June 5, 2004, Paradise area snowfields

Waking to rain drove home the fact that the weather window had slammed shut on plan A--to ski from as high up Little Tahoma as snow would allow. Nonetheless Aaron, Peter, Donnelly, and I had agreed to meet at the Mercer Island park and ride at 4:30 Saturday morning, so there we stood in the rain hashing out a plan B in the damp, yellow darkness. Camp Muir won out as we could be on the snow from the car where we booted up to about 8200' before deciding that the crusting snow, rain, sleet, and hammering wind wasn't worth the effort. We skied down in thirty foot visibility to Pan Point where the clouds began to thin and the wind slow. Donnelly tucked a chute speeding past a trio going up who remarked, "Who's the crazy guy?" as we cruised by. We found a wind-protected basin (the Paradise water source) and yo-yoed several runs finding good turns and decent snow. Donnelly aired it out over a couple cornices (see the pics for shots of one of them) and tucked another chute to hit 53mph according to his GPS. The rain cut loose after our last run and soaked us by the time we reached the car. Not a bad day afterall and even enough sun to just redden the skin.  8)

Follow the links to see Donnelly airing it out over some Mountaineers students (they didn't mind the entertainment while hanging out). Sorry about the quality of the pics, they are images pulled from video.
http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5189&password=&sort=1&cat=515&page=1
http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5190&password=&sort=1&cat=515&page=1