May 5, 2001, Mazama Ridge, MRNP

Once again, low clouds, snow, and wind made both Muir Snowfields and Castle-Pinnacle seem unworthy of the effort, so we headed to Mazama. The ski down Paradise Vallley Road was foreboding--breakable, styrofoam crust, cracking into 2 sq ft plates with every stride. As we started up towards the ridge, we encountered blue ice, breakable crust, powder, and swirling snow devils. Crossed the ridge to the back bowl and skied down the east slope encountering waves of powder between troughs of ice. Skied the north-facing slope: Nice. Skied it four times each. Each time different depending on whether the sun was breaking thru, or it was snowing, or just flat light under overcast skies. Skinned out and skied down Mazama--not bad. Skiing down to the road was nice for Regine (110 lbs) but mildly irritating for me with unpredictably breakable curts. Good Day tos. abc