Home > Trip Reports > May 23, 2010, Paradise

May 23, 2010, Paradise

5/23/10
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2912
6
Posted by jenprince on 5/23/10 9:10am
Typical stormy day at Paradise, skiing in a whiteout.  Had been thinking about skiing  Helens most of the week, then Interglacier when I couldn't secure a permit.  Paradise seemed like a good choice to score a few powder turns, when I realized the White River CG road wasn't opening.  Paradise is like an old friend, always there when you need someone who understands you. 

3 inches of fresh this morning on top of soft crust, from rain yesterday perhaps? We (Nick and I) skied into Edith before PanPoint, it didn't seem like a great idea to keep trudging through the fog and whiteout.  Another skier descended on our second lap and confirmed this for us.   At about 11, the 3 inches became quite unstable and easy to slough on steeper slopes, and the snow turned into rain/snow stuff.  We opted for the lodge by noon, such a nice place:)  Overall, good skiing by brail.

Most skiers we talked to decided the trees were helpful for navigation and stayed within treeline, and I thought the large groups of RMI tourists and the huge hole in Edith basin were also helpful:)  Apparently the road is plowed out of the basin.  We realized we were lucky when we discovered this after we opted to RTO straight up to Alta Vista because skiing in the basin was difficult with the poor visibility.  Some folks skiing out of the basin at 1 pm mentioned the snow was terrible by then and the visibility worse, and I was glad we had left Tacoma by 6 am.

No pictures, you wouldn't be able to see anything but White anyhow... But I am guessing some of you TAY-aholics would appreciate the good word.  Home and a trip report written by 5:)  Sun emerging to the west as I type. Yay!
Thank-you for the report; alleviates me kicking myself in the butt for using bad weather (fog) as an excuse for not skiing; now I'm glad I stayed home; looks like it will be nice tomorrow and I'll go if it is. :-)

Nice skiing with you Jen! It was fun playing the where are we going game all week :)

The fog did suck. Thankfully the RMI guys had an easy to follow boot pack and the groups of 10 of them made spotting the trail easy. Also glad i could be the test dummy and find the edge of the drop offs and figure out when the hill suddenly changes from going up downhill to up hill for you! And sorry for the crappy skin track up from Edith!

and about hurricane ridge....might have been the best choice! even though we both thought otherwise!

Jenn ,thanks for the report. I too sat home (being on call ) and wondering if I was missing some great skiing. Was the Tatoosh whited out as well?
I ended up getting called out made a few bucks then immediately bought some gear at backpackers to erase the pain.

Equal visibility-less conditions up at Baker today. Our plans to ski out to Coleman Pinnacle ended in the whiteout up at Artist's Point. Cleared up nicely by the time we finally got back to the car at 2PM after yo-yoing some slopes near the ski area in mushy snow.

Tatoosh looked pretty white, actually we couldn't see the tatoosh from most angles, so yes Robie, it was white.  Hey, want to join us on Baker this weekend? Or anyone else for that matter?

Paradise-Muir was pretty sweet today!

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may-23-2010-paradise
jenprince
2010-05-23 16:10:42