Feb 29, 2016, Leap Year Muir
2/29/16
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2434
1
Yesterdays tour was set in motion back in November, when my girlfriend scored a prime Saturday night reservation at the Yurt during the MTTA gala. With the weekend already bringing us to Ashford, toph and myself decided a few weeks back to tack on an extra night and head up to Paradise to see what the weather gods would throw at us.
Following a moist weekend on the MTTA trails (woe be the Tour de Huts skiers/snowshoers on their first foray), we bid our fellow yurtians adieu on Sunday afternoon and settled in as the only guests at Whittakers Bunkhouse. The setup to a horror movie or a sign we would have all the first tracks we wanted?
After dinner at the Copper Creek and a careful read of the forecast, it looked like the weekend dump up at Paradise would yield a short weather window on Monday with wind and storm slabs keeping us off the steeper slopes.
With over a foot reported in the morning, the NPS delayed the Longmire gate opening until at least 11 am but we wandered up around 10:30 am and found, to our pleasant surprise, the gates to Paradise wide open (St. Peter was nowhere to be found, however). As only the second car in the lot, it was a far cry from our busy but memorable powderfest at Paradise on Saturday a week and a half ago (Feb 20). That day, we ogled Pan Point and Camp Muir, both destinations unknown to us, and resolved to make an upward trek as soon as we could.
Despite the compressed schedule the delayed gate opening and the looming specter of the 5 pm gate closure we decided to make a go at Muir with an 11:15 am departure from the lot. I was testing out a new extra-light AT setup and toph was, as usual, slogging away on his splitboard. We found ourselves breaking trail in fairly dense snow and I immediately had skin globbing issues that required repeated waxing. A lone mountaineer followed on snowshoes and we occasionally traded trailbreaking.
On Pan Face we noticed some storm slab activity, but on the whole nothing alarming like the
Following a moist weekend on the MTTA trails (woe be the Tour de Huts skiers/snowshoers on their first foray), we bid our fellow yurtians adieu on Sunday afternoon and settled in as the only guests at Whittakers Bunkhouse. The setup to a horror movie or a sign we would have all the first tracks we wanted?
After dinner at the Copper Creek and a careful read of the forecast, it looked like the weekend dump up at Paradise would yield a short weather window on Monday with wind and storm slabs keeping us off the steeper slopes.
With over a foot reported in the morning, the NPS delayed the Longmire gate opening until at least 11 am but we wandered up around 10:30 am and found, to our pleasant surprise, the gates to Paradise wide open (St. Peter was nowhere to be found, however). As only the second car in the lot, it was a far cry from our busy but memorable powderfest at Paradise on Saturday a week and a half ago (Feb 20). That day, we ogled Pan Point and Camp Muir, both destinations unknown to us, and resolved to make an upward trek as soon as we could.
Despite the compressed schedule the delayed gate opening and the looming specter of the 5 pm gate closure we decided to make a go at Muir with an 11:15 am departure from the lot. I was testing out a new extra-light AT setup and toph was, as usual, slogging away on his splitboard. We found ourselves breaking trail in fairly dense snow and I immediately had skin globbing issues that required repeated waxing. A lone mountaineer followed on snowshoes and we occasionally traded trailbreaking.
On Pan Face we noticed some storm slab activity, but on the whole nothing alarming like the
Great trip! Looking forward to a repeat in 4 years. With any luck, STM will be cured by then 8)
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