Feb 5, 2012, Mt Rainier , Shocked at Paradise !

Well , Ken, Gary ,Phillip and myself were not expecting much except crust. Hemmed and hawed  in the car on the way up -Tatoosh , Paradise gl, Go up Pan point ,do a tour up to Cowlitz rocks and perhaps go up Paradise  gl. from bottom etc. etc . Shade ,aspect, wind and Sun were all cussed and discussed. Even talked to a ranger who looked like he knew what might be best.
Ranger advised "Icy above a pan point" "icy in parking lot" . No real decision made  so headed off to ski down the road and head up Mazama assessing the conditions. We didn't get very far put on our skis and went about 150 ' to what Dorothea and I had always called Suicide Slope.
This is east facing and the very first slope along side the Paradise valley road. We did the Pole poke test ,Hmm no crust a little heavy but no crust because whatever crust was there was destroyed by the sun.  Decided to ski it as we felt we wer'nt going to get anything much better.
Suicide skied great , quickly found a river crossing. Some Group thought about the sun effects had us making a beeline for 911 in Mazama Back Bowl where we found proto corn on south facing. Then two runs on North east facing in the back Bowl in remnant powder,perhaps the highlight of the day. We finished with skiing north faces of western aspect ridge lines which were still holding powder.
Ended up with a big day with little expectations.