Muir Snowfield

My friend Chris is from Hong Kong.  He said that he wanted to see Mt. Rainier, so I thought we would go there.  We went to Paradise and we were planning on hiking as far up the Muir Snowfield as time allowed.   Te weather was mostly clear so I was pretty sure it was the perfect day for it.  Chris had class though.  So, we didn't get to head out until 1 PM.  Which means we didn't even get to the trailhead until 3:30-ish.  I figured we could still make it a ways up.  I forgot that Chris is a smoker.  The first picture illustrates this phenomenon nicely.  It's a small picture, but yep, on the knees.  Pretty good motivation to quit smoking.

--"Mountains out"
--Chris enjoying a well deserved view
--We decided to call it good at Panorama Pt.  It was already around 6 o'clock and the clouds were rolling back in.  I decided to head up towards McClure Rock while Chris rested.  I ran up to where the trail gave way to the snowfield, and saw this cool rock here.
--after I walked around the edge of this rock to take a few shots, I found the rock that most closely resembled a chair and enjoyed view in the pic below by myself for awhile.
--Hesitantly, I got up to turn back.  I was sad until I saw the view that I would be enjoying on the way back down.
--I gotta put at least one cheeser pic in here
--Marmots have it made

--I had to give this one a dollar so he would let me pass

--Tatoosh and the way home.  Why is this blue?