Home > Trip Reports > December 18, 2010, Paradise, Bundys

December 18, 2010, Paradise, Bundys

12/18/10
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
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Posted by ovrthhills on 12/18/10 4:16pm
A late gate opening of 10:30 and poor visibility in the morning limited our ambitions as we started out from the parking lot headed for "Bundy's" The skin out revealed about eight inches of light unconsolidated snow on top of the dense layers left from last weekend's rain event.  The bond was good with basket penetration of about 1 ft to 6 inches in the wind exposed areas.  Ski penetration was about 4 inches   

Hurricane force easterly winds during the early morning hours had scoured many east aspects and loaded the western faces.  But good unconsolidated powder was still holding in the treed slopes and on the northwest sides of ridges and features.  An easy skin got us to the top of the knoll above Edith Creek. From there we contoured NE, following a skin track and crossing another creek, to the smooth ridge known by some as Bundy's.  We skied two lines of smooth, slightly wind effected low angle  powder with satisfyng results down to the Paradise River.




On the second run, we noticed a slide on lookers left side of Golden Gate with a crown appearing to be 2- 3 ft.

The ski out to the hairpin on the road was smooth as we avoided the creeks, some of which are still quite creek-like in places requiring a little caution as we worked our way out of the drainage.   The skin back up the road was on a nice smooth track and we arrived back at the parking lot to clearing skies and a spectacular appearance of the mountain as we packed the car.  

This was a nice short tour that  put smiles on all our faces 
Sweet. Thanks for the TR, was wondering how paradise faired with the winds.

Good stuff, Michael and Company.

We were up there watching you ski Bundy's from Mazama. We entered Mazama from very top above the trees. Some side loading in open spots above trees .finally we found a safe spot to drop in and MAzama middle skied wonderfully. No more then 10 tracks on it all day. Such a short day but good. One note still no creek crossing on Paradise river .
We found out the hard way.

author=ovrthhills link=topic=18509.msg78392#msg78392 date=1292746590]
From there we contoured NE, following a skin track and crossing another creek, to the smooth ridge known by some as Bundy's. 


Must have been our skin tracks, I didnt know we skied Bundy's yesterday till Robie enlightened me.  It was a great run, long with a variety of terrain to ski.  Did you stop at the end of the skin track or did you continue to the top?  We felt it was getting a bit steep so we elected to stop just shy.

I also think I can make the faint outline of our down tracks in your 1st pic, to the left of the upper most skier.

Good report Michael,
Glad you guys are getting out and enjoying the early part of what looks to be shaping up to be a great season.
Hopefully our tracks will cross as the snowpack deepens.  :)

Gary

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december-18-2010-paradise-bundys
ovrthhills
2010-12-19 00:16:30