Sarah gets her sunrise on at about 7,300 feet.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, but I hadn’t gone to Bishop with my boys like I was supposed to due to the fact that I had an in-town obligation for the day before. I canceled my vacation and decided I’d have a holiday on my terms for once. Basically, I’d planned to wake up late, cook something, hit a bar for a beer and watch a football game and then hopefully hit a late movie. Check, check, check, check and check. I still had three days off.

Oh, what to do…

…mountains?

Yes!

Just out of Paradise Saturday.

Sarah and I decided we would beta test our winter gear with a ballsy romp ’shoeing as high up Rainier as we could get. It turned out to be the finest fluff of the year so far. Since they don’t open the road to Paradise until the plows are done at 10am, we didn’t get the alpine start we should have had, but we weren’t going far – we didn’t need to go far to find the gnar. We left paradise on snowshoes about 11:30 and started breaking fresh powder in whiteout conditions. I’d been here more than 100 times so I knew landmarks and terrain when we could see it. As we got higher, the conditions got worse, the wind blew harder and visibility just plain went away.

On top of Panorama Point kicking steps with our 'shoes and bearing the tough wind.

Above Panorama point, we were cold, tired and it was getting close to time that we found a bivi site for the night. Just at McClure Rock we decided to find a shelter. We dug out a huge drift on the lee side of the small ridge directly below McClure; it took about an hour to dig the perfect shelter and set up the bivi. The site was great and really sheltered us from the wind.

Starting the shelter dig. Perfect spot if you ask me.

Celebratory PBR after the bivi was complete. Now, that's how you keep a beer cold! (this photo is for Micah)

We hunkered down to be tentbound for a while and began eating the Thanksgiving feast we hauled up there. Cold turkey with cold dressing, potatoes and homemade pecan pie. Really a fitting feast!

Thanksgiving at altitude.

After dinner we really hunkered for a long (13 hours) night of very broken and very cold sleep. We woke up on average, I’d say, every 30 to 60 minutes from the cold, discomfort or from the sounds of shattering glaciers and avalanches. It was a long night. We did manage to pop out of the tent at around 2 am into sub-20 degree temps to see that the storm had passed, the skies were clear and the nearly full moon was illuminating a few contrails and the cold, snowy landscape in it’s characteristic eerie blue glow. Amazing to be here again after so much time away. Back to bed for now.

Good morning, bivi. I love you.

At around 6am we punched the rest of the snow off the tent and scampered out into the early pre-sunrise glow. I bet it’s clear, I bet it’s clear! Oh god, let it be clear! is all I could think, It was clear – and beautiful – and cold. And the views were still as great as they’ve always been from up here.

Good morning, sun. I love you too. On top of a new foot of fresh.

We got up and were struck with the most amazing sunrise. The temps were in the teens, but the brilliant views over the cloud layer made up for the chill. The clouds gave us little peeks of the Tatoosh, Adams, St. Helens and even Hood. Amazing as it always is up here.

Morning views, hundreds of miles to the south.

We stood in awe for about an hour, broke the bivi and decided that we’d hump back down instead of going up to Camp Muir due to the shortened daylight of winter, and there was hot chocolate waiting for us down there.

Up from Pebble Creek towards the top of Panorama Point again. We were glad to see the mountain.

This trip was a great trial run for Sarah and I to gear up for the next 6 months of winter outings. Sorry, Sarah that I don’t ski – perhaps I’ll learn soon enough. Thanks for taking such great photos too, virtually all the image credits go to Sarah.