November 30, 2003, Muir Snowfield
11/30/03
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4677
5
Took advantage of the nice weather in the hopes of getting above the rain crust. We did, somewhere above pan point, but of course the snow was fairly wind-hammered and variable. Powdery in spots I suppose. Best described as "variable". Much better than the crusty crap from pan point on down though. Got to 9000ft before my friend came down with a little AMS? - the snow didn't seem to be getting any better the higher we went, so I was fine with descending from there.
Very breezy lower down (especially in the parking lot), but not so bad higher up on the snowfield.
Saw several fracture lines on east-facing slopes on the other side of the Nisqually.
Very breezy lower down (especially in the parking lot), but not so bad higher up on the snowfield.
Saw several fracture lines on east-facing slopes on the other side of the Nisqually.
I was hoping that there would be a report from the Muir. We stayed down in Edith Cr area to harvest November corn (TR on its way), but topped out near Golden Gates for our last run and got a look at the Muir around Anvil Rock. It looked like there was a lot of old dirty snow showing between the bands of new snow - it that what it was actually like or was that just an illusion? The whole area above 7K looked pretty wind-blasted.
Just an illusion I guess - it was all new snow, although there were a few ice patches next to the rock fields.
second hand info, a friend of mine snowshoed out to Cowlitz Rocks on Sunday, didn't bring his boards cause he figured everything would be breakable crust, but he said that the upper paradise glacier looked to be evenly covered in good packed powder, no crust at the elevation of Cowltiz rocks, and little deformation from wind on the glacier. Could've been a good destination to ski this weekend. I tried to find something decent around Herman Saddle on saturday...breakable crust and zero visibility...yuck.
Four of us followed your snowshoe friends till about 1000yrds north of creek crossing just before the ice caves . Crust was getting thinner dropping from 6" to 1/2". Underlying snow at that point was still unconsolidated. We just didn't think it was goiing to be any better so We turned around and skied back on the "Unbreakable noisy crust"
My friend dropped a ski twice on pan point. It was a bad day for dropping skis. Once it just slid down into a shallow basin. The second time it disappeared over the "edge" of pan point (somewhere between pebble creek and pan face), off toward the Nisqually. I thought it was a goner. Somehow it got hung up on a tree just before going off the cliff.
Lower down, a snowboarder lost her grip on her board somewhere between glacier vista and alta vista. It went an amazing distance considering the flattish terrain around there. It followed the bootpack a couple hundred yards on the "noisy crust" to where it rises slightly to get around alta vista. Then it turned right and descended into the basin (that leads to the visitor center I think) before coming to a rest.
Lower down, a snowboarder lost her grip on her board somewhere between glacier vista and alta vista. It went an amazing distance considering the flattish terrain around there. It followed the bootpack a couple hundred yards on the "noisy crust" to where it rises slightly to get around alta vista. Then it turned right and descended into the basin (that leads to the visitor center I think) before coming to a rest.
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