May 16, 2009, Paradise

Dave K. and I headed up the snowfield for some exercise, turns, and views. Left the lot at 8:30 (rangers were asking all-day users to park in the old visitor center parking lot to free up space for tourists. Mixed feelings about it, myself) and headed up easily skinnable crust. Set a new personal record for my time up to Muir, while Dave took it easy. Zipped down soft  protocorn a little after 11 to Pan Point. Folks booting up were going in to the knee, with ~50 people on the slope. Found a safe-ish way down, then a different safe way up.  Skinned up mushy corn back to Muir and descended with Dave. Corn 'o clock was probably noon-1. Afternoon descent was variable but good. Pan Face was strangely consolidated but very soft goo - would've been unpleasant to climb.

Some sizeable slabs had ripped out (see extreme left of JoshH photo), mostly on SE aspects, and a big cornice failed into Edith Creek Basin. Big sluffs ran on the E side of the Nisqually downstream of the chutes. On the plus side for stability, saw ~9 folks ski the Chutes in late afternoon, including some non-trivial cornice hucking, with only tiny sluffs as a result. YMMV. Hot out, hotter tomorrow. Random sampling of non-summiting climbers reported deep snow/wind on both the ledges and gap related routes.