|
|
|
|
|
|
Turns All Year Trip Reports
(1) Viewing these pages constitutes your acceptance of the Terms of Use.
(2) Disclaimer: the accuracy of information here is unknown, use at your own risk.
(3) Trip Report monthly boards: only actual trip report starts a new thread.
(4) Keep it civil and constructive - that is the norm here. |
|
|
|
|
Author
|
Topic: October 31, 2002, Muir snowfield, Mt. Rainier (Read 8062 times)
|
Charles
Administrator
Offline
Posts: 1087
|
Procrastinators, Inc. (Paul and I) went up to Paradise to try to get October turns for months 73 and 71, respectively. On the drive up, it could be seen that there was some new snow on the Muir, but not the even, white coating we had hoped for. Sunny, but cold and windy at the parking lot, and from there the nearby meadows looked devoid of any snow. We soon found, however, that the paved/gravel paths had almost continuous snow, from 1-4", which made the hiking in ski boots reasonable. The summer trail up Panorama Point was still in use, although somewhat drifted in. Above Panorama Point we ran into Ian and Jeremy, two adventurous boarders embarking on year-round skiing streaks. We all hiked the main route up above Pebble Creek to about 7800', eyeing a narrow strip (10 to 20' wide) of smooth drifted-in new snow along skiers right on the permanent snow. We stopped at the bottom of what, with good coverage, is the first big roll going up the Muir, now just rocks and some nasty looking patches of old snow.
We had some lunch at our high point, then started the big run, which at first was gentle, with areas of new snow but a lot of dirty, hard, irregular old snow - not really much fun at all. When we got over to the right edge of the snowfield, the somewhat steeper strip of new snow proved to be fairly nice to ski - firmly wind-packed, with a few spots of thick breakable wind crust. So nice, in fact, that Paul and I side-stepped back up to do the bottom, best 50' again! At 400-500' of vertical, this trip was below the threshold for what I have considered a countable ski trip in the past, but it is clear that most people are having to relax their standards this fall (except for animals like David and Amar).
I definitely would not have been out skiing this day if it had not been my last chance to get October turns, and although the skiing was far from good, it would have been much worse if there had not been any new snow. Plus, with no reason to keep skiing all day, we got back home in time to go trick-or-treating.
Here is a photo of the lower Muir snowfield, and there are more photos from this trip here.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 11/15/02, 08:14 AM by admin »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
ron j
TAY Moderator
Offline
Posts: 2463
|
Wow.
Charles, Thanks for the pic. Perfect shot to convey the grim realities.
That's even more barren than last fall, which was the worst I'd ever seen.
Nice job hopping out of the corner tho 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"When I stop having fun I'm turnin' around"
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.” - Niels Bohr
"If a given person makes it a priority not to die in an avalanche, he or she stands a very good chance of living a long, happy life in the mountains." - Jill Fredston
|
|
|
Charles
Administrator
Offline
Posts: 1087
|
Well, like I said, the skiing could have been much worse, and the good weather and (relatively) easy access was nice. I definitely don't want to leave it until the last day of the month too often, though. It is pretty discouraging that late summer-early fall conditions have become so bad the last couple of years, and especially after getting such a good snowpack this past winter. If this trend continues, I might have to give up my streak in protest!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Robie
Member
Offline
Posts: 1145
|
Way to go Charles ! ya kept us hangin there for a while.
Hmm !wonder the where the new snow blew off to?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"I bought my rope at Walmart ,my gloves at costco but paid dearly for my dynafits"
Apparant Moderator of what sucks
|
|
|
big_ian
1Member
Offline
Posts: 1
|
Hey Hey
« Reply #5 on: 11/01/02, 08:20 AM » |
|
Nice shot of those 2 Rock’n snowboarders. I can’t wait to see the rest of the Shots. Did the Photo’s of you come out?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
paul_smith
5Member
Offline
Posts: 15
|
My best recoilection of the trip, misery loves company  , great views to Helens, Adams, and Hood, beautiful clear blue sunny skies  , and suprisingly, few people ? I'd have to echo Mad Dog's words, desperate times require desperate measures, but whadda ya gonna do? Some new snow please! Nice T.R. Charles
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Charles
Administrator
Offline
Posts: 1087
|
Ian, you got a bunch of good shots of me, and I have a lot of good shots of everyone else. I'm working the photos up for Monday. Will you send me (e-mail or IM) your and Jeremy's last names so I can include them (unless you want first names only)?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you to our sponsors!
|
Contact turns-all-year.com
Turns All Year Trip Reports ©2001-2010 Turns All Year LLC. All Rights Reserved
The opinions expressed in posts are those of the poster and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Trip Reports administrators or Turns All Year LLC
|
Turns All Year Trip Reports | Powered by SMF 1.0.6.
© 2001-2005, Lewis Media. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
