May 28-30, 2005, Kids in Summerland, Mt. Rainier

Debbie and I scoped out the Summerland area 5/21 during our foul-weather attempt at the Fryingpan Glacier and figured we had best come back with the kids. "Son" is 11yrs and was just back from his fifth-grade camp, dragging slightly, but not about to be left behind. "Daughter", 14yrs, was (as always) eager to get out. The kids are great skiers, having both started around age 3yrs, but lacking any inheritance or lottery winnings, don't have any BC gear. Our solution was to scavenge some skin trimmings left over from those 120mm purple carpets from our favorite ski shop (thanks Adam!) and rig up some kicker skins for their skinny skis with a wrap of duct tape on the leading edge to keep them there. They would still have floppy boots, but would at least have some traction.

Saturday found us at the White River Ranger Station at 7:30am expecting a rush for permits with all the nice weather. To our surprise, there was plenty of room at Summerland, in fact there were only two other people camped there all weekend. We loaded up the packs and skis, made sure son's eyes were open, and set out on the trail. Interestingly enough, we found the snow hadn't receded as far as we had expected since the week before. A quick bushwhack north across Frying Pan creek just a few minutes after the last bridge put us on the easy open snow for the shuffle up to Summerland and avoided the switchbacks.

The kids' kicker skins worked amazingly well in the moderate to low angle semi-mush. Being used to mud-slogging and post-holing early season, both delighted in how easy it was to travel over the snow. We had our pick of campsites, stamped out a platform in the snow, and while Debbie & I settled in for the weekend, the kids set to work building a snow fort in the afternoon sun (that is what the shovel is for, right?).

Sunday was again sunny and clear, with clouds in the valleys. After a leisurely breakfast, we set out for Panhandle Gap. Daughter got to use mom's AT gear for the morning and short work was made of the tour. Just before the gap, a lone skier (Dan) caught up with us. He was to be one of only two(!) skiers we encountered the entire weekend. We took our time at lunch and watched Dan yo-yo the bowl SW of the gap. Coming back down from the gap, daughter and I made good use of the steeper slopes while Debbie & son traversed more and kept to the gentle terrain. Back at Summerland, son got his turn at Debbie's AT gear and did a few short yo-yos before Debbie finally reclaimed her gear, to yo-yo with me on Meany Crest. A good thunderstorm blew through well to the SE of us in the afternoon, but it remained intensely sunny. At our high point, we ran into some climbers who were laboring in the unconsolidated snow. We were to encounter them the next day coming down and apparently up on the Frying Pan it was enough of a slog to send them home short of Little Tahoma.

Monday was again sunny(!). The run down proved to be the excitement of the day, as son & daughter both got to live the "big-pack, little-ski" experience. Philfort came cruising smoothly down from the Frying Pan to become "skier #2". He had the good fashion sense to be wearing not only the same shirt, but the same skis as I. We left him eating lunch as Deb & I showed the kids the proper bush-walking and meadow-skiing technique to make the most of the rapidly melting snow. We were down the trail, on the road, and in Greenwater eating ice cream before we knew it. Fun.

-Dave R