Home > Trip Reports > March 1, 2015, Van Trump, MRNP

March 1, 2015, Van Trump, MRNP

3/1/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3106
5
Posted by SteveS on 3/2/15 3:02pm
A nice tour up Van Trump Park & Glacier with Peter, Mark, and Greg. Two other parties up there too. Continuous snow not to far above the base of Comet Falls. Skied up to 8800'. 5500' vert for the day of which only 1700' was hiking or so Greg's GPS claims. Skiing was somewhat challenging wind affected powder or dense wind deposits on wind board, plus a bit of breakable crust on top for added entertainment. Best turns below tree line. Still we managed to do a respectable job of farming the Van Trump Glacier. Thanks to the ranger who kindly opened the gate at 8:35AM.
Whoa are you saying the ranger opened the gate just for you and then closed it again? The rest of us had to wait for 9am.

author=androolus link=topic=33803.msg139706#msg139706 date=1425399586]
Whoa are you saying the ranger opened the gate just for you and then closed it again? The rest of us had to wait for 9am.


That's not what my party experienced on Sunday.  We drove through at 8:45am.

author=androolus link=topic=33803.msg139706#msg139706 date=1425399586]
Whoa are you saying the ranger opened the gate just for you and then closed it again? The rest of us had to wait for 9am.


Sorry I'm confused about which day I was there....I had to wait until 9am on Saturday. I wasn't there on on Sunday...doh. Maybe I should just delete my nonsense.

I can see how the gate is a problem in morning - since I'm already mentally  hamstring by then at a lift served ski area....but what I'm curious about was what was the lift ride up like?  I could go for that....

Ha Ha...did have mental lapse and originally posted to Lift Accessed skiing.

I must say I was impressed and surprised at the courtesy of the ranger driving through the Longmire parking lot at 8:30AM and stopping by each group of people waiting at their cars to tell them he would be opening the gate in a couple minutes.  Really totally unexpected. That ranger has my personal thanks for getting us up the hill 25 minutes ahead of schedule.

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march-1-2015-van-trump-mrnp
SteveS
2015-03-02 23:02:56