January 31, 2009, Mt. Rainier, Mazama Bowl
1/31/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2280
1
ScottK and I headed down to Rainier today. Expecting poor snow conditions, we planned on climbing Eagle Peak but when we drove in and saw lots of sun up over Paradise we drove on up and opted to ski around on Mazama Ridge instead. The gate was open before we arrived 8:45AM.
The ski up to the ridge was a harbinger of things to come... a thin crust over softer, packed powder. Once on the ridge, we dropped into the bowl on a lower angle east facing slope and found similar snow as on the way up. It skied pretty well. We then cut across the base of the bowl and looked at some of the south facing aspects. After out pit showed pretty good stability (the top one inch sheared easily but the next layer of consolidated snow going down 18 inches to a hard, icy layer, took a lot of effort to get it to fail), we skied a less steep south facing slope and found it to be fairly unpleasant... either an icy surface or more difficult crust than earlier in the day.
We then skied across to the other side of the basin to try the north facing slopes that were down at the east end of the basin. Here we found the best snow of the day. A thin crust that easily gave way on top of some packed powder. We ended up yo-yo-ing the slope 5 times on different runs, finding nice stuff each time.
Sun hit all south, east west facing slopes all morning before the clouds came in but temps stayed pretty cold. Some light snow falling in the afternoon but not much accumulation. Winds weren't too heavy. North facing slopes are likely the best bets right now up there, but it sounds as if even the Tatoosh were not very good: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=12125.0
The ski up to the ridge was a harbinger of things to come... a thin crust over softer, packed powder. Once on the ridge, we dropped into the bowl on a lower angle east facing slope and found similar snow as on the way up. It skied pretty well. We then cut across the base of the bowl and looked at some of the south facing aspects. After out pit showed pretty good stability (the top one inch sheared easily but the next layer of consolidated snow going down 18 inches to a hard, icy layer, took a lot of effort to get it to fail), we skied a less steep south facing slope and found it to be fairly unpleasant... either an icy surface or more difficult crust than earlier in the day.
We then skied across to the other side of the basin to try the north facing slopes that were down at the east end of the basin. Here we found the best snow of the day. A thin crust that easily gave way on top of some packed powder. We ended up yo-yo-ing the slope 5 times on different runs, finding nice stuff each time.
Sun hit all south, east west facing slopes all morning before the clouds came in but temps stayed pretty cold. Some light snow falling in the afternoon but not much accumulation. Winds weren't too heavy. North facing slopes are likely the best bets right now up there, but it sounds as if even the Tatoosh were not very good: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=12125.0
Pretty decent day yesterday. Here's some photos before the clouds rolled in during the afternoon.
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