April 29 - Nisqually Chute - Mt Rainier
4/15/12
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2282
1
Four of us headed up to ski the Nisqually on Sunday.
The gate was open already at 7:30 and might have been open all night. I talked with the ranger the day before and he said that was the plan.
We had to wait for one of our party, so did not get started until 8:45. It was already warm (no gloves or coat need in the parking lot). We skinned about half way up Pan Point, but the ski tracks from yesterday were frozen and we switched to booting up.
We booted up to 8500 feet and took a long lunch break in the sun and fixed some blisters on one of our party. Although it was only 45 degrees at 8500 at noon, it felt a lot warmer. The sun was intense. The snow at that level was perfect skiing (no corn yet).
We entered the chute at about 8400. A fair number of skiers had obviously skied the chute on Saturday, but it was soft enough that the tracks posed no issues. A small wet sluff also cleared most of the tracks the afternoon before.
Skiing was a little soft, but not bad considering the sun. The tracks in the glacier were melted out from the day before.
About 5500 the snow became much more grabby and there was some flat light as we ducked below the clouds.
We skied out on the right side of the river all the way to the bridge, but had to cross some small rock sections. I would recommend exiting on the left side of the river. We saw one other team, and they stayed on the left and had no problem skiing out.
Great fun day.
The gate was open already at 7:30 and might have been open all night. I talked with the ranger the day before and he said that was the plan.
We had to wait for one of our party, so did not get started until 8:45. It was already warm (no gloves or coat need in the parking lot). We skinned about half way up Pan Point, but the ski tracks from yesterday were frozen and we switched to booting up.
We booted up to 8500 feet and took a long lunch break in the sun and fixed some blisters on one of our party. Although it was only 45 degrees at 8500 at noon, it felt a lot warmer. The sun was intense. The snow at that level was perfect skiing (no corn yet).
We entered the chute at about 8400. A fair number of skiers had obviously skied the chute on Saturday, but it was soft enough that the tracks posed no issues. A small wet sluff also cleared most of the tracks the afternoon before.
Skiing was a little soft, but not bad considering the sun. The tracks in the glacier were melted out from the day before.
About 5500 the snow became much more grabby and there was some flat light as we ducked below the clouds.
We skied out on the right side of the river all the way to the bridge, but had to cross some small rock sections. I would recommend exiting on the left side of the river. We saw one other team, and they stayed on the left and had no problem skiing out.
Great fun day.
author=skiseattle link=topic=24637.msg104103#msg104103 date=1335813899]
A fair number of skiers had obviously skied the chute on Saturday, but it was soft enough that the tracks posed no issues. A small wet sluff also cleared most of the tracks the afternoon before.
I was wondering what it would be like after we finished with it on Saturday!
We had four in our group, and another two had come down before us.
The snow was quite heavy when we skied it, although the wet sluffs were more like amusing oozes (despite the big pile-ups they eventually formed).
The novelty of skiing down to the bridge was enticing, but snow quality probably would have been abysmal on Saturday.
Instead we rejoined the main route just below the base of Pan Face, then two of us skinned back up to Camp Muir for another lap -- although we were both in agreement that would *not* want to ski Nisqually Chute again in those conditions . . . too tiring!
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