September 7, Muir Snowfield
9/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4303
5
Chris (skierlyes) and I met Nick (velillen) up at Paradise and headed up the skyline trail for Muir, intent on finding some good snow to lap. Started seeing traces of snow at 6k as predicted. The depths steadily increased until we were postholing (with grins on our faces) above Panorama Point. Snow was probably a foot deep until Pebble Creek, and then deeper above. It had a rain or sun crust on it until about 8k, when it became pleasantly-smooth wind slab with some dust on top. We ran several laps of a few hundred VF from the anvil rock vicinity until the angle lessened and it was great! We generally were able to wait for a hole in the clouds to open so that we could ski knowing which direction was down.
I caught a glimpse through the clouds at the Paradise Glacier for about 10 seconds at one point--looked like the main body of the glacier was largely stripped by the wind down to dirty summer snow/firn, however its western margin was nicely filled by the drifting snow and could be a fun run when it corns up later this week. I also imagine the upper mountain will have some dangerous avalanche conditions for some time, since we were basically skiing on one giant windslab on the snowfield, although the bond to the older snow (observed in places that had thinner cover, so the sun may have already had a chance to work on it) seemed to be o.k.
For the hike down, the visibility opened up yet again and we enjoyed a fantastic walk back down to the land of the green and growing from our stay in the land of snow and rock. The only downside is that I sunburned my face into oblivion by all the UV that came in through the clouds throughout the day. Pretty bush league on my part.
Chris skins into the abyss
Nick gets the goods
I caught a glimpse through the clouds at the Paradise Glacier for about 10 seconds at one point--looked like the main body of the glacier was largely stripped by the wind down to dirty summer snow/firn, however its western margin was nicely filled by the drifting snow and could be a fun run when it corns up later this week. I also imagine the upper mountain will have some dangerous avalanche conditions for some time, since we were basically skiing on one giant windslab on the snowfield, although the bond to the older snow (observed in places that had thinner cover, so the sun may have already had a chance to work on it) seemed to be o.k.
For the hike down, the visibility opened up yet again and we enjoyed a fantastic walk back down to the land of the green and growing from our stay in the land of snow and rock. The only downside is that I sunburned my face into oblivion by all the UV that came in through the clouds throughout the day. Pretty bush league on my part.
Chris skins into the abyss
Nick gets the goods
Great day out on the snowfield with all the new snow!
Given the recent reports of crevasses below muir, dirty snow, and suncups galore, I was excited about the prospect of as much as 2 feet of new to smooth it all out. As we climbed higher and higher the snow got better and better, and deeper and deeper, my grin further widening...
Andrew setting up the scenario.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHDgbQxVnU
A few more pics to add to the feeling of the day.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christopherlyles/SnowyMuirSnowfieldInSeptember?feat=directlink
As good a day out as one can have in such limited visibility.
Chris
Given the recent reports of crevasses below muir, dirty snow, and suncups galore, I was excited about the prospect of as much as 2 feet of new to smooth it all out. As we climbed higher and higher the snow got better and better, and deeper and deeper, my grin further widening...
Andrew setting up the scenario.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHDgbQxVnU
A few more pics to add to the feeling of the day.
http://picasaweb.google.com/christopherlyles/SnowyMuirSnowfieldInSeptember?feat=directlink
As good a day out as one can have in such limited visibility.
Chris
I went up today, Tuesday although I wasn't planning on it as I had a medical procedure in the early morning that required sedation and a day of fasting beforehand( although Snow Bell was advising me not to take the sedation so I could go skiing) Anyway after the procedure my wife drove me home and I looked at the Paradise Web Cams. Bad idea.
It was too much for me :-[ so I threw my ski gear in the car and hot footed it to Paradise to try and see if I could find Snowbell and his buddy. Wife shaking her head in disbelief!
Beautiful bluebird day but left late ,12:30 from th TH. Met Chris Cass and his buddy on their way down after some stelllar turns, then Amar on his second lap.
Intersected Snow Bell and his buddy Don also taking a second lap, so skinned up with them.
Really nice turns all the way to Pebble Creek. Little sticky on the last 500 ft but the rest skied like butta!
New snow all the way from Pebble Creek but its a bit thin in places.
Snow bell commented that his second run felt better than the first as the snow was starting to refreeze.
Won't last long, better get some.
It was too much for me :-[ so I threw my ski gear in the car and hot footed it to Paradise to try and see if I could find Snowbell and his buddy. Wife shaking her head in disbelief!
Beautiful bluebird day but left late ,12:30 from th TH. Met Chris Cass and his buddy on their way down after some stelllar turns, then Amar on his second lap.
Intersected Snow Bell and his buddy Don also taking a second lap, so skinned up with them.
Really nice turns all the way to Pebble Creek. Little sticky on the last 500 ft but the rest skied like butta!
New snow all the way from Pebble Creek but its a bit thin in places.
Snow bell commented that his second run felt better than the first as the snow was starting to refreeze.
Won't last long, better get some.
You guys hit it right. Nice work.
Andrew - ended up at the beach near Anacortes with the fam. It was sunny and about 70. But my littlest was talking about skiing, so we were there in spirit.
Andrew - ended up at the beach near Anacortes with the fam. It was sunny and about 70. But my littlest was talking about skiing, so we were there in spirit.
Scotsman, Snowbell, Amar: great seeing you yesterday enroute on the snowfield.
The snow was initially hard and icy while hiking up to Pebble Creek, but softened up wonderfully for the skinning to Muir and the ski back down.
More photos posted here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chriscass1/FreshSnowAndSunForSeptemberTurnsMuirSnowfieldMtRainierNatParkSept82009?authkey=Gv1sRgCPu64tj3k7ukJQ#
The snow was initially hard and icy while hiking up to Pebble Creek, but softened up wonderfully for the skinning to Muir and the ski back down.
More photos posted here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chriscass1/FreshSnowAndSunForSeptemberTurnsMuirSnowfieldMtRainierNatParkSept82009?authkey=Gv1sRgCPu64tj3k7ukJQ#
author=Scotsman link=topic=14018.msg58720#msg58720 date=1252471057]
Wife shaking her head in disbelief!
She should know you by now.
Itchy asked me if I was supprised when I saw you skinning up the snowfield.
I told him that I should have been shocked but really I wasn't. Your like a child who never wants to miss out.
It was nice to see some other familiar faces yesterday. I anticipated seeing a few more of you up there. It was certainly the day to get your September turns. My meager streak (going on year 3) fizzled out last month when no quality skiing presented itself to me. Perhaps this trip will be the beginning of my next, bigger longer better streak.
Or not.
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