April 22, 2001, Mazama Ridge, Mt Rainier

Finally, got out for a day of skiing. As it was our first trip of the year we decided to just go play around on Mazama Ridge. Wasn't expecting much in the way of conditions. Had visions of Saturdays sun creating a nice layer of breakable crust. We climbed up Edith Creek Basin and then dropped in toward Mazama Ridge. Fortunately things had froze hard enough overnight to form a firm base and there was about 1/2" of new over that. Not exaclty epic conditions but fairly nice turning stuff. It warmed and continued to snow as we Yo-Yo'd the slope four times. By the time we left about another 1" of snow had fallen and the base was starting soften. Hard turns would break trough, but if you backed off a bit it was nice skiing.

Kurt Bosselman