October 22, 2016, Mt.Rainier, Paradise

Fantastic weather, extremely variable snow.   Skinned from the car, booted pan face, and then a couple short carries over bare ground to reach Pebble Creek.  Once on the snowfield there were pockets of wind blown powder over a thick crust of rough ice, the higher one went, the more exposed ice there was.   Might've softened up later for the afternoon crowds, but at noon I turned around at 9200 as it looked like the rest of the way to Camp Muir was going to be unpleasant skiing.   Boot crampons came in handy, saw others making good use of ski crampons. 
Skiing down was an exercise in connecting the dots of soft snow amongst the ice. Above Pan Point, I veered over to the east, following the Skyline trail and skied into Edith Creek Basin- nice supportive corny snow and not too many rocks - though I was still glad I brought my beater skis. Easy ski all the way back to the car on the Golden Gate/Skyline trail. 

pictures here