January 23: Mt. Rainier, Panorama point
1/23/16
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2899
2
Headed to Paradise to tour around the Panorama Point area. Got a late start to the day, around 12:30p, as I discovered I had forgotten my boots upon arriving in the Paradise parking lot. Had to go down into Ashford to find something to rent, and found a pair of old Scarpa AT boots at Whittaker Mountaineering (these guys are great!), then headed back up to Paradise. Started touring from the parking lot toward Mazama Ridge then cut up along the ridge to the left toward Panorama Point. Visibility was quite poor, with fog and very flat light with little contrast. Ended up taking a few laps on some of the South-facing slopes in the area before heading back to the car around 4p.
Snow was thick but great consistency. There was about 6" of new snow with moderate moisture content sitting on top of a firm crust layer. New snow had a fairly strong bond to the crust layer and I could not get any separation to occur when loading various test patches on different slope angles. Poor visibility was the biggest challenge of the day (aside from having to find AT boots to rent).
Snow was thick but great consistency. There was about 6" of new snow with moderate moisture content sitting on top of a firm crust layer. New snow had a fairly strong bond to the crust layer and I could not get any separation to occur when loading various test patches on different slope angles. Poor visibility was the biggest challenge of the day (aside from having to find AT boots to rent).
Welcome to the TAY, Cody, quite an adventure.
Went all the way to Muir; from a bit above Pan Point to higher Pebble Creek area there was almost bulletproof raincrust which was hard to skin on when sloped; it was also a bit breezy and foggy. 1 K above that it was all gravy, all sunshine with hardly any wind. Snow was wind-affected but not too bad. Skiing down was pretty decent although icy spots required attention; this improved about 1K feet above Pebble Creek.
At the bottom, below Pan Point, nice powder from the morning developed breakable crust but again not too bad. New play area is very popular this year - lots of people having grand ol' time.
Very few skiers, I counted 7?
Went all the way to Muir; from a bit above Pan Point to higher Pebble Creek area there was almost bulletproof raincrust which was hard to skin on when sloped; it was also a bit breezy and foggy. 1 K above that it was all gravy, all sunshine with hardly any wind. Snow was wind-affected but not too bad. Skiing down was pretty decent although icy spots required attention; this improved about 1K feet above Pebble Creek.
At the bottom, below Pan Point, nice powder from the morning developed breakable crust but again not too bad. New play area is very popular this year - lots of people having grand ol' time.
Very few skiers, I counted 7?
Great photos! Thanks for sharing!
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