June 26, 2009, MRNP Paradise Glacier.

A few weeks ago, some friends contacted me about trying to hook up to do a quick ski tour up to Camp Muir.  I love MRNP and was excited to show my friends around my neck of the mountains.   We got a late start arriving at the parking lot at Paradise at about 10:30.  We were promptly told by a ranger that when we were done gearing up to park our cars down along the paradise valley road.  Unfortunately we were told after we had our ski boots on.  Driving a 5speed in ski boots was a bit sketchy!  The weather was predicted to be possibly rainy but we did not encounter any significant precip the whole day.  In fact is was warm and sunny the whole way apart from the typical intermittent low clouds that come up the Nisqually valley and roll over the Muir snowfield.  We were able to stay on skis from the parking lot up to pan point where we were forced to take the climbers trail.  The skis stayed off until we crossed pebble creek.  We were able to stay on snow up to just above McClure Rock, where we had a 30ft carry over to hit the paradise glacier.  We continued up the paradise glacier up to little Africa where we stopped for a snack.  I have been struggling with getting a new pair of boots (scarpa matrix) broken in, and they were not co-operating.  Checking my feet I found two 1/2 dollar sized blisters on the medial side of my heels.  (If anyone has any ideas on how to get the scarpa Intuition liners to fit better let me know...I have already baked them twice.)  I decided to let my friends head on up to Muir and I would take a nap.  It was surprisingly warm out of the wind even at that elevation.  My friends returned in about 2 hours and we started to head down.  We decided to stay on the paradise glacier and head down as far as possible without taking the skis off.  The snow was perfect corn!  We hit one carry over just below McClure Rock and one again at the headwall on the east side of Edith Basin.  Both were short 70ft on one 20ft on the other.  We were able to ski down the basin all the way back to the parking lot without taking off the skis.  All in all a great trip!  For those that like a little more wilderness feel to their trip (opposed to the pack train on the Muir snowfield) I would highly recommend the paradise glacier route.  Nice views and a great ski!