April 26. Nisqually Chute to Bridge
4/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4042
10
Not hoping for much PNW Brit and I made plans for Paradise.
At 6.45 am ,I looked at the Paradise webcam and it showed clear skies. Game on.!
Got to Paradise at 10:00 am and after saying hello to Stugie and Brad we made a beeline for the chute.
About 50 yards from the entrance a splitboarder ( John , a Crystal regular) dropped in from above and asked if we where skiing to the bridge and could he join us. We said yes but he had to drop in first( I ain't stupid).
As we had been climbing, clouds has started to fill the valley bottom but by pure dumb luck, just a we dropped in the whole valley cleared and we skied the entire route in sunshine.
2" of new on top of a very icy surface skied really nice and no sloughing.
The lower apron was terrific.
We skied skier's left of the river and passed over large wet slides from the cliffs above that looked a couple of days old. However I would not recommend being there late in the day.
By the time we had regrouped at the bridge the clouds had started to descend on Paradise and the chute became obscured.
Great day, we got lucky with a short window of clear weather.
At 6.45 am ,I looked at the Paradise webcam and it showed clear skies. Game on.!
Got to Paradise at 10:00 am and after saying hello to Stugie and Brad we made a beeline for the chute.
About 50 yards from the entrance a splitboarder ( John , a Crystal regular) dropped in from above and asked if we where skiing to the bridge and could he join us. We said yes but he had to drop in first( I ain't stupid).
As we had been climbing, clouds has started to fill the valley bottom but by pure dumb luck, just a we dropped in the whole valley cleared and we skied the entire route in sunshine.
2" of new on top of a very icy surface skied really nice and no sloughing.
The lower apron was terrific.
We skied skier's left of the river and passed over large wet slides from the cliffs above that looked a couple of days old. However I would not recommend being there late in the day.
By the time we had regrouped at the bridge the clouds had started to descend on Paradise and the chute became obscured.
Great day, we got lucky with a short window of clear weather.
Here's a pic.
author=Scotsman link=topic=13134.msg54725#msg54725 date=1240793618]
Great day
Yep.
Chris ,a good day like that sure makes one forget Saturday's conditions.
Thanks for the Nisqually update.
Thanks for the Nisqually update.
author=Scotsman link=topic=13134.msg54725#msg54725 date=1240793618]...
after saying hello to Stugie and Brad
Those wild and crazy guys! They were supposed to be on Mt. St Helens!
Thanks for the info Scotty. Glad you had a good day!
author=Rusty Knees link=topic=13134.msg54736#msg54736 date=1240802264]
...
Those wild and crazy guys! They were supposed to be on Mt. St Helens!
Thanks for the info Scotty. Glad you had a good day!
They where having a good time in the parking lot! ;) and that was before any skiing got done!
Oh to be young again with the constitution of an ox.
Nice to meet you at panorama pt..I was the Teli skier that joked about Scotts accents. Continued to Muir and had great soft snow in the mid snowfields. My companions were not up for the Nisqually. Got totally whited out in fog on the descent above the lower bowl. Would have been hairy in the valley-zero vis! You lucked out on the timing.
Scotty and PNWbrit- glad you guys got out there before the melt out got too bad. I wonder if you had any issues with coverage close to the bridge?
Chris
Chris
It was decent coverage near the bridge. Sketchy part is the traverse from the snout to the river plain. You have to cross several slide paths that have run deep and starting to scour down to dirt. Not too bad. Should be OK for a while. Some other guys dropped from Glacier Vista and we watched them come down skier's right side of river so both are Ok but climb out from skier's right side a little more bushwack up to the bridge.
author=Scotsman link=topic=13134.msg54738#msg54738 date=1240803194]
Oh to be young again with the constitution of an ox.
I don't resent that. ;)
We dropped in to the N. Chute with good vis down into the valley, but we noticed some clouds sweeping up the mountain. About 1/4 of the way down the chute proper, we were in a complete whiteout. We sat for near an hour and a half trying to lure the sun out with singing. I guess we're sucky singers. Although the snow was really tempting and we wanted to wait it out, we opted for the bootpack back out of the chute and the safer route down our ascent route, rather than navigating the snout in a whiteout. Although there were good whiteout conditions, the snow was PERFECT! Can't complain about the views we had the whole way up either. Nice work nailing it...after seeing St. Helens we were kicking ourselves...besides you three, there were only like 2 other tracks through the chute.
Nice timing, Chris. On Saturday it looked like this (or worse) pretty much all day:
I was pretty sure I found the entrance to the chute, and dropped part of the way in, but my partners wouldn't bite. Succumbed to a bad case of vertigo before skiing VERY slowly back to Paradise . . .
I was pretty sure I found the entrance to the chute, and dropped part of the way in, but my partners wouldn't bite. Succumbed to a bad case of vertigo before skiing VERY slowly back to Paradise . . .
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