Climbing to Camp Muir (base camp on Mt. Rainier)

Friday Fletcher sent me a message and asked if I wanted to climb up to Camp Muir the next day. I have been wanting to go up there for a while so I told him yes. We drove down to my grandparents house the night before and got up very early in the morning and drove up to Ashford, where we met our other friend, Adam.

We started the actual climb at 8 am and went up. It was a perfect day: perfect blue sky, picturesque landscape and warm temperature. I have pictures of the Camp Muir climb. Fletcher is the one in the red shirt and Adam is theguy with the skis attached to his pack.

Camp Muir is not too tough a climb, though you will be a little bit sore the next day. The base camp on Mount Rainier is 9 miles and a 4600 foot elevation gain and takes around 6 or 7 hours round trip.

The route itself up to Camp Muir is simple; just follow the giant line of people ahead of you! Basically, you go up the paved Skyline Trail 2.3 miles till you get to the Muir snowfield where you basically hike up a fairly steep hill through deep snow. Camp Muir itself is made up of a climbers shack, a stone hut for rangers and a few smelly outhouses. Camp Muir is used as the jumping off point for an actual climb of Rainier since it is so high- 10,000 feet. I may eventually do Rainier itself… maybe next year.