September 1, 2002, Mt. Rainier

According to Ron's GPS, again we skied in the lower Paradise Glacier area. I wouldn't have known otherwise in the foggy conditions. Cooler weather this time so the suncups were harder and chattery. The one good slope, west facing up to Cowlitz Rocks, was creamier. Been a lot of talk lately of crop circles but little mention of the mysterious linked snow semi-circles. We always run into these phenomena and suspect alien involvement. This time Charles solved the puzzle as he found clear proof of the mischevious culprits' identity written in the snow: "ANDY.REGINE 9.1.02".

Conditions up there are starting to deteriorate with stream caves opening up and longer carry overs. Lets hope new snow is on the way soon. Freezing level is going down to 6000' this week.

One further note: I got news that Bronka Sundstrum summited Rainier on Sat., Aug 31st. This makes her the oldest woman to summit Mt. Rainier, at age 77. She did it in one day! Started at 9am from Paradise and was on the summit around 6pm!!!!! Monday morning Tacoma Tribune has the full story here.


There are photos from this trip at Turns-All-Year and Wild Hearts Skiing.

Robie