He came soooo close to me. Totally not scared of humans!
Here I am next to the sign that warns about Whiteouts moving in within minutes.
Yup...the whiteout hit us hard.
And then suddenly it cleared.
Gorgeous
Heavenly.
Rick on his way down through the ice, snow and rock
Remember how I said I didn't understand how Rick never saw the mountain on his other Rainier trips. Well...on our way down, it happened. Total white out.
We couldn't see ANYTHING!
While we were on our way down, a group from IMG passed us. It was really awesome. The lead guide was Jeff--the guide who helped save Rick's life on Liberty Ridge earlier this summer. Jeff instantly recognized us and stopped to chat. I simply LOVE IMG and the fact that their guides really get to know their clients...great people! The guide in the back was one of the guys who rescued Rick's group. Very cool
Another "scary" crevasse.
Jump Rick Jump!
I loved looking at the glaciers and seeing the crevasses and ice falls on them
The blue ice was so gorgeous!
Okay...those crevasses look SCARY!
I loved walking around on the Muir Snowfield and seeing all the crevasses. I jumped across a few. Fun stuff.
Notice how THIN the start of this snow bridge is? I'm NUTS!
Here I was...can I do it?
It was fun figuring our way through the maze of crevasses.
Isn't he sexy?
Heres another one. I'm addicted to Crevasses!
Mount Adams. We could also see St. Helens and Mt. Hood. Incredible views from Muir.
These guys arrived after dark, and pitched their tents in the dark RIGHT INBETWEEN TWO CREVASSES!!! Holy crap!
Staying at Muir was really fun. The clouds, the sun set, the sun rise, the stars, the moon. I didn't like hearing rock and ice fall all night, but even that added to the adventure.
Our great little two person 4 season tent from REI.
The view from our tent...we could see the ranger's hut up on the hill, as well as some tents pitched down in the "valley".
Someone was actually painting this hut black when we got up to Muir. By the time we left, the whole thing was black and looked nice.
This is the trail leaving Muir and heading up to the summit
Heres our tent. We were actually near the trail to the summit, so at 1am, we heard all the guided groups taking off for their summit attempt. At 3am, we heard some of them coming back down after failing to summit. The rest came down around 10am.
Rick surprised me by taking my picture when I came out of one of the 4 solar toilets they have at Muir.
All cozy in my sub kilo 15 degree down sleeping bag. Notice...its purple! I'm such a fashion girl! LOL
We were basicly right below the hut. Here is someone standing up on the cliff the hut is on.
The birds at muir were so funny and friendly.
Like my head lamp?
Rick melting snow for our hot chocolate and dinner
Ah...mexican hot chocolate. Mmmmmm
Rick wasn't very happy when I woke up at 6am and he still wanted to sleep! Sorry honey.
This pic didn't turn out quite right, but my heal was actually quite purple!!! A little duct tape fixed that problem though.
Rick getting ready to get up and pack up camp.
Walking through the muir snowfield was quite the experience. I really enjoyed this new experience.
Snow and volcanic rock line the landscape. A much prettier volcano then Mt. Fuji though.
My cute husband following in my footsteps.
Crevasse!!!!
Don't fall in!
LOL look how the wind is catching my bandana!
Pure ice with water streams pouring down. Slick. Thank goodness for crampons! I had a hard time trusting them at first. Ice climbing is so different from this. But I do love ICE!
Almost to Camp Muir...we can see people there. So close...
I'm coming Rick!
See my care bear? Rick always takes Hello Kitty on expeditions, so I'm taking my care bear with...he brought me luck on Fuji and also luck on Rainier. I LOVE THIS MOUNTAIN!!! (and this is my favorite pic)
Bear Rock..well, thats what we called it because it looks so much like a cute bear.
Almost to muir.
Getting closer...
Arriving at Camp Muir...coming out of the clouds.
