Home > Trip Reports > January 27, 2011, Paradise

January 27, 2011, Paradise

1/27/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
6415
13
Posted by wolfs on 1/27/11 2:42pm
Instead of going into work and looking at the Paradise webcam today and wishing I was there, siezed the (vacation) day. Original plan was to get to Muir and maybe ski Nisqually Chute, as weather forecast promised high FL and there was hope for nice warming sunshine. However, the mountain had other plans. Pretty windy already atop Pan Point and the snow was NOT softening. Anything that was not south or east was still frozen crust at least on top. The winter route up Pan Point was quite hard ice below a slightly more pliant but still lumpy and frozen surface, had to boot to even get up it. All climbers I passed as they came down about conditions and said this about the snowfield: 50mph+ winds, blue ice in spots, not soft etc etc.

So bailed on THAT idea - hell it was nice and warm, if you could just be out of the wind. Skied down Pan Point and down to above 4th crossing via some route I should know the name of but don't. Snow on this stretch springlike and pleasant, and maybe even a bit too soggy for my liking (faces direct south). Short climb onto Mazama and then lapped Back Bowl 3.5x on lines that caught sun but at an angle (in vicinity of a little chimney-like rock); the snow here more like a conventional corn with usually just the top inch soft. Very good spring skiing, with the only complaint being, DAMMIT it is not spring yet.




Stuck around until the sun started both to get low and sucked into clouds. The run back down into 4th crossing was pretty crusty but had been already as I ascended at 2PM, so it didn't get any worse because of me waiting that late. Choosing areas that were both near trees and facing the sun helped negate crust and boilerplate somewhat.

Was last one in the parking lot except for the inevitable fox ... until ranger showed up at 5PM, apparently with the duty of lowering the US flag that flies in front of guidehouse. Hopefully ranger had other agenda items than  driving up 20 minutes from Longmire to lower a freaking flag.

Just as I was leaving the sun managed a late comeback and painted the mountain with alpenglow and the sky with many shades of red. My college writing teacher woulda called it "rubicund" because he loved the hell outta that word.



Very nice pics, Wolfs.
Thanks for the report.

Nice report. 

It's actually against the law to fly the American flag at night without it being properly lit.

The Flag Code
Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1

§ 6. Time and occasions for display
(a) It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open. However, when a patriotic effect is desired, the flag may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness.

Nice report and photos. Speaking of watching webcams, the NPS air quality webcam looking SW from the ski dorm captured that sunset nicely too, including the sun pillar also seen in your photo:



One of the prettiest images I've ever seen from that webcam.


author=climberdave link=topic=19321.msg81856#msg81856 date=1296239114]
Nice report. 

It's actually against the law to fly the American flag at night without it being properly lit.

The Flag Code
Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1

§ 6. Time and occasions for display
(a) It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open. However, when a patriotic effect is desired, the flag may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness.


If they enforced the flag code, 85% of the people in east Pierce County would be in jail, instead of being just out of jail :-)

I was across the way and caught that sunset as well. Nice ending to a day.





Nice, Salal...
"Illuminated Castle" eh? :)

author=Salal link=topic=19321.msg81895#msg81895 date=1296256496]
I was across the way and caught that sunset as well. Nice ending to a day.


So, what was snow in Tatoosh up to that day, on the northish facings? Crusty? Crust softened by ambient temp despite lack of sun? Or no crust at all?

PS your pictures are much better at capturing that mood. Yours have far better aesthetics in foreground plus yours are from 10 min after when the billowing clouds got really dimensionally lit. I was driving down the road by then and cursing the lack of a good spot to shoot more pictures from. You musta cut the Longmire gate closing a bit close ...

Thanks..we spent the whole day on the south slopes dropping towards butler creek. The snow was nice corn back there. An inch or two penatration. The last run in twilight down the north side was actually better than I thought it was going to be. Weakened firnspiegel in the upper bowl and a softened crust down lower.  Even the narada slope was fun in the dark. And yes...we arrived to a locked gate at 6:20ish.

Nice pictures !  The slope to the right of the pillar in the back bowl is 911 .  Named by Dorothea Driggers .

That poor road ranger probably had more to do than just lowering the flag.  It's been quite awhile, but I'd sometimes have to close up as a volly, when the rangers were otherwise engaged. This included locking & checking the buildings for vandalism or B&E's; comparing the remaining license plates in the lot to those signed out overnight & passing that list to dispatch; and leaving the current Longmire gate combo on the vehicles of late day-trippers.  Also securing the trash cans from martens & foxes.  The better rangers would often wait to shepard the last pilgims down when the road was icy.  I'm sure they were late for a lot of dinners waiting for the tow truck to extricate 'off-road' vehicles.

Great shots, Salal.  Is the Longmire lock still 'braille', with the numbers worn off the brass cylinders?

There are actually two locks on there. One with the "code" and the other one looked just like a padlock. 

Nice sunset pics...making me wish I was up there for a visit. Anyone thought of skiing Fuhrer Finger during the nice window going on up there?

author=alpymarr link=topic=19321.msg81945#msg81945 date=1296330184]
Nice sunset pics...making me wish I was up there for a visit. Anyone thought of skiing Fuhrer Finger during the nice window going on up there?


Attempted to do just that on 1/27.  We experienced 65+MPH sustained winds from the W, gusting higher.  The winds had scoured everything down to bulletproof ice on the Wilson Glacier.  We wanted to climb the Wilson Glacier Headwall and ski the Thumb or Finger, but we could hardly stand up, and at times were blown off our feet.  Telemetry data indicated winds reached 95MPH at Muir yesterday.  Certainly not skiing weather.

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2011-01-27 22:42:38