I took Veteran's Day off and got lucky with a fine weather window. After being cloudy and rainy for several days, we had a brief clearing and low wind forecast for Monday. John and I rallied to Rainer where we could skin right from Paradise. We set out at 10:30 and skinned right up to pan point, where we had to shed the skis to get around some exposed rock. Back on the skins a few hundred feet later and we went right up to Muir. Almost no wind until about 9,000', and gorgeous skies as you can see from the photo (that's Adams in the background). A little water ice had formed on top of the snow near the top and I destroyed one crampon, but we still made it up there by 2. The ski down started icy, with scraping heard far and wide. About 2000' down we were rewarded with some corn and decent turns.
Back at the car (and an ice-cold beer) by 3 and home in time for dinner! Fabulous day.
