Winter Scramble - Camp Muir & Anvil Rock

Days prior to the trip the area received the first major snowstorm of the year – approximately 3 feet of new snow on top of old icy conditions making avy danger fairly high. We decided to try the Skyline trail through the trees to avoid avy terrain but the new snow made breaking trail slow and difficult. Even though the original forecast was for sun over the weekend, it never stopped snowing for both days with visibility very low. The snow would “whoomph” frequently under us and once we heard/felt a loud crack-boom – a telltale sign of a near-by avalanche.

We missed a turn in the Skyline trail and inadvertently hiked up to the moraine near the Paradise glacier and decided to camp in the shelter of a few remaining trees at about 3pm – having only made it a few miles and 1000 feet higher. We enjoyed the late afternoon and evening in our snow kitchen and solid winter tents sipping hot cider and enjoying a hot dinner.

The moon came out around 11pm and most of us wandered out to view the spectacular clear mountain-scape in the bright moonlight, hoping that it would result in sun in the morning. Unfortunately, the snow storm returned and continued all of Sunday with very low visibility and fairly high avy conditions. With not much choice, we packed up and headed down making it to the car around noon.

After a great lunch at the Copper Creek restaurant, we debriefed the trip and agreed that it was well worth it even with the white out conditions and deep snow.