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Backcountry corn snow skiing photos from Paradise on Mt. Rainier
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This is a gallery of Paradise corn snow skiing photos, Mt. Rainier. Thumbnail images on this page can be clicked to view the full-sized photos, and lead into a slide show sequence for the gallery. The photos are from a backcountry skiing trip to the Paradise area of Mt. Rainier in late November. A sunny day and wind-sheltered south slope allowed the rain crust to thaw just right to produce perfect corn snow skiing conditions.
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April corn snow in late November, Paradise, Mt. Rainier, November 30, 2003
(Click any photo to view large version)
Booting toward the corn field |
Walkable crust |
Sunny Mazama Ridge
and Unicorn Peak |
Charles skiing corn snow |
Matthaeus skiing corn snow |
Charles skiing corn snow |
Silas skiing corn snow |
Matthaeus sprays the corn |
Silas skiing corn snow |
Charles skiing corn snow |
Silas at end of 3rd run |
Matthaeus and Mt. Rainier |
Matthaeus on firmer snow |
Silas on firmer snow |
Heading back |
Photos by Silas Wild and Charles Eldridge
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Associated trip report:
Charles's Run, Time Travel, and Thanksgiving Leftovers
Sunday morning Charles, Silas and I, Matthaeus, drove up to Paradise to see what was "left over" of last week's powder. The welcome at the parking lot was very pleasant with blue sky and sun compared to the last two weekend trips. But the snow conditions did not look that way. The snow surface all over the place showed obvious signs of water interaction leaving channel patterns behind. Friday's rain created an icy crust up to 4 inches thick at the parking lot. So it did not look like great skiing at all. We skied down the Paradise loop road and hiked up at the 4th crossing trail heading towards the slopes above. Silas was the first to figure out that hiking with skies attached to the backpack would be the most efficient way. We hiked up almost three quarters up to the ridge above the road on very hard snow. Here we changed to travel further on skis and Silas faced some problems with his skis. Unfortunately only Charles and I got the pleasure to enjoy the first run in its entire length of 656 feet altitude difference.
Reunited at the bottom of "Charles's Run" we could not believed what perfect corn snow conditions we encountered at this east/southeast facing slope. Charles mentioned some "Time Travel" stuff skiing in November on April snow conditions. So it paid out for us to believe in solar power. The sun did a great job softening only the uppermost layer. So the crust was still strong enough to support our weight. But underneath it we find soft snow where Charles was able to push down the entire length of his approx. 53 inch ski pole at 5905 feet. During lunch Silas drew the attention of a crow with his "Thanksgiving Leftover" turkey drumstick. The crow became bold and bolder to pick up the remainings and finally succeded. So we did the third run in even more improving corn conditions.
Afterwards we headed over to the more west facing slopes above Paradise. Our intention was to ski down all the way to the car. On top of the ridge we came across some windblown patches. Charles saw to his surprise that there was not as much snow at the Muir Snowfield as he expected. We skied down again in great corn snow conditions. Down in the big bowl we tried to stay as high as possible to ski over to the car. This was the first time we encoutered icy crusty snow, not a real pleasure to ski on. Back in Seattle Silas invited us to a "Thanksgiving Leftover" dinner. So all in all there was not much powder left at all but the perfect corn snow conditions made it a great skiing day.
Matthaeus |
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