January 17, 2004, Mt Rainier - Paradise

After a bluebird day at Crystal yesterday and with the recent forcast I thought today would be so so.  Boy I am glad I woke.  Arrived at the Longmire gate at 8:30 am and got second in line.  Gate opened within 10 minutes.  By 9:15 am I was past the sledding area and on my way up.  The snowshoe up was easy cause of the highway.  The snow showed signs of being rained on sometime before.  Once I reached the base of Pan Pt. everything was ice.  I saw two skiers (alpines/randonee set up) trying skin up.  It looked tough.  I ended making a straight line to the top.  Was a little sketch in snowshoes but it's equiped with cramp-ons.  At the top I changed into my real cramp-ons.  Was really nasty from top of Pan to Pebble Creek.  There were spots of wind blown but mostly ice.  After that I was skeptical.  Snow looked wind etched all the way up.  But thanks to the sun for beating on it all day.  The snow was actually in good condition.  I stopped around 2 pm and ended up just under Anvil Rock.  Took a little break and I was off.  Snow was great!  Felt like carving butter.  Ended up riding either side of the ripples that the recent winds had created.  Snow was smoother in some places and awkward in others.  Then shortly after passing McClure Rock I was riding on ice and trying to find those small ribbons of wind blown.  I ended up dropping in off of Pan Pt. just left of the trail going up.  Was flat light and icy.  Made for a real good combo.  I ended up slide slipping the icy sections and eventually found a nice strip of wind blown down.  The rest, well there's nothing really to tell.  Ended up almost straight lining it to the car.  Still a great day!  Around 9000 - 7500ft of goods and from 7500 to parking lot was work.  I saw a lot of late starters.  By the time I got to the car things looked socked in.  On the way down I ended up passing a grip of boy scouts building some snow caves.  One looked like it was 2 story.