January 18, 2014, Paradise Glacier
1/18/14
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
6137
5
We enjoyed warm sunny weather and beautiful views on our tour to elevation 8,200 on the Paradise Glacier. Our hopes for sun-softened snow on the Glacier were not realized, but the firm snow was carveable.
En route to Paradise Glacier, we passed a wind slab avalanche on a ESE facing slope about 0.25 NNW of Sluiskin Falls (approximate location 46.79741 W 121.71842 N), which had a crown of 4-6 and had run the full length of the approximately 200 vertical foot slope.
On our return to Paradise we entered Edith Creek Basin from just west of Golden Gate and enjoyed the sun-soften snow on the SSW facing slope.
Kenji took many beautiful photos, including a better photo of the slide, which he agreed to post.
En route to Paradise Glacier, we passed a wind slab avalanche on a ESE facing slope about 0.25 NNW of Sluiskin Falls (approximate location 46.79741 W 121.71842 N), which had a crown of 4-6 and had run the full length of the approximately 200 vertical foot slope.
On our return to Paradise we entered Edith Creek Basin from just west of Golden Gate and enjoyed the sun-soften snow on the SSW facing slope.
Kenji took many beautiful photos, including a better photo of the slide, which he agreed to post.
Thanks for sharing your trip, Dick. Here are a few pics including the slide. More here
My friend and I saw you folks up there and then we continued up a ways higher only to find very icy slopes. In fact he chatted with you Kenji. We skied back down sat and had some homemade hard cider about where we met you. We should have not gone up further and just shared the cider with you. It made the ski out really enjoyable. We hardly noticed the ice after that. The snow felt great all the way back to the parking lot and it skied fast. :)
Thanks for the nice report. I said hello to Kenji at VanTrump memorial.
That cornice slide happens almost every year and more than once.
Was the crevasse covered /partially covered at 8200 ?
That cornice slide happens almost every year and more than once.
Was the crevasse covered /partially covered at 8200 ?
On Sat the wind kept the higher snowfields quite firm despite the sun. I opted for drops off Mazama ridge and had wonderful skiing. Looked good in Nisqually but was pretty chunky from Pan Point up..
The glacier had no visible openings, at least where we normally ski. We turned around mostly because of the strong wind, skiing was actually quite good despite wind sculpted hard surfaces, occasionally hitting ~1/4" packed powder! Of course the corn lower was delightfully care-free skiing.
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