June 19, 2004, Nisqually Chute for Fathers' Day

Zach (age 11) and I did a reprise of our Fathers' Day outing last June.  Our ambition was to ski the main Nisqually Chute - we'd looked up at it last year and both thought "We've got to do that some day".  We got a bit of a late start (slept in a bit too late, detour south of Puyallup due to construction on 161) and didn't leave Paradise parking lot til about 9:20.  It was a big climb for Zach (about 3200') and we made plenty of rest stops in the second half.  Finally got to the top of the big chute about 2:00.  Snow at the top was sloppy but stable.  The top of the chute was very nice, but there was a bit too much surface sloughing for our liking once we got about 500ft down.  There was no deep instability, but it was easy to slough the top inch or two on anything over 30 degrees.  Sloughing was less of a problem for Zach than me - he's lighter and takes a much more vertical line than I do.  So we bailed out over to the smaller chutes to skiers left and continued the descent there.  Snow was still sloppy, but plenty enough fun.  After we got most of the way down, we traversed and climbed a bit to Glacier Vista trail.  Made a few side trips for short runs on the way back to the car, and got back to the parking lot about 4.  Overall, a great trip.  Zach was right proud looking back up at the big chute and seeing his tracks coming down from the top.  If I were going again, I'd probably want to start skiing a couple of hours earlier in day - but not if that meant skiing with a different partner!