Muir Snowfield Conditions at the end of August

It's that time once again where sun-cups begin to grow deeper and the snow surface begins to resemble sand dunes.  The Muir Snowfield has a south facing aspect which means the sun-cups here are deeper and more defined than many other areas elsewhere on the mountain.

Looking down from Camp Muir.  Note the amount of dust particulate
on top of the snow.  These conditions are very difficult to navigate on
skis and cause damage to your ski/snowboard bases.

Currently there are still no crevasses on the snowfield, that being said, we are moving into early September which is by definition "Late Season".  If you plan on traveling up the snowfield and making the trek up to Camp Muir, keep an eye out for long sunken depressions running perpendicular to the boot pack.  These are good indications that open cracks are soon to come.  If you happen to see these features on the Snowfield, think wisely about where you step and refrain from blindly following the existing boot pack.  Snow conditions change on a daily basis, so what may have been stable the day before may have become too thin to support a weight of an a climber.  The bottom line: keep your eyes up and if a sunken line of snow appears in front of you that transects the boot pack, take a longer step to clear the feature.

Poor snow conditions near the top of the Muir Snowfield.  Note the wand for scale.

Example of an early stage crack forming.  Keep an eye out for these on the Muir Snowfield.

As you all may be aware, it's been very smokey around Mount Rainier, and the Muir Snowfield is no exception.  If you plan to trek up to Camp Muir, plan for decreased visibility as well as issues from exerting yourself with thick wildfire smoke.

Over the past weekend, we saw a number of folks hiking up skis and snowboards.  Most of them appeared to second guess their decisions and ended up walking their skis/boards down due to poor snow conditions and thin layer of sand and pumice on top of the snow surface.  We recommend waiting until the snow falls to bring ski gear up to the snowfield for risk of damaging yourself or your equipment.

As always, plan to pack lots of sunscreen, and more food and and water than you might think you'll need.  There is no water up at Camp Muir, so plan to bring enough for the trip up down the snowfield.