Feb 19-20, 2011, Paradise Area

This isn't nearly as exciting as all the crazy trips I've read about this past weekend, but my life is ridiculously hectic and when I have a three day weekend that means doing something easy, but slightly far away. Adventure, but without too much planning and certainly not having to wake up early for it.

Case in point, we slept in on Saturday and headed down to Paradise. I think we arrived sometime after noon. It was sunny and beautiful, and we skined up to the Golden Gate area (I think - it's so much easier to tell where we are in the summertime, but there's less to ski then). At the top, it was a skating rink, but we dug a pit on a south facing slope and found a bomb-proof base covered by 12 inches of powder and a thin, easily breakable crust. Conditions on west-facing slopes was similar, just with 6 inches of powder covered by a slightly thicker crust.  I'm still learning the technical terms, but I couldn't get anything to slide even with shoulder taps (slaps?). The crust quickly disintegrated, then the powder dissipated, and then nothing. The skiing wasn't the easiest because of the crust, but it was plenty fun and the views were phenomenal. So phenomenal we decided to stay the night at Whitaker's bunkhouse and head back up on Sunday.

The sun was out at the Tatoosh on Sunday, but not at Paradise. We skined back up near Golden Gate and then opted for the gentler slope towards the west. The wind was bitter cold, but every once in a while we'd get a small sun break to warm up again. We'd heard from other skiers that the east-facing slopes had good snow with no crust, but we weren't able to find it. Everywhere we went conditions were similar to the day before. No worries, though, as it was still bomber snow and a great time. Skiing around Paradise is so liberating. I've been there tons of times for hikes, but when you're on skis everything changes. A summit is no longer the objective. Fun is heading over the next ridge and seeing what lies around the next corner. Joy can be found everywhere, not just at the top of a hike or climb. During a tour, the journey really is more important than the destination.

Anywho, I would have loved a moon-lit ascent of Shuksan or something, but this was all I had in the cards at this particular moment and it was more than enough to make me happy. I took a few photos and will upload them if I can figure out how to make the file sizes small enough.

Happy Skiing,
Brian