February 29, 2004, Wild Crystal BC
2/29/04
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2303
1
Silas dragged Suze, Yanna, and me to some lines he thought might be good in today's conditions. A fun moment of the day happened well before skiing - I'd hooked up with Silas and Suze through very separate channels, but it turns out they know each other but had not seen each other in many years. It was fun to see them meet again and catch up a bit.
We climbed through lots of crust of course but we started finding powder in tree shadows as we got up into the basin, and up higher there was nice snow more broadly but it was very aspect dependent. We did one mostly-clear line toward Union Creek, and though it was fun the snow seemed a bit thick and wind effected. Yanna and Suze decided that between the snow conditions and the steepness of the switchbacks (lots of them and not nice flat kick turns...) that were set yesterday (hey - can't complain though, we didn't decide to break a new trail...) they would head down to the Snorting Elk for a drink while Silas and I tried a slightly different aspect back down toward Union Creek. We threaded a nice line through yesterday's tracks and this time the snow was quite sweet - what a difference a short distance can make! No snow movement, and none reported by other skiers on the same aspect.
By the time we hit the ridge for the last time, the cloud was touching down so we skied in flat light in pretty nice snow back down to the lake, then did the fast slog out to where we enjoyed a frighteningly heaping mound of nachos and great microbrew on tap at the Snorting Elk.
We climbed through lots of crust of course but we started finding powder in tree shadows as we got up into the basin, and up higher there was nice snow more broadly but it was very aspect dependent. We did one mostly-clear line toward Union Creek, and though it was fun the snow seemed a bit thick and wind effected. Yanna and Suze decided that between the snow conditions and the steepness of the switchbacks (lots of them and not nice flat kick turns...) that were set yesterday (hey - can't complain though, we didn't decide to break a new trail...) they would head down to the Snorting Elk for a drink while Silas and I tried a slightly different aspect back down toward Union Creek. We threaded a nice line through yesterday's tracks and this time the snow was quite sweet - what a difference a short distance can make! No snow movement, and none reported by other skiers on the same aspect.
By the time we hit the ridge for the last time, the cloud was touching down so we skied in flat light in pretty nice snow back down to the lake, then did the fast slog out to where we enjoyed a frighteningly heaping mound of nachos and great microbrew on tap at the Snorting Elk.
Yeah I think I recognize that aspect. This is the slope into Union aiming at those small glades at the valley base, starting from the peak to lookers R of the low col on BB, right? The big party hit this slope and wasn't so hot at conserving the snow resource, they were all spread out and crisscrossing, so after we went down it once and saw them go down it in this manner we kind of gave up on the slope even tho it seemed possible (and you've confirmed) that there would have been lines in there if you found clear spots between all the tracks.
Maybe you were on the uptrack my brother set ;) He likes setting the track steep and taunting his hapless party-mates who have yet to master the euroturn.
Maybe you were on the uptrack my brother set ;) He likes setting the track steep and taunting his hapless party-mates who have yet to master the euroturn.
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