Home > Trip Reports > Mt Rainier - 9/29/2013, Paradise Trail, 'Blizzard'

Mt Rainier - 9/29/2013, Paradise Trail, 'Blizzard'

9/29/13
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4144
6
Posted by BrianT on 9/29/13 12:37pm
My buddy Jake sent me a text a week ago about going up on Sunday, which looked to be like a tsunami up on Rainier from the week long forecast. Lots of rain and heavy winds. I was not inclinded to ski this Sunday. However on Saturday, he sent me a text saying he wasn't going and was going to end his first TAY at 11 months, so I opted to go along with him so he'd have a buddy and tag his first TAY (Congrats Jake)

We drove up in solid rain from Issaquah that didn't let up. By the time we hit about 5200ft on Rainier, the rain turned to snow and it was sticking on the sides of the road.



Once we got the the parking lot, it looked a bit like winter.



It probably would have been easier to boot from the parking lot, but since there was about 3-5 inches of new snow, we decided to skin just to say we did.  The trail up was pretty solid, a few spots of trail poking through, but you could easily avoid it. 



And our pic before we started




We headed up to just below pan-point and the wind went from almost nothing to a steady 40mph. We decided to call it there since the trail didn't look great to ski, but was skiable.  We booted down to the first flat spot a few hundred feet down and started our ski decent.

The ski down wasn't great, but I could ski from the trail to the car, with the exception of a small jump here and there over the paved trail.

Right before the big opening on the way down from pan point




Jake putting his ski's on right after the big staircase (it's skiable w/o hitting rock)


When I got back to the lot, the only way to end this was to drink a beer and make an angel in September.



Overall, it was amazing, this looked like early november last year just seemed a lot more fun. Keep an eye on the forecast as it looks like it may end up dumping another 2ft or so at Paradise this week.

Cheers,
Brian
Great news TR, Brian... it's getting better and better (despite the few rainy days in between).
Congrats to Jake on his 12.

Nice of you to encourage Jake to his first year.  Congrats, and thanks for the stoke.

Forecast looks good (Sample is at 5150 ft)

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=46.79134732126487&lon=-121.73220634460449#.Ukj0RT9c-eI

Tonight Rain showers before 11pm, then rain and snow showers. The rain could be heavy at times. Some thunder is also possible. Snow level 7600 feet lowering to 5200 feet. Low around 33. Breezy, with a southwest wind 21 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.
Monday Rain and snow showers. The rain and snow could be heavy at times. Some thunder is also possible. Snow level 5300 feet. High near 35. Southwest wind 18 to 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Monday Night Snow showers. Some thunder is also possible. Low around 29. Southwest wind around 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 9 to 13 inches possible.
Tuesday Snow showers. Some thunder is also possible. High near 35. Southwest wind 10 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.
Tuesday Night Rain and snow showers likely, becoming all snow after 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. Southwest wind 8 to 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Wednesday Snow showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 34. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
Wednesday Night A chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.

Thanks Brian and thanks for the encouragement. I guess you can officially say I'm Hooked!

Fresh snow skiing in September!  I love it!

This weather, and the forecast, has me twitchy.

The parking lot snow angel pic is priceless.

Reply to this TR

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mt-rainier-9-29-2013-paradise-trail-blizzard
BrianT
2013-09-29 19:37:11