4-3-09 Nisqually Fear and Loathing

Found myself suffering from cabin fever since the Longmire gate has remained closed for the past six days.  This closure was understandable, even mostly justified, given the tremendous recent snowfalls, but Mt. Rainier still has communication problems.  Thursday's phone message said maybe open at noon, call back for an update.  The road did not open, but the message was not updated.  Early this morning, the message again said maybe at noon, but was revised to "closed due to heavy overnight snowfall".  This didn't seem very honest since the telemetry recorded only two inches since the webcams had shown the plows in the Paradise lot early Thursday afternoon.  Typical of this mickey mouse outfit, but at least I was able to switch to pattern-based skis, looking for some exercise on the trails above Longmire.

I don't normally post TRs of my camera-less 'meadowskipper' outings, and today promised to be even tamer than most. Since Fridays are often slow on TAY, I thought some folks might find my misadventure amusing and/or instructive.

Figuring that the Eagle Peak and Rampart trails would be be tough trail breaking for a solo geezer, I headed up the Wonderland toward Cougar Rock.  A couple inches of mush on crust made for fast travel as far as the campground.  The Nisqually River footlogs have been washed out since the Fall floods, but inspired by Ranger Stefan's earlier 'Grand Randonee' tour from Ingraham Flats to Longmire, I decided to push on up the valley as far as Glacier Bridge.

Found pretty nice powder in the strip of trees between the plowed road and the river bluffs, then an easy descent back to the extensive gravel bars, where there was up to a foot of a very sticky snow-like substance on a breakable styrofoam crust.  At first glance, there appeared to be many skiable crossings of Van Trump Creek, but each place I tried turned out to have sketchy thin ice.  I continued up this tributary, looking for a better crossing, then decided to try to reach a view of Christine Falls.  A bend or two below my new goal, a boulder about 3' in diameter released from the vertical gravel bank just a few feet in front of my skis.  Looking ahead at the narrowing gorge choked with huge blowdowns, I took this as an omen, and retreated back to the Nisqually confluence.

A closer look revealed several potential crossings to the east bank of the Nisqually.  I rejected several large snowy logs before choosing what appeared to be a substantial snowbridge of old avy debris.  Turned out to be a jackstraw pile of limby small logs hidden beneath the plastering sticky substance, but I didn't realize this until my skis broke through and I was sitting several feet above the river with one ski trapped beneath the tangle!  Just dumb luck I didn't break a leg or worse...

Seemed like I was suddenly in some 'Jackass' audition as I contemplated my next move.  I could just reach the release lever of the pin binding with one hand, but that would likely result in my foam core ski floating downstream.  I was finally able to work a pole strap over the ski tip and carefully, oh so carefully, fish the hanging ski back out of the tangle.  A few minutes of cursing & thrashing and I crawled back onto terra firma - the more firma, the less terra for sure!  A good lesson and no fool like an old fool, eh?