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Day Two - Melting Snow

Camp Muir is interesting. It has been used as a high camp for the summit almost as long as people have been climbing Mt. Rainier. Over the years, Camp Muir has been built up to the thriving metropolis it is today. The views were spectacular, as shown here...

The climbers hut is used by those climbers that did not bring their own tents. It can probably sleep about 30 people, although it seems like that would be fairly cramped. The hut is made of rocks and is a very solid structure. The Rainier Mountaineering Inc. guide hut is about the same size, and is used by their clients. They also have a cook hut staffed by co-eds to provide meals for their guided parties.

There are two ranger huts - one is an old A-frame building and the other is similar to a canvas tent used by sheep herders. There are also two solar-powered outhouses which didn't smell too bad at all.

It's not possible to carry all the water you need to Camp Muir, and there are no water sources on the mountain other than snow. Since we pretty well drained our water on the hike up, we needed to melt several gallons of water. This took most of the day. We also spent the day napping, visiting with other climbers, and enjoying the views. After dinner, we retired to our tents for a nap before starting for the summit at 11:15 pm.