June 20, 2004, MRNP-Muir Snowfields
6/20/04
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2643
2
Weekend started on Friday at Hood for some lift served turns with some buddies. Was really hot but smooth buttery corn by 8:30 in the morning. Even hit the park for a while. Then the original plan was to get home and go tour north side of Rainier on Saturday and Sunday. Funny how plans change. So I took Saturday off and played in the pool. With the forcast for lower overnight temps on Sunday I decided to wait. I left my house at 4:15am and arrived at the Paradise parking lot at 6am and temp was already 54 degrees. BTW, there were signs past Graham about road closure and a detour on 304th. Was nothing stopping me as I drove thru though. Well after a pit stop I was hiking by 6:20 to beautiful blue skies and a nice breeze from the northeast. Snow was firm and after watching some hikers struggle with footing I put my crampons on. As I ascended I was amazed to see all the lines left from the previous circus. I counted about 6 lines going into the Nisqually chute. Due to the heat wave from the days before and cooling temps overnight all lines were frozen solid. The snowfield looked more like a resort with tracks over tracks. Pretty much the whole skiers left was wasted and lines started creeping skiers right but not too many. I started skinning above Pebble Creek and noticed very few lines going into the PC drainage chute. I stayed skiers right and skinned straight up on firm, smooth snow conditions. By the time I reached Moon Rocks the process was well under way, corn that is. As I arrived towards Anvil the winds had totally etched the snow and skinning became awkward but tolerable due to softening conditions. Well it was like this all the way to Muir. I stopped about 100ft shy and decided to ride down. It was around 11am and by this time the hords could be seen making there way up. I descended far skiers right and the first 1000ft or so was hop turning at its best. Was really tiring since I didn't take a break after deciding to turn around. The lower I got the less wind effect there was. After that first 1000ft the snow turned smooth and was finally enjoyable. I hugged the chute entrances and was rewarded with around 2000ft of real smooth corn and some fun, steep rollers. There were only a few tracks around so finding untracked was not a problem. I then spied the chute that Pebble Creek drains into and gave it a go. There were 4 or 5 tracks leading down skiers left and down the center, curving towards the chute entrance. I stayed on the right side but not too far right. I left some slope for others as I spooned lines. I could see by side step tracks that some people decided not to drop in. I don't blame them. The water was raging and the gap to side slip was narrow, maybe 10ft wide or so, with running water on the right and rocks on the left. I approached with caution but it was nothing too hairy. Once thru that I was rewarded with more smooth corn but on the mushy side. Not a problem...thanx One Ball Jay. From this point every recent track traversed high left across the remaining bowls. There were some older tracks leading down that were visible. I was able to make a half dozen high speed turns and eventually caught one of the tracks, with about 100ft of booting, back to base of Pan Pt. From there it was a straight line down to the car with some turns. I was back at the car by 11:45 and cruising down by noon. I could not believe the line to get into the park. Was unreal.
Early this morning, I was staring down at the beeline of people and/or footprints up to Muir from a jet today, wishing I were down there with the likes of you instead of winging off to work in muggy New Orleans during prime turning conditions. Looked nice down there...
That beeline you talked of were people for sure. Glad I left early. I saw one splitboarder riding down skiers left before me and he appeared to be struggling with a heavy pack. The rest were climbers. I started my descent the same time as 4 free-heelers. They too dawned heavy packs and were struggling. They had made it to the 13,000ft level before turning around do to high winds. I assured them that conditions were better below. Other than those encounters I was all alone on the decsent as well as the ascent, until I got below Pan Pt. Then the tourists were in full bloom. ;D
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