Winter Scramble - Camp Muir & Anvil Rock

Longmire 6:40am or Paradise 7:15am

Because the Oly scramble class doesn’t have a snow overnight, Olympia students have priority for this one. We will only accept students from other branches if there are open spots. Students from other branches, please do not contact us until May 1.

You will need to have done one successful conditioner before this trip.

We will go to Camp Muir mainly to get altitude training, practice 4,000+ft days on snow with heavy packs and learn about snow camps. You will find out how much mental and physical work it takes to get to a high camp and then put down stakes, make water and make yourself a meal. It will be more like a rigorous summit day, because we'll also be breaking camp and going down the same day.

We’ll leave Paradise at 7:30 for a slow and steady ascent.

The goal is to reach Camp Muir by 1pm, make hot lunches with our stoves, replenish water by melting snow, practice tent setup and head down around 4pm. If we are not at Camp Muir by 1:30, we'll decide as a group what is more important - gaining more altitude or learning snow camping skills. We can always stop at Moon Rocks and make camp.

Some of the Oly scramblers may elect to stay at the National Park Inn between our Snow-II class on Saturday, May 11 and this trip. Paradise Inn may not be open yet. If the weather forecast is awesome, we may elect to set up a camp Saturday night near Alta Vista, saving ourselves time in the morning. (TBD)

This will be a long day, getting back to the cars around 7:30pm, probably needing a bite to eat on the way home. If the weather is awful, we will do a lesser hike in MRNP or around the MTTA huts to set up snow camps. 

Also note this is Mother's Day; please check your schedules to minimize conflicts and roster turnover.