February 22, 2004, Paradise - Mazama Area

Pulled into the Paradise parking lot around 9ish and met up with some of my skier and boarder friends.  I was sketch on how snow conditions would be.  On the way up I saw Sag at the bridge in the process of scoping out runs into the Nisqually.  How was the skiing?  On the way home I did see some skin or boot tracks?.  Hope you found some spring conditions.

Anyway we did our first run off the front side of Mazama Ridge.  The road leading down to the bridge was hard packed and made the ride down alot faster.  We rode a westerly facing chute, that was pretty much untracked, back to the road.  Snow here was spring like.  First inch or so was the crust that we had feared.  Crust was hard in some places and already soft in others.  Underneath was the consolidating snow that had fallen previously.  The depth of that layer varied from pole testing.  Anywhere from a few inches to a foot or more depending on location.  By this time the snow had really started to warm up.  Made for some tricky sections (trap crust) just before reaching the road, especially for our skier friends.  

For our second run I had scoped a hill adjacent to Mazama Ridge (Bundy's Blunder?).  Only had few lines on it with room for plenty more and it was steeper.  Anyways my ski buds opted to stay on Mazama and the rest of us humped it out to the top of this other hill.  Felt like 1000vf.  From the top we had a good view of the chutes from the Golden Gate area.  Lots of wet sluff activity on west facing slopes here and especially on steeps that were rock or tree lined regardless of aspect.  An effort was made to stay clear of these areas.  The slope we attacked was southerly facing with some rollers and trees.   The pitch was mellow (about 20-25 degrees) on top and dropped off (around 30-35 degrees at it's steepest) before the slope died then turn around time.  Around noon it felt like it was 40 degrees but I am sure it was colder.  The snow was like carving in butter.  Also by this time 3 snowboarders without snowshoes were attemping to climb the hill we just had.  Looked tough as they posted holes.

By the time we had gotten back up to the top I noticed more and more lines coming off Golden Gate.  Still there were freshies all over the place and that's how it ended.  Good weather, spring like snow conditions where we were, friends, and 3 lines for each of us that we could all hang our hats on. ;D