January 25, 2004, Paradise, Mt. Rainier

Ron and I have been tied up for the past few weekends with fieldtrips and teaching seminars, so we finally got a chance to go out and play ;D Met Jerry and Angus in Eatonville at the Tall Timbers for breakfast. (One of the best breakfast places around), called the park service and found out the gate was opening at 10:00. As usual it was the Longmire waiting game, with the time changing to 11:00 and then 11:15. Met up with Gary Vogt and had a nice game of Frizbee at Longmire until the gate finally opened. It was a social gathering of sorts, running into Dave Cline and friends and Snoslut. Once the gate opened, we headed to Paradise on compact snow and ice, finding very windy conditions and 21 degrees at the Paradise Parking. Our plan was to skin to the top of Alta Vista and practice some ski cutting techniques, and then enjoy all the new snow that had fallen overnight. The Paradise phone recording said 4 inches and the telemetry 12 inches, but then again we were also told the gate was going to open at 10:00. ;) Lots of freshies covered a very solid base. The ridgeline of Alta Vista was wind scoured in some areas and deep wind transported snow in other areas. We decided to change our plans since the wind was so strong and instead skied down into the comfort of the trees, finding some of the best snow so far. We skied our hearts out on stable slopes and enjoyed first tracks on all our runs. We returned to the car by 4:30 p.m. having turned our bushel of lemons into some very fine lemonade.

"A clever skier will often find an oasis of good snow while the rest of the party -- within a few yards of him -- are struggling with the crust." (Sir Arnold Lunn) 8)

Ron and Jerry took some pictures and hopefully they will post a link.