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Aug 19 Muir Snowfield

8/15/08
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4003
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Posted by Jonathan_S. on 8/19/08 12:20pm
Skied about 3,000 continuous vert from Camp Muir to Pebble Creek today (Tuesday).
Snow conditions ranged from somewhat pleasant to mainly fair, but only a few truly poor sections.
Weather conditions included sunny, clear, overcast, undercast, misty, rain, ice pellets, and snow (which helped bring about the somewhat pleasant snow conditions).
Saw about three or four . . . well, what are they exactly, true crevasses, or just glide cracks?  And does that distinction really matter?
Well, whatever they are, saw about three of four of them, and one was large enough to swallow up a climber/hiker, although not a skier.
Also saw about 100 guided climbers -- so crowded in some places that I stopped paying attention to the boot tracks, GPS, and memory, instead just skiing from one large group to another like they were cairns.
So you got fresh in August!?!?  If so, congrats on that!  I'm not really certain if these are the actual definitions, but I've always thought that glide cracks form on snowfields, usually near rock, where the snow melts away and crevasses are the splits in glacier ice due to stress in the convexity of the glacier as it runs over various features in the landscape - not to be confused with bergschrunds which are the enormous cavities formed from the glacier pulling away from a massive headwall - but as you eluded to, none of which I would be keen of falling into.  That's a proud amount of vert!  Nice work and lucky you having colorful "carins" mark the route down!  Now my question is there a distinction between "carins" and "bowling pins"? ;)

Thanks, that certainly makes sense.
I should add that part of my interest stems from the massive crevasses we get back east in Tuckerman Ravine each spring, which are technically glide cracks (but neverthless are massive, and also massively dangerous).
As for the ski conditions, I wouldn't quite call it a powder day, but the new snow definitely helped.
(Meanwhile, steady rain here at Whittaker's as I try to finish up some work with the laptop on the porch before heading back to Longmire to be greeted by my wife's chorus of "I was so worried about you...")

Thanks for the report!  I'll be looking in that area this weekend for my August turns.

a few pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jshefftz/20080819Muir

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aug-19-muir-snowfield
Jonathan_S.
2008-08-19 19:20:11