November 19, 2004, Mt. Rainier, Paradise area

(Editor's note: this report was originally combined in a thread with a report from Goat Rocks. I have split the reports for the two areas into separate threads, and the author of this thread is not me, but snoslut.
--Charles)

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On Friday Jimjar decided to join me for some freshies on Rainier.  Our journey would follow the same route from Halloween.  Coverage and snow looked suprising similar to that fine Oct. 31 pow day.  Visibility was in and out with sunbreaks here and there.  Anyway Jim found himself a nice ridge to carve while I did the same on the ridge over.  We rode down to the bridge and skinned up Mazama Ridge for a peek.  The views were stunning as the sun came for a bit.  Our next line was a south facing chute that was calling us.  A bit rocky up top with a little air time required to avoid some land mines.  Our landing was cushioned by 2ft of windblown pow.  We made our way down and back up the ridge and decided to milk the front side.  Carved up some of the gullies and geared up for another.  Our last line took us to Golden Gate via a way I had never been.  By the time we arrived at our drop in the sun was beaming but clouds were lingering not too far.  The wind effect was clearing visible thru out Edith Creek Basin.  The snow was starting to form a soft crust on top but still very carvable.  We got back to the car and outta there by 3pm.  As we were leaving another storm started rolling in.