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October 2, 2010, Paradise

10/2/10
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
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Posted by Charlie Hagedorn on 10/2/10 5:09pm
In the great tradition of the alpine start, I left the lower lot a little after the clock struck thirteen. It was a bright hot day down low, finally turning pleasant with a light breeze at and above Pan Point. Skis went on above Pebble Creek, and the route is continuous up to the Camp. Another couple of weeks of melting may have us discussing carries across a few little chokes..

Snow was a little bumpy, but favorably skiable when lightly corned up (perhaps a 4/10 on the soggy trap crust to waist-deep blower scale).

The real attraction of the day was the sunset into the cloudsea, which was very nice.

At about 2 pm, a skier descended the upper western margin of the Nisqually/Wilson in a series of linked traverses before running out of snow on the promontory above the Fan. The skiing on the E-facing slopes looked good, and the uniform dirt layer made quite a show for the crowds ogling the mountain. For the skier: How did you get home? All exits from the promontory looked unpleasant.
The first and last photos are beautiful.

Thanks! The key to the last one was carrying a spare and fully charged camera battery in the first aid kit.

Charlie, I can't understand your first photo.  Is the Wilson Glacier really that dirty!?  I would not have guessed, given the winter/summer/weather.

Wow, that last picture is spectacular.  I hope you don't mind me appropriating it for my desktop until I get a good "first snow of the season" shot.

author=skykilo link=topic=17563.msg74075#msg74075 date=1286142199]
Is the Wilson Glacier really that dirty!?  I would not have guessed, given the winter/summer/weather.


I inverted white/black to make the skier's tracks stand out. Success Cleaver looks fairly normal because it's so stratified and still well-covered with snow.

Here's the positive view of the same contrast-enhanced image. The telemarker photo is fairly representative of overall snow dirtiness at elevations where the recent snows are heavily consolidated/gone. Small regions of convexity on the Snowfield are starting to show knife+ hardness even during the heat of the day.

Inverted means inverted.  Aha, I get it.  Not too quick on that one.  Just knew that it didn't look right.

author=trumpetsailor link=topic=17563.msg74079#msg74079 date=1286145004]
I inverted white/black to make the skier's tracks stand out.


It's strange how differently various people's visual systems work, and thus how different their perception of the same pair of photos can be.  I can actually see the ski tracks much more clearly in the normal image than in the inverted image, where I can barely pick them out.

I've noticed for many years that highly altered images just don't "work" for me. For example, artificially black-and-white or sepia-toned images of mountains (which many others rave over and think are so great) generally look dull and lifeless to me, compared to color photos of the same peaks (or compared to the original scene!).


author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=17563.msg74093#msg74093 date=1286212802]
It's strange how differently various people's visual systems work, and thus how different their perception of the same pair of photos can be.  I can actually see the ski tracks much more clearly in the normal image than in the inverted image, where I can barely pick them out.


I agree - after optimizing the contrast in the negative image and then inverting again for Sky, I find that the tracks in the middle of the frame are more clearly visible than in the negative. On the flip side, I can follow the ski tracks all the way up onto the Wilson in the negative image, which I can't do at all on the positive image...

author=trumpetsailor link=topic=17563.msg74065#msg74065 date=1286093390]
At about 2 pm, a skier descended the upper western margin of the Nisqually/Wilson in a series of linked traverses before running out of snow on the promontory above the Fan. The skiing on the E-facing slopes looked good, and the uniform dirt layer made quite a show for the crowds ogling the mountain. For the skier: How did you get home? All exits from the promontory looked unpleasant.

I was the one that skied down the Wilson. The approach and descent of the Fan was better than I thought it was going to be. That is not saying it was any fun. Crossing the Nisqually was worse.

Yeah, we saw those tracks today, very clearly, and were wondering how, when, who ... nice to know!

Beautiful photos and an admirable descent captured. I was flying east out of SeaTac that morning, over the same cloud sea just after sunrise, with same effect from above, wishing I had a camera. Rainier and nearby peaks poking through, along with Adam, St Helens, Hood, Jefferson above a perfectly flat white cloud deck that made it look like everything was filled with snow up to the peaks.

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october-2-2010-paradise
Charlie Hagedorn
2010-10-03 00:09:50