April 24-25, 2004, Rainier-Nisqually Chute/Muir

Had to take advantage of the sunny weekend forcast.  I met up with Jim (jimjar) to do some touring on our splitboards.  On Saturday we arrived to find the parking some what full.  We bumped into Stephan (sag), Ron (ron_j), and Jeanette (mad_dog), who were conducting MTR classes.  We exchanged greetings and were on our way by 9:30ish.  Our goal was to do the Nisqually Chute because Jim has never done it.  Made it to base of Pan Pt and booted straight up quickly, thanks to near perfect steps.  We observed some people trying to traverse but they gave up soon and joined the crowds.  On the skin up Jim and I noticed the avi debris which ran down the middle and collected at the base of the steep top section.  I stopped just above the entrance (8300 ft. with Jim's altimeter).  Jim went a little further up, just below Moon Rocks, then rode along the ridge line over looking Nisqually glacier.  It was around 1ish when we decided to drop.  A board cut across the top showed no dead give-a-way signs of instability.  Just 6 inches of butter on top firm crust and a few pinwheels.  Once we dropped in it changed to few inches of smooth on top of bomb proof.  We picked our way down carefully thru debris and found some really nice patches.  Was real fast and so were the cookies following me down.  I glanced down at my board a few times while I was turning and noticed cookies trying to hitch a ride on my board. ;D  As we hiked out to Alta Vista trail we turned and marveled in our accomplishment.  We were the first ones down the chute and we both agreed that dropping in any later than 1pm would have made the ride out more challenging.  Jim took some pictures so gotta wait.

On Sunday the sun and blue skies were out.  We pulled up to find not nearly as many cars.  We were hiking by 9ish.  Skin up was easy then we were at the base of Pan Pt.  Somebody had turned the near perfect steps into their own glissade trail.  Bummer.  We just had to pick a new line.  Once at the top we noticed many lines thru the Nisqually chute as well as more avi debris.  The section we dropped in from the day before had been taken out.  The snow was alot softer and temps higher  so we decided to make Muir our objective for the day.  Jim made it an hour before me but had met some female company up top so I am sure the wait was worthwhile.  Mean while I felt like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.  Finally I made it around 2ish.  We chatted for a few with our new friends and were off.  Can't remember names for squat but some were lurkers and some members.  The ride down was awesome.  We chose a route that no one had bothered to do yet.  Jim took more pictures of our lines down.  Everything below Pan Pt was sticky icky.  Probably did not help that I neglected to wax my board after Saturdays outing.  Never the less another great day with sun, fun, and friends. ;D