November 23, 2003, Paradise - MRNP
11/23/03
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3158
4
With 46" of snow on the ground, Paradise beckoned Stefan, Jerry, Matthaus and yours truly. We arrived to overcast skies and so-so visibility after we were allowed passage at Longmire at 0900 as advertised.
New season backslaps and handshakes were exchanged with the legendary Brent Hostleter and his partner John, who we fell into step with as we skinned away from the parking lot. Having our own designs for fresh tracks, we peeled away from the main skin track below Alta Vista to break fresh trail. With a snowpack that allowed thigh deep foot penetration we were quite fortunate to have a young strong splitboarder along with a great attitude, who immediately insisted on breaking trail. Can't beat a splitboard trailbreaker if he or she can hold up, and that's exactly what Stefan did.
At about 5900 Brent and John decided to split off and head for Edith, while the rest of us chose to update our perceptions of the snowpack to date, with a hasty pit to the ground.
The snopack turned out to be about 120 cm total in thickness on an an east aspect with about a 30 degree pitch. With the exception of the top 3-4 cm which appeared to have fallen overnight, the top 30 cm was about a 4 finger hardness followed by a 1 finger hardness down to the first rain crust at 55 cm, which was of pencil hardness at the top but rotten and crumbly (no more than a 1 finger hardness) by it's bottom at 45 cm. Another thin crust (knife hardness) was encountered at 30 cm above the ground.
the upper crust was strong enough to walk on and support the reasonably well bonded snow above it. I believe it is worth watching though, due to the weak layer below and the ice layer below that, until the snowpack gains more depth, consolidation and strength to bridge any weaknesses developing below the rain crusts.
With our wallowing in the snow out of the way, we knocked out a couple of laps down "Jerry's Run" and another down "Corkscrew" with Stefan again breaking superhighway uptracks for us.
Jerry won photographer of the day with Stephan coming in a close second. Jerry's best photo was one of just Stefan's head and shoulders sticking out of a snow plume:
Additional shots are at:
http://community.webshots.com/album/101606222RAZSvj
and
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/paradise112303.msnw
New season backslaps and handshakes were exchanged with the legendary Brent Hostleter and his partner John, who we fell into step with as we skinned away from the parking lot. Having our own designs for fresh tracks, we peeled away from the main skin track below Alta Vista to break fresh trail. With a snowpack that allowed thigh deep foot penetration we were quite fortunate to have a young strong splitboarder along with a great attitude, who immediately insisted on breaking trail. Can't beat a splitboard trailbreaker if he or she can hold up, and that's exactly what Stefan did.
At about 5900 Brent and John decided to split off and head for Edith, while the rest of us chose to update our perceptions of the snowpack to date, with a hasty pit to the ground.
The snopack turned out to be about 120 cm total in thickness on an an east aspect with about a 30 degree pitch. With the exception of the top 3-4 cm which appeared to have fallen overnight, the top 30 cm was about a 4 finger hardness followed by a 1 finger hardness down to the first rain crust at 55 cm, which was of pencil hardness at the top but rotten and crumbly (no more than a 1 finger hardness) by it's bottom at 45 cm. Another thin crust (knife hardness) was encountered at 30 cm above the ground.
the upper crust was strong enough to walk on and support the reasonably well bonded snow above it. I believe it is worth watching though, due to the weak layer below and the ice layer below that, until the snowpack gains more depth, consolidation and strength to bridge any weaknesses developing below the rain crusts.
With our wallowing in the snow out of the way, we knocked out a couple of laps down "Jerry's Run" and another down "Corkscrew" with Stefan again breaking superhighway uptracks for us.
Jerry won photographer of the day with Stephan coming in a close second. Jerry's best photo was one of just Stefan's head and shoulders sticking out of a snow plume:
Additional shots are at:
http://community.webshots.com/album/101606222RAZSvj
and
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/paradise112303.msnw
We just missed you (by an hour ;D we slept in), then headed back to Mazama to do 9-11 and the sister slope to west (the steep South-facing slopes above the back bowl of Mazama); the day before (in 11-18 degrees F weather) we did 6 runs down the west-facing slope of Mazama + 1 down the back bowl. On Thursday, I skied alone and broke trail in 21 inches of new snow from the parking lot to the top of Mazama, skied down once and back to the car, took 3 1/2 hours and the parking lot was empty--they had closed the road cuz of bad weather! Ranger Karen had left the combo to the gate lock on my truck, but she still waited at Cougar Rock to make sure I made it out. abc
Yeah, that's the one.
Lemme see if I can stick it in the tr above...
WooHoo... Got it :D
Lemme see if I can stick it in the tr above...
WooHoo... Got it :D
Hola from Puerto Vallarta! Great photos!!! Sure is nice to see all that snow at Paradise. Looking forward to being back in town and skiing soon. It's way to hot for snow here ;D
Happy Thanksgiving to all. 8)
Happy Thanksgiving to all. 8)
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