June 17, 2004, Van Trump, MRNP

The info maybe useful for some wondering bridge situation for this weekend.  I took a day off, and headed up to Rainier Thurday.  At the Commet Fall parking lot, there is a sign saying "...Do not attempt to cross the bridge or creek...No access to Commet Fall", something like that.  After debating for a while, I decided I could not read the sign since it's not in Japanese!  The first bridge is new and beautifull.  The second bridge is gone completely, but the creek is easy to cross a bit upstream.  The snow starts around 4500' in the trees.  I followed the trail from the Commet Falls up on to the open, but skiied back directly to the ex-bridge.  There is solid snow above 5000' just like normal years.  The new snow is not quite concolidated into nice corn, but very skiable.  Stopped at 9000', and skiied down to 4900'.  Saw nobody on my side, but a few clibmers from the Paradice.  Maybe another month of skiing there.