August 14, 2004, Paradise Glacier MRNP
8/14/04
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3224
2
Greg Lange and I met at the 4th Crossing trailhead at 6:15AM, since Greg needed to be headed home by 11AM. It was a beautiful morning, and we hoped to find a repeat of last week's surprisingly nice snow conditions. We headed up from the (current) toe of the Paradise Glacier, and after about 300' of gain, we found gray ice where there had been nice white snow last week so we turned down. The short pitch still skied nicely.
Then we headed over to check out the "secret(?)" stash. It was considerably more suncupped after the week's hot weather, and we found gray ice there too after about 500'. That was enough for Greg (me too) so we returned to the trailhead, getting another 500' or so of pretty flat skiing back to 6200', similar to last week. On our way out we spied two more skiers headed in to enjoy the stash.
Hope we get another day of precip like last Friday to provide some nice local Sept and Oct turns.
Then we headed over to check out the "secret(?)" stash. It was considerably more suncupped after the week's hot weather, and we found gray ice there too after about 500'. That was enough for Greg (me too) so we returned to the trailhead, getting another 500' or so of pretty flat skiing back to 6200', similar to last week. On our way out we spied two more skiers headed in to enjoy the stash.
Hope we get another day of precip like last Friday to provide some nice local Sept and Oct turns.
Silas: Thanks for the post; I had a blast! The turns rejuvenated me until I can find some (meager) snow next month. Hope you'll join me then, or have a good outing planned I can tag along for.
Hope we get another day of precip like last Friday to provide some nice local Sept and Oct turns.
And lots of that we're getting, though why can't it come on a Friday?
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