Home > Trip Reports > April 8-9, 2015, Rainier, Muir Paradise POWDER x2!

April 8-9, 2015, Rainier, Muir Paradise POWDER x2!

4/8/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4735
7
Posted by Amar Andalkar on 4/10/15 7:18am
Enjoyed 2 unexpectedly great days of powder skiing on the south side of Mount Rainier, skiing from Camp Muir on Wednesday and then from 10450 ft on Cowlitz Cleaver on Thursday, via the Muir Snowfield and uppermost Paradise Glacier. The high elevation mitigated the effects of solar heating on the snow, and ongoing recent snowfall of 2-3" per day since last weekend, which fell with almost zero wind even at 10000 ft, provided an exceptionally smooth snow surface. About 8-12" of newish lightish powder at Muir, atop a similar amount of older denser recent snow from last week's snowstorm (see
Two-shot panorama / multiple exposure skiing the Paradise Glacier below Anvil Rock, with Little Tahoma at far right above crevasses of the Cowlitz Glacier. (click for double-size version)



Not wanting to make the longer drive to the North Cascades Highway in search of preserved powder from last week's storm, Cori, Jill, DavidS, and I opted for Rainier on Wednesday, intending to head eastward (far eastward) from Paradise in search of northeast-facing, sun-protected powder. A weak ridge of high pressure was forecast for Wednesday-Thursday, but it was very weak, and in fact overall, the upper-level pressure was lower than normal despite it being nominally a high-pressure ridge relative to its surroundings on the weather map. The consequence: forecasts were all over the place for Wednesday, partly sunny to mostly cloudy, but all with a near-certainty of diurnal instability leading to afternoon cloud and snow shower development and maybe even thunderstorms, due to the increased spring solar intensity warming the surface while a pool of much colder air was up above. We hoped that the partly sunny forecasts would prevail.



The morning webcam view looked promising as we left Seattle, but as we drove closer the webcam view became fully obscured by clouds, and we arrived to totally socked-in conditions at Paradise, with ongoing light snowfall which was not accumulating on the solar-warmed pavement. Given the likely whiteout conditions, our original plan of traversing far eastward mostly at 6000-7000 ft seemed like no fun, and I was certain that heading upward instead towards Muir would give us the best shot of breaking out of the whiteout and seeing some sun, with hopefully reasonably good snow.



Got a late start at 11am, and skinned up into the clouds, with snow still falling. As hoped, we broke out into partial sunshine near Pan Point, and once again it was nice to meet and skin with my friends Seth & Solveig Waterfall leading an RMI ski seminar just like last week. The RMI group skied down from 7800 ft at Sugarloaf, and from there onward we broke trail the rest of the way to Muir, finding only a few short sections of previous skin track which had not been destroyed by the scourge of boot and snowshoe.



Some people (misguidedly) like to dis the Muir Snowfield as same-old-boring-flat or whatever else they might say, but if you keep your eyes open and looking around, then you can almost always see something new or fascinating up there on almost every trip. Even though this was my 222nd time reaching Camp Muir (218 with skis, including 52 in winter), I was amazed to see something that I don't think I've ever seen there before: almost the entire lower portion of the Snowfield from 7200 ft on up to over 8500 ft was covered in a beautiful layer of surface hoar, about 1-2 cm deep. Clear skies and calm air (along with a moisture source) are essential for surface hoar formation, as even a slight breeze or cloudiness above disrupts the process completely, so it is very rarely found far above-treeline in the Cascades. But this time the winds were exceptionally calm at Camp Muir overnight, less than 6 mph all night and averaging 1 mph over a 15-hour period (!! see telemetry below, the anemometer was not rimed). So this most atypical snow surface could develop nicely.


Surface hoar on the Muir Snowfield.



We enjoyed partly sunny, very warm, oven-effect conditions as we skinned up the Snowfield, but by 9000 ft the clouds above thickened and snow was once again falling. It looked like we would be skiing down in a whiteout for sure.



We arrived at Muir at 3:30pm in a snowstorm, but with winds still very light. There was almost a foot of new snow covering the steps at the public shelter's Dutch door, so we cleared those off and then hung out inside for a while, eventually joined by a large IMG Denali prep seminar group on snowshoes which we had passed near 9000 ft.



The winds were calm enough to leave the door open, and then lo and behold, a bit after 4pm there was a sunbreak. And soon more sunbreaks, and shortly afterward it was almost totally sunny outside. Time to ski while we could see!


Four-shot panorama of the powder-draped Cowlitz Glacier from Camp Muir after the sun came out, with Cowlitz Cleaver at left, Gibraltar Rock at top, Cathedral Gap at right center, and Little Tahoma at far right. (click for double-size version)


Skied down at 4:30pm in nearly-full sunshine surrounded by clouds all around, with very nice powder conditions, finding only an occasional inconsistent patch.







Hoping to find snow which was least affected by the earlier sunshine, we dropped onto the slightly SE-facing uppermost Paradise Glacier at Moon Rocks (9200 ft) and found more beautiful sparkly powder snow. The snow was denser powder here and less deep than higher up, but still skied great since it was so smooth. We continued down the western edge of the Glacier to about 8200 ft (no crevasses visible, except the usual bergschrund at 9000 ft below Anvil Rock).




Hey, that's me skiing! (photo by Jill Yotz)

Eventually lower down the snow was sticking doggedly to all of our ski bases as we entered the edge of the clouds near 8200 ft, so we stopped for a lengthy break to scrape them clean (a plastic ski scraper is a godsend in such conditions, and weighs less than an ounce). We angled back onto the Muir Snowfield and dropped back into the whiteout below that, with flat light and poor visibility through the top of Pan Face. Ski conditions remained OK down there and below, definitely sun-affected and dense, but no breakable crust. Eventually it was snowing hard once again, and conditions improved lower down with more new snow falling atop snow which had gotten much less sun.



Got back to the parking lot a bit after 5:30pm, so we weren't going to make it to Longmire by the 6pm gate closure. But a park ranger SUV was still parked there, and when the ranger walked by later as we were polishing off a round of Rainiers, she was super nice and offered to follow us down the road and open the gate if it was locked. No hassle at all.

The drive home featured an awesome rainbow (with a partial double-rainbow and several
Two-shot panorama of the rainbow above Clear Lake north of Eatonville, with several supernumerary bows visible inside the main bow. (click for double-size version)



[hr]The forecast for the next day, April 9, was much better, with mostly sunny conditions, but still a chance of diurnal instability producing afternoon snow showers. I was pretty sure that would happen, and wanted to get an early start leaving Seattle at 6am, which would also minimize the effect of the sun on the snow. But that really wasn't practical given that we got home to Seattle after 9pm the night before and needed some sleep, so the meeting time ended up more like 7:30am. The plan was once again to head for Rainier, this time actually planning to go to Muir and hoping the powder would be preserved, but with only 3 out of the previous day's group of 4 (sadly Jill had to work).



It was a stunningly clear and gorgeous morning as expected, well worth stopping in Longmire and taking in the excellent view of the Mountain from the community center. Skinned up from Paradise at 10:30am on about 1" more new snow which had fallen since we had left the previous evening.




Cori leading a group of climbing rangers up the skin track!

Thankfully yesterday's skintrack that we had put in from 7800 ft up to Muir had survived mostly intact, only because there was a prominent snowshoe/boot track nearby, and we made easier progress up to Muir this day, only re-breaking trail for the small fraction which had been thrashed. As forecast, clouds had been building all morning, and large snow showers could be seen falling from nearby clouds after 1pm. We reached Muir by 2:30pm, with clouds and snowfall moving in fast.


Skinning up Cowlitz Cleaver with Camp Muir below.

But as we arrived we saw a skin track already in place up Cowlitz Cleaver, so we decided to quickly continue up that to the flat spot at 10450 ft. The goal was to ski the nice east-facing powder run along the edge of Cowlitz Glacier, which had only a pair of previous ski tracks.


Two-shot vertical panorama looking down at previous tracks in the powder of Cowlitz Glacier, with Camp Muir at far right.

Dropped in just after 3pm for the best snow of the day, 12" deep light powder on that slope, lightest on the most NE-facing edge of the slope.






Two-shot panorama of powder tracks on the Cowlitz Glacier from just north of Camp Muir, with Cowlitz Cleaver at left, the Beehive at top center, and Gibraltar Rock at top right. (click for double-size version)


The run down from Muir was still decent snow above 9200 ft, the powder had stayed semi-preserved despite many hours of direct sun.



But as we dropped back into the whiteout and onto the Paradise Glacier near 9200 ft, the snow conditions deteriorated. Nothing too bad, no breakable crust, but just very sun-affected. We cut back to the Muir Snowfield much earlier than the previous day, to find more tracks which would give some definition to the snow in the whiteout. Very flat light down to maybe 7500 ft, then improving visibility and also improving snow. It was snowing quite heavily, and almost all of it was graupel, 1-3 mm chunks, accumulating quickly in a near-continuous layer on the snow surface.



The graupel-enhanced snow surface skied well, and the turns down to Pan Point and all the way back to Paradise were fairly good, maybe better than the previous day.



Another great day of springtime powder and sunshine and snowstorm, about 5100 vertical feet for the day. No rainbows this time on the way home, but still smiles all around. April has been a powder-Paradise so far, and more pow is on the way!

MOUNT RAINIER RECREATIONAL FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
400 AM PDT WED APR 8 2015

SYNOPSIS...A WEAK UPPER RIDGE WILL MOVE ACROSS WASHINGTON WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY...BRINGING A MIX OF SOME SUNSHINE AND LIGHT SPOTTY SHOWERS TO MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK. A RATHER VIGOROUS FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL BRING PRECIPITATION AND WINDY WEATHER TO THE MOUNTAIN LATE FRIDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND. ANOTHER SYSTEM COULD BRING MORE RAIN AND SNOW EARLY NEXT WEEK.

WEDNESDAY...PARTLY SUNNY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 4500 FEET.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN PARTLY CLOUDY AFTER MIDNIGHT. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 5000 FEET.
THURSDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY...BECOMING PARTLY CLOUDY IN THE AFTERNOON WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 4500 FEET.
THURSDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN PARTLY CLOUDY AFTER MIDNIGHT. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 5500 FEET.
FRIDAY...PARTLY SUNNY IN THE MORNING...THEN CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW IN THE AFTERNOON. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 5000 FEET.

TEMPERATURE AND WIND FORECASTS FOR SELECTED LOCATIONS.

                      WED    WED    THU    THU    FRI
                            NIGHT        NIGHT

SUMMIT  (14411 FT)    -3    -2    -1      2      4
                    NW  5  NW  5  S  5  W 25  SW 55

CAMP MUIR(10188 FT)    15    17    18    19    18
                    NW 10  E  5  S 10  SW 15  SW 30

PARADISE  (5420 FT)    39    30    44    31    43
                      E  5  N 10  SW  5  NW  5  W 10

LONGMIRE  (2700 FT)    50    36    57    37    56
                      W 10  NE  5  NW  5  N  5  NW  5

++ TEMPERATURES AND WIND FOR THE SUMMIT AND CAMP MUIR ARE AVERAGE
  CONDITIONS EXPECTED IN THE FREE AIR AT THOSE ELEVATIONS.
++ TEMPERATURES FOR PARADISE AND LONGMIRE ARE THE EXPECTED HIGHS AND
  LOWS. WIND IS THE AVERAGE WIND EXPECTED DURING THAT PERIOD.

EXTENDED FORECAST...

FRIDAY NIGHT...BREEZY. RAIN AND SNOW. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 4500 FEET.
SATURDAY...RAIN AND SNOW. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 3000 FEET.
SATURDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 2500 FEET.
SUNDAY...SHOWERS. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 2500 FEET.
SUNDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 3000 FEET.
MONDAY...RAIN AND SNOW LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 2500 FEET.
MONDAY NIGHT...SHOWERS LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 2000 FEET.
TUESDAY...SHOWERS LIKELY. SNOW LEVEL NEAR 2000 FEET.



NWAC telemetry for the days of these trips plus the previous and next days. Note the exceptionally calm winds at Camp Muir overnight from 9pm PDT (2000) April 7 to 11am PDT (1000) April 8, less than 6 mph maximum and averaging 1 mph over that 15-hour period! And also the high winds over 90mph which develop as the next snowstorm begins on the evening of April 10:

Northwest Avalanche Center                                                Northwest Avalanche Center
Paradise, Mt Rainier National Park, Washington                            Camp Muir, Mt Rainier National Park, Washington
                                                                         
Total snow sensor readings unsteady                                      Wind gages unheated and may rime
                                                                         
MM/DD  Hour  Temp    RH  Wind  Wind  Wind  Hour Total 24 Hr Total Solar    MM/DD  Hour  Temp    RH  Wind  Wind  Wind  Wind  Solar
        PST    F    %  Avg  Max  Dir Prec. Prec.  Snow  Snow  W/m2            PST      F      %    Min    Avg    Max    Dir  W/m2
            5400' 5400' 5380' 5380' 5380' 5400' 5400' 5400' 5400' 5380'                10110' 10110' 10110' 10110' 10110' 10110' 10110'
------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  4 7  500    29    91    4    9    71    0    0    0  295    0      4 7    500    13    95    11    14    18    223      0
  4 7  600    28    94    4    9    74    0    0    0    70    2      4 7    600    13    95      8    13    19    232      0
  4 7  700    29    94    4    11    71    0    0    0    70    29      4 7    700    13    96    10    13    19    251      0
  4 7  800    30    94    5    10    74  .01  .01    0    70    72      4 7    800    14    96      7    11    17    225      0
  4 7  900    31    90    4    11    67  .01  .02    0    64  144      4 7    900    15    95      0      4      8    218      0
  4 7  1000    33    88    4    11    55  .03  .05    0    30  270      4 7  1000    15    95      2      8    19    235      0
  4 7  1100    35    82    5    10    67  .07  .12    0    70  532      4 7  1100    17    96      3      9    15    251      0
  4 7  1200    36    77    4    9    86  .02  .14    0    27  549      4 7  1200    19    95      1      6    14    232      0
  4 7  1300    39    73    6    13    82  .01  .15    0    68  850      4 7  1300    23    95      1      6    11    218      0
  4 7  1400    37    77    5    9    87    0  .15    0    69  559      4 7  1400    19    90      2      9    14    249      0
  4 7  1500    37    77    5    11    92    0  .15    -0    69  491      4 7  1500    21    89      3      8    13    238      0
  4 7  1600    38    76    6    12    94    0  .15    0    68  409      4 7  1600    17    88      2      9    19    256      0
  4 7  1700    35    86    6    11    96    0  .15    -0    69  213      4 7  1700    16    89      4      8    13    255      0
  4 7  1800    34    83    3    6    88    0  .15    0    64  107      4 7  1800    14    93      5      9    13    290      0
  4 7  1900    33    85    2    8    70    0  .15    0    69    13      4 7  1900    14    95      0      3      8    265      0
  4 7  2000    33    84    1    4    83    0  .15    0    69    0      4 7  2000    13    92      0      0      2    344      0
  4 7  2100    32    82    1    3    77    0  .15    0    71    0      4 7  2100    13    93      0      0      4    341      0
  4 7  2200    31    87    1    3    75    0  .15    0    69    0      4 7  2200    12    94      0      0      2    18      0
  4 7  2300    31    86    0    3    74    0  .15    0    70    0      4 7  2300    12    95      0      2      4      4      0
  4 8    0    30    88    1    3    74    0  .15    0    64    0      4 8      0    12    94      0      2      6    293      0
  4 8  100    30    92    0    2    73    0  .15    0    69    0      4 8    100    13    93      0      3      5    279      0
  4 8  200    30    98    1    4    71    0  .15    0    69    0      4 8    200    12    94      0      3      6    22      0
  4 8  300    31    98    0    3    31    0  .15    0    65    0      4 8    300    12    94      0      1      3    342      0
  4 8  400    30    98    0    4    16    0  .15    0    70    0      4 8    400    11    93      0      1      5      5      0
------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  4 8  500    30    95    0    3    13    0    0    0    64    0      4 8    500    10    94      0      0      2    44      0
  4 8  600    30    98    2    4    12  .01  .01    0    70    2      4 8    600    11    93      0      1      4    34      0
  4 8  700    30    95    1    4  349  .01  .02    0    69    40      4 8    700    15    84      0      1      4    332      0
  4 8  800    33    93    1    4  301    0  .02    -0    69  128      4 8    800    19    85      0      0      4    269      0
  4 8  900    31    98    3    6  292    0  .02    0    64  119      4 8    900    19    85      0      2      5    117      0
  4 8  1000    33    95    3    5  259  .01  .03    0    84  277      4 8  1000    22    78      0      3      5    68      0
  4 8  1100    33    95    3    9  248  .01  .04    0    70  251      4 8  1100    28    62      0      2      8    252      0
  4 8  1200    33    93    3    7  247  .03  .07    0    67  281      4 8  1200    29    69      0      2      6    77    16
  4 8  1300    34    94    5    9  265  .06  .13    0    69  296      4 8  1300    23    79      0      2      7    254    64
  4 8  1400    34    95    6    10  262  .04  .17    1  190  379      4 8  1400    21    84      0      4    12    231    48
  4 8  1500    34    94    5    10  269  .03    .2    0    64  285      4 8  1500    19    87      2      7    14    208      0
  4 8  1600    34    95    1    4  253  .02  .22    0    69  239      4 8  1600    20    85      0      1      5    325      0
  4 8  1700    33    96    3    6  244  .03  .25    0    68  134      4 8  1700    17    92      0      3      9    301      0
  4 8  1800    32    97    2    4  244    0  .25    1    31    18      4 8  1800    15    81      0      4    10    265      0
  4 8  1900    31    98    2    6  239  .01  .26    1    62    5      4 8  1900    14    81      0      2      6    307      0
  4 8  2000    31    98    0    4  249  .06  .32    1    32    0      4 8  2000    14    95      0      2      5    317      0
  4 8  2100    31    98    0    3  249  .04  .36    1    32    0      4 8  2100    14    67      0      2      5    306      0
  4 8  2200    29    97    1    2  250  .01  .37    1  300    0      4 8  2200    14    65      0      4      8    348      0
  4 8  2300    29    97    1    3  251  .01  .38    1    33    0      4 8  2300    14    74      0      1      6    323      0
  4 9    0    29    98    0    2  252    0  .38    1  300    0      4 9      0    14    60      0      2      6    348      0
  4 9  100    29    96    0    2  252    0  .38    1    33    0      4 9    100    14    56      0      3      7    356      0
  4 9  200    29    97    0    2  252    0  .38    1  300    0      4 9    200    13    55      1      6    10    27      0
  4 9  300    29    94    0    3  252    0  .38    2  191    0      4 9    300    13    57      4      6      8    29      0
  4 9  400    27    95    1    4  252  .01  .39    2    69    0      4 9    400    13    54      5      6      9    32      0
------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  4 9  500    26    96    1    3  252    0    0    2  300    0      4 9    500    14    57      4      7    10    22      0
  4 9  600    27    95    1    4  247    0    0    2  300    5      4 9    600    13    64      6      8      9    16      0
  4 9  700    29    92    2    4  232    0    0    2    70    79      4 9    700    18    47      2      6      9    30      0
  4 9  800    35    84    3    7  173    0    0    1  300  250      4 9    800    17    65      2      4      6    47      0
  4 9  900    39    76    7    11    96    0    0    1    68  505      4 9    900    17    71      4      6    11    53      0
  4 9  1000    40    72    7    12    96    0    0    1    26  717      4 9  1000    25    43      0      3      7    74      0
  4 9  1100    41    66    4    12    83    0    0    1    64  884      4 9  1100    26    47      0      2      7    238      0
  4 9  1200    43    60    4    10    32    0    0    1    70  838      4 9  1200    21    65      2      5      9    229      0
  4 9  1300    44    52    3    9  230    0    0    1    67  812      4 9  1300    17    60      5      9    13    248      6
  4 9  1400    42    67    4    16    53    0    0    1    63  565      4 9  1400    18    84      9    13    18    272      6
  4 9  1500    37    78    3    9    29  .01  .01    1    64  165      4 9  1500    17    98    11    15    21    261      0
  4 9  1600    39    78    2    5    42  .02  .03    1    69  180      4 9  1600    17    97      8    15    25    261      0
  4 9  1700    37    87    2    6  185  .01  .04    1  295  131      4 9  1700    16    97      8    16    25    278      0
  4 9  1800    38    75    2    5  232    0  .04    1    69  135      4 9  1800    14    95    15    18    21    286      0
  4 9  1900    36    76    1    4  263    0  .04    1    64    25      4 9  1900    15    92    10    17    25    283      0
  4 9  2000    35    79    1    4  344    0  .04    1    65    0      4 9  2000    14    97    19    23    26    283      0
  4 9  2100    35    79    2    4    2    0  .04    1    69    0      4 9  2100    14    87    13    18    23    285      0
  4 9  2200    34    76    2    4    20    0  .04    1    69    0      4 9  2200    14    97    13    20    26    282      0
  4 9  2300    35    68    1    4    48    0  .04    1    65    0      4 9  2300    14    96    13    24    37    282      0
  4 10    0    35    77    2    6  126    0  .04    1    71    0    4 10      0    17    27    20    32    40    275      0
  4 10  100    35    71    2    5  211    0  .04    1    71    0    4 10    100    17      9    15    25    34    281      0
  4 10  200    36    71    3    7  247    0  .04    1    70    0    4 10    200    16    23    20    29    42    282      0
  4 10  300    36    74    5    12  281    0  .04    1    71    0    4 10    300    17    13    21    35    50    276      0
  4 10  400    35    77    6    11  287    0  .04    1    70    0    4 10    400    14    82    29    40    48    268      0
------------------------------------------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------------------------------
  4 10  500    36    75    5    12  289    0    0    1    71    0    4 10    500    16    20    39    47    60    272      0
  4 10  600    34    80    5    14  261    0    0    1    70    4    4 10    600    17    11    41    49    55    271      0
  4 10  700    34    80    4    9  260    0    0    1    69    58    4 10    700    19      9    39    49    57    276      0
  4 10  800    37    73    6    11  258    0    0    1    70  290 

Great photos Amar!

Nice job......Sunday and Wed next week it will not be just boot top........maybe hat skiing.

Way to get it Amar

Nice going, blower pow, and no wind!  A day of skiing on Rainier like this is on my to do list.

author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=34088.msg140690#msg140690 date=1428704297]... finding only a few short sections of previous skin track which had not been destroyed by the scourge of boot and snowshoe.


All of my trail breaking for naught! I've never seen the snowfield like that... absolutely no wind effect (granted I'm 180-190 Muir trips shy of Amar).

Great write-up and photos, Amar! It's been fun getting out with you, although I suppose our 100% success rate at finding powder has to break down at some point. ;)

Reply to this TR

12534
april-8-9-2015-rainier-muir-paradise-powder-x2
Amar Andalkar
2015-04-10 14:18:17

© 2001-2021 TAY and our awesome community members