November 14, 2004, MRNP

we (Allyson, Cinnamon, Jerry, Kelvin and i) arrived at Paradise to meet Darryl, Maureen and JW at 8:45am, but we were fashionably 45-minutes late of course.  the original plan was to wander onto the Nisqually Glacier to play with ropes, pulleys and carabiners, but the low ceiling and rain at the parking lot made us reconsider. after 30-minutes of standing around talking about Ken and Barbie dolls, we decided to leave the ropes, and instead pack the skis to go for some exercise.  just then pbelitz, jimjar and Brian made their appearance.  we all mumbled something about how stupid it was to ski in the rain and then proceeded to hike in boots.  about 5-minutes into the hike, the rain stopped.  (last weekend it was possible to skin from the parking lot, but the recent warm trend and precip melted some of the snow on the trail.)  our objective was the Muir Snowfield, but after stopping for a snack break at about ~7000', we figured that conditions probably were not much better above, so some of us decided to go yo-yo the slopes below/around McClure Rock.  besides, the lack of visibility above wasn't appealing and the wind picked up a bit.  overall, the snow was nice and carvable.  at the end of the day, pbelitz, jimjar and Brian rejoined us.  we also ran into Phil_Higuera and friends.  it started to drizzle when we made our way back to the parking lot.  below Cinnamon carves stiff corn (click here for more photos):



-kam