January 22, 2006, Paradise Pea Soup Tour
1/22/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1996
0
All we wanted was to get a little bit of heaven that we kept hearing about from everyone else that has been able to go skiing since we have been getting pounded by all the snowfall. So I got Todd, Andrew, and Bill on board to head to Rainier in search of good pow. The weather reported early clearings and partly cloudy skies, but once we arrived at Paradise (1030am), we never found ourselves out of the pea soup. The original plan was to hit The Castle, but the NWAC mentioned dangers on NE slopes, so we thought we might get check out Mazama Ridge.
As we headed up, there were plenty of tracks going here and there, so we just followed the main track towards Alta Vista. Once there, we were pretty much alone, but we could not see 5 feet in front of us. We made the call to head down in the basin below Pan Point and head up the ridge from there. The only problem was that we had to drop into nothingness. It was a dropoff into clouds, so Andrew took the first turns and hit a steep slope that mellowed out below. The terrain seemed stable, with a good 8-12 inches of powder beneath us. The weather had remained cold (>32), so the snow was very fluffy. We got totally lost, got vertigo, ran into snow slopes with our noses, until we finally hit another trail heading up towards Mazama Ridge. Once at a saddle, we decided it might be best to head back towards Paradise and find some trees to yo-yo since none of us were having any fun in the clouds and fog.
We were only 100 vertical feet from the lodge when we found a suckerhole that seemed to light up the area just west of the lodge. So we dropped into some nice turns that took us down to the road. From there we headed even farther down into the basin. After having lunch we skinned out and eyed a nice slope just across the basin. We got back on the road and skinned towards the slope. Just then, there seemed to be a congregation of skiers that had the same idea. The slope was big enough for everyone to get in some fresh tracks, and it was about 200 VF. The snow was great, the sun was shining, and we were happy.
Another TAY'er
More pictures
http://questalb.com/gallery/paradise012206.asp
As we headed up, there were plenty of tracks going here and there, so we just followed the main track towards Alta Vista. Once there, we were pretty much alone, but we could not see 5 feet in front of us. We made the call to head down in the basin below Pan Point and head up the ridge from there. The only problem was that we had to drop into nothingness. It was a dropoff into clouds, so Andrew took the first turns and hit a steep slope that mellowed out below. The terrain seemed stable, with a good 8-12 inches of powder beneath us. The weather had remained cold (>32), so the snow was very fluffy. We got totally lost, got vertigo, ran into snow slopes with our noses, until we finally hit another trail heading up towards Mazama Ridge. Once at a saddle, we decided it might be best to head back towards Paradise and find some trees to yo-yo since none of us were having any fun in the clouds and fog.
We were only 100 vertical feet from the lodge when we found a suckerhole that seemed to light up the area just west of the lodge. So we dropped into some nice turns that took us down to the road. From there we headed even farther down into the basin. After having lunch we skinned out and eyed a nice slope just across the basin. We got back on the road and skinned towards the slope. Just then, there seemed to be a congregation of skiers that had the same idea. The slope was big enough for everyone to get in some fresh tracks, and it was about 200 VF. The snow was great, the sun was shining, and we were happy.
Another TAY'er
More pictures
http://questalb.com/gallery/paradise012206.asp
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