June 21, 2004, Interglacier, Mt. Rainier

we arrived at White River campground at 7:00 for an early start. Hiked the 3 miles to the trail junction at Glacier Basin then ditched the hiking shoes and hiked in ski boots another half mile or so through snow on west side of the creek. From there we skinned up to the base of the glacier. The snow line in the basin is about where it was this time last year, but without all the giant runnels. Steeper slopes are fairly smooth with only small suncups. We booted up the steep pitch, then I put on skins while Frank continued in the thigh deep post holes. Snow was firm until around 8000' then 18 inches of mush - this had us worried. Reached the Prow at about noon and spent an hour enjoying the view. Finally we headed down into what was sure to be a struggle through thigh deep mush. To our suprise the skis turned easily. Very wierd snow. Kind of a light, granular mush. Not heavy at all, and skied kind of like powder. At around 8000'  or so the snow changed over to real corn. Very unstable snow on steeper slopes. We got a small sluff going on a very mellow slope - maybe 25 degrees or less. Noticed a very large wet slab off the small rise above Curtis Camp. We skied out on the east side of the creek, catching turns along the steep slopes below Mt Ruth. We got lucky and found 2 small logs hanging over the creek, which we crossed to near where we left our shoes. What a great day!