February 19, 2005, Paradise Glacier

I've never made a point of going UP the PG before, though I've dropped onto it many times after the Anvil Rock headwall, but then traversed back to either make the chutes or the Golden Gate area. Today the weather was beautiful and although the snowfield was up to its cloud forming tricks I thought I'd try touring up via 4th Crossing/Mazama R. and see how high I got. It sure is scenic in comparison to the regular Muir slog what with the Cowlitz Gl. not far to your right, and I really appreciated the quietness and 'ringed-in' feel of the lower section of valley where the ice caves used to be (I think the last time I was in this exact area, 20 years ago or so the caves were still there making a last stand). I made it to about 9300 feet, below Anvil Rock, before deciding that the snow quality was definitely diminishing returns, even with the factor of exploration and good views thrown in.  It took maybe an hour longer to that elevation going this way as opposed to the regular slog but I'm thinking I might do it more often on high traffic days in the future. I like peace and quiet.
The snow on the glacier itself was pretty much all windboard all the time. For just a few magical sections, it had softened up a bit and felt quite silky, but a lot of it was just hard and skatey and tossed me around. As I was skinning up, the general rule was that if you couldn't make the windboard crack by stomping it, then it was probably gonna get real slippery and hard to climb and it was time to pick a new path. So although the snow for ski itself was not 100% great it was still a fun trip.
Paradise was reasonably mobbed today, with parking lot over half full.