10-17-12 Muir Snowfield

Finally!

New snow fell at Rainier on Monday night I think it was, and the weather was suppose to stay cold and precipitate until Wed. I had the day off, and there was no way I was going to miss the first fresh turns of the season.

Got a lazy start and left Oly around 9, and when I got to Paradise there was still snow in the parking lot, and sunshine in the air! As I was hiking up I thought to myself how good it felt to have the snow crunch under my feet again. It seemed like there was almost more snow on some parts of the trail(some places 1-2 feet) than on the actual snowfield(some places 1-2 inches)...Put the skins on at Pebble Creek. The best snow seemed to be on the East side of the snowfield. Really, it was better next to any ridge or moraine.

I climbed to about 9000ft and stopped there. It felt so good to ski down on some fresh snow! Even if the only fresh snow was a strip about 100 feet wide...I skied to pebble Creek and picked up my shoes and walked out smiling. Beautiful sunset made for a relaxing drive home.

This makes 37 months for me and what a suprisingly fun October day. I sold my summer skis and don't have a new set-up yet, so the Marker Barons and pow skis was a bit overkill, but very well earned :)

All in all, new snow under the skis=Good day anywhere