October 22, 2008, Muir, Paradise Glacier

Combination of less than 48 hour old new snow and what was going to be an almost summerlike day up high was too much to resist. Snow on trail pretty much from parking lot but not skiable, just not enough. The way the damn trails are built there (cut into ground, those big flat uptilted rocks along the edges) makes the DEEPEST snow drift right into the trail though. Then, because it was warm, the trails became these slush wallows even though in some cases the snow on either side of trail had already melted off. Sort of annoying, got wet feet on way up and on way down just wore the ski boots and stomped through.

Start of skinning just a bit past Pebble Ck crossing and continuous from there. Nice warm day but not too warm, one thin longsleeve layer on top was perfect. Early forecasts had said might be "breezy" and could see that wind whipping on high mountain but really pretty benign on the snowfield. Picked up a little above 9500 though.

A pretty quiet day up there, saw one other tele one other fixed heel and .... this guy:

Pretty wild. The wind was pretty gusty so he wasn't having an easy time.

Pic below gives you an impression of how nicely smoothed out the upper snowfield is now:


There were about half dozen tracks on Muir SF but I decided I wanted "first tracks" on the PG. So went to Anvil Rock and down the somewhat off fall line that takes you onto PG.

Very top was just a bit windcrusted but manageable.
The main part of PG actually had less new snow than the Muir SF. Skied well though, sort of a softened windboard.

Worked my way over to the "Edge" then to near McClure where the crevasses above headwall started to get too close for comfort, then shouldered skis and cut back to the little snowfield leading toward Pebble Creek. The snow here was actually a lot nicer than on the PG, that sort of "mousse" stuff that is wet snow that the cool air has dried out a little. Might have been that going PG today was not the run of choice for snow quality, oh well. To make up for it I lapped the little patch, even though it was already 4:30.
Beautiful evening light. Not sure I've ever done a Muir trip where I deliberately stayed so late, but the snow and the temps were both so nice that there was no hurry in leaving.