April 16, 2017, Jim Hill

We took the Nordic Center/Lanham Lake route to the divide (~5700') and looked over into the Henry drainage and had lunch. Refrozen sun-affected boilerplate in the morning, up until a little past noon. Then the top inch or less of snow softened up. (There was not nearly as much sun and warmth as was forecast, and more wind.)

Kudos to the pair who farmed the north bowl yesterday for 7 runs!

Skiing back down to the lake through the trees was quite enjoyable.

I lost my red climbing helmet at around 4500' above Lanham Lake. It jumped out of the mesh keeper and slid into some trees far enough below our skin track. It has a sticker with my name and "Mt Rainier Nordic Patrol."

The only avalanche activity we saw that might have been from this weekend was a smallish wet loose natural high in the north-facing bowl above Lanham Lake. It didn't look deep and did not run out. We observed it from the lake.