May 9, 2009, Muir

Fine weather and plenty of people to share it with. Tim, newcomers Mary and  Bill and I found a few parking places left at the upper Paradise lot at 10 am. There must have been at least 150 skiers, boarders, snowshoers and hikers between Paradise and Camp Muir. We did not see any evidence of the instabilities predicted for the weekend and seen at other locales today. There was a single large debris tongue off the east side of the Tatoosh ridge but nothing else visible. Somehow I thought there had been big dumpage at Paradise this week (didn't telemetry show 22" new?) but if there was it has firmed up quickly. We found 2-3" of almost-corn on a firm base up high and 8-10" of soft wet snow at and below Pan Point late afternoon. We didn't find any breakable crust. Late afternoon clouds helped keep the temps reasonable.