February 21, 2010, Mt. Rainier, Edith Creek Basin

Joined the masses at Paradise on sunday for a bluebird day. Crystal clear and bright, bright, bright. Will post some photos later. Snow conditions heading up Edith Creek Basin and to Golden Gates, etc, were crazy variable in the morning - from hardpack, to unbreakable 2" crust, to breakable crust. Skinning was easy to challenging in spots. Some evidence of older wind transport on the ridges, but most seemed pretty stable. Had one ridgetop break a 8'x4'x2' windslab next to me as I went up (slab stopped after ~5 feet of travel by trees). Higher up above the basin, pockets of wind-transported snow were present on SE facing slopes along with crust of varying strength.

Had a long lunch and descended in early afternoon, when everything had softened up into corn and the remaining crust was more grippy. Best snow was on SW facing slopes in Edith Creek, roughly 4"-6" of corn in spots. Rain runoff has carved what look like low-angle runnels at the base of the basin near Paradise Valley Road which were variably crusty but manageable.