.  We had dinner at 6pm then made 3 liters of water each for the summit hike.  Then off to bed with alarms set for 11:30pm.

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