October 24, 2012, Muir Snowfield
10/24/12
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2500
4
Headed up to Rainier, bolstered by new snow and photos/ video from trip reports earlier this week. Went with a van-load of folks, Don, Jayme, Paul, Robie, and... Then I forgot a name... :x!!! (hope I'm spelling all of this right / not making up names, haha.) Must be that concussion I got last season at Alpy.
Anyway, Got to the park around 9:30 am, and the gate was closed until about 10:30. We all started up by 11 am or so along with another group that was there to hunt for the fresh powder up above.
Coverage through the meadows at paradise was OK. Just enough to cover rocks but not enough to stop us from hitting them as of yet, so it was worth caution. That coverage persisted most of the way up, a good few inches of fresh snow on top of everything, slowly getting deeper as we gained elevation.
Once we got above the rocky sections just above the rollers at Pebble Creek and onto the snowfield proper it was easy to avoid rocks so long as we kept clear of the rock islands, which in some cases are unavoidable, though those seemed fairly navigable.
I was behind everyone, being woefully out of shape from spending more than a month on the couch and lacking my skinning muscles. I only made it to about 8300-8500 feet or so and I sat around and waited for a while before making a lap on the lower snowfield, which, might I add, was stupidly good. Once again, the snowfield provided me with some of the better runs of my life in light powder. Others went ahead and a few made it to Muir (congrats guys!) before returning. I heard it was even better up high, and the slopes around anvil were supposedly most excellent. I'd believe it.
Visibility varied from "Dear God, this is amazing" to "Where did my feet go?" as clouds roiled around the mountain all day. We spent a good portion in the proverbial ping-pong ball, which made route finding, especially later in the day, a somewhat tricky task.
The descent, after pebble creek, had most of us (if not all of us at one point) making a carry or two, though due to drifting, skis were needed in other sections to keep from postholeing into the deep pockets of snow. Everyone scraped some rock on the way down, though most of us were able to ski just about back to the car. I accidentally skied the stairs at the bottom, which were, apparently, skiable. I escaped with minor base damage.
All in all, it was an awesome day!
![]()
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aUDd8sfdw6M/UIjWzlaQvyI/AAAAAAAAEXg/8pBLwy6lTXs/s576/mtrainier-11.jpg" />
The Snowfield.
Jayme making some turns
![]()
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AxnpoW7450s/UIjW1jubIII/AAAAAAAAEYI/r7QcWJIoh1w/s576/mtrainier-6.jpg" />
Paul (right) Jayme (left)
![]()
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bzxExAIM_Ng/UIjW2J3YhMI/AAAAAAAAEYY/8OcYRaEn8lQ/s576/mtrainier-7.jpg" />
disappearing into the soup
Anyway, Got to the park around 9:30 am, and the gate was closed until about 10:30. We all started up by 11 am or so along with another group that was there to hunt for the fresh powder up above.
Coverage through the meadows at paradise was OK. Just enough to cover rocks but not enough to stop us from hitting them as of yet, so it was worth caution. That coverage persisted most of the way up, a good few inches of fresh snow on top of everything, slowly getting deeper as we gained elevation.
Once we got above the rocky sections just above the rollers at Pebble Creek and onto the snowfield proper it was easy to avoid rocks so long as we kept clear of the rock islands, which in some cases are unavoidable, though those seemed fairly navigable.
I was behind everyone, being woefully out of shape from spending more than a month on the couch and lacking my skinning muscles. I only made it to about 8300-8500 feet or so and I sat around and waited for a while before making a lap on the lower snowfield, which, might I add, was stupidly good. Once again, the snowfield provided me with some of the better runs of my life in light powder. Others went ahead and a few made it to Muir (congrats guys!) before returning. I heard it was even better up high, and the slopes around anvil were supposedly most excellent. I'd believe it.
Visibility varied from "Dear God, this is amazing" to "Where did my feet go?" as clouds roiled around the mountain all day. We spent a good portion in the proverbial ping-pong ball, which made route finding, especially later in the day, a somewhat tricky task.
The descent, after pebble creek, had most of us (if not all of us at one point) making a carry or two, though due to drifting, skis were needed in other sections to keep from postholeing into the deep pockets of snow. Everyone scraped some rock on the way down, though most of us were able to ski just about back to the car. I accidentally skied the stairs at the bottom, which were, apparently, skiable. I escaped with minor base damage.
All in all, it was an awesome day!
The Snowfield.
Jayme making some turns
Paul (right) Jayme (left)
disappearing into the soup
Just something I had from yesterday, looks like the/a ski van to me :)
great pic
haha, yup, that's us
Sweet vangrab.
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