November 20, 2005, Muir Snowfield
11/20/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
6983
1
Having seen the 64 degree high on Saturday's Paradise telemetry, I made sure to have bring light pants.
Of course, I didn't trust it and wore some long johns, too. Those came off before Glacier Vista. It was warm up there.
I didn't put on gloves all day, and mostly skinned and skiied in a shirt.
Doug, Eric and I left Paradise around 9:30 and the snow was nice and frozen and firm.
We were not alone. I ran into Ronj and JW in the parking lot, they were off to some secret stash somewhere and I suspect they got the goods.
My group headed up to the Muir snowfield. On the way up, I ran into pbelitz and dcoleman who were headed to the Nisqually Chutes. Pbelitz was outdoing everyone by skinning shirtless and in shorts.
Up at Muir, it was pretty windless and there were quite a few skiiers there to mock the snowshoers.
The skiing on the snowfield was pretty good. Not totally uniform, but you could find runs between the ridges where you could get a few good turns in.
Did I mention it was warm and really sunny?
Down below 8,000ft, we started to find all kinds of variability. Soft spots, corn, hard ice, breakable crust. It was a melee down around Pan Point with everyone trying to find a way through the rocks and good turns back. We ran into Amar, Pbelitz and DColeman again. They had found the goods in N. Chutes.
My group did some traversing and wide turns down to Golden Gate and then across Edith Basin. The turns above Golden Gate weren't perfect but some of the orientations had some nice snow for turning. There were a few fractures on the exposed lips here and there that looked scary but I think that the week's weather worked most of those out.
Below Golden Gate was Cascade Mashed potatoes in the afternoon sun.
The bridge across Edith Creek was a bummer, either the snow broke off or someone shoveled the bridge clear on the sides so that only a thin sliver of snow goes across the bridge. We watched a couple of brave folks ski across the snow upstream. It's all about momentum, I guess.
All in all, it was a great day out. Always fun to meet TAY'ers that I haven't run into before.
Be safe out there.
Of course, I didn't trust it and wore some long johns, too. Those came off before Glacier Vista. It was warm up there.
I didn't put on gloves all day, and mostly skinned and skiied in a shirt.
Doug, Eric and I left Paradise around 9:30 and the snow was nice and frozen and firm.
We were not alone. I ran into Ronj and JW in the parking lot, they were off to some secret stash somewhere and I suspect they got the goods.
My group headed up to the Muir snowfield. On the way up, I ran into pbelitz and dcoleman who were headed to the Nisqually Chutes. Pbelitz was outdoing everyone by skinning shirtless and in shorts.
Up at Muir, it was pretty windless and there were quite a few skiiers there to mock the snowshoers.
The skiing on the snowfield was pretty good. Not totally uniform, but you could find runs between the ridges where you could get a few good turns in.
Did I mention it was warm and really sunny?
Down below 8,000ft, we started to find all kinds of variability. Soft spots, corn, hard ice, breakable crust. It was a melee down around Pan Point with everyone trying to find a way through the rocks and good turns back. We ran into Amar, Pbelitz and DColeman again. They had found the goods in N. Chutes.
My group did some traversing and wide turns down to Golden Gate and then across Edith Basin. The turns above Golden Gate weren't perfect but some of the orientations had some nice snow for turning. There were a few fractures on the exposed lips here and there that looked scary but I think that the week's weather worked most of those out.
Below Golden Gate was Cascade Mashed potatoes in the afternoon sun.
The bridge across Edith Creek was a bummer, either the snow broke off or someone shoveled the bridge clear on the sides so that only a thin sliver of snow goes across the bridge. We watched a couple of brave folks ski across the snow upstream. It's all about momentum, I guess.
All in all, it was a great day out. Always fun to meet TAY'ers that I haven't run into before.
Be safe out there.
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