November 11, 2017, Crystal
11/11/17
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2373
0
Skinned from the plaza in drizzle up Quicksilver -- observed several "ant lines" on various inbounds runs.
Drizzle transitioned to snow near the old top station on Quicksilver and Colin's skins started icing and clumping and sadly both of us had neglected to bring ski/skin wax. We trudged on up to 6200 and then called it quits after so many weighted leg lifts.
The plus side of heading down at that point was we still had decent visibility and we enjoyed mostly untracked snow on the decent that skied nicely. Down on the Quicksilver run the untracked snow was wet, heavy and sticky -- packed down areas had a "luge run" feel.
Passed many more groups headed up on the way back toward the plaza.
Only one very minor rock scrape -- but stopped 100 feet from the plaza to avoid snowcat churned up rocks sticking out of the snow. Packed down snow depth there was maybe 6-8 inches.
Drizzle transitioned to snow near the old top station on Quicksilver and Colin's skins started icing and clumping and sadly both of us had neglected to bring ski/skin wax. We trudged on up to 6200 and then called it quits after so many weighted leg lifts.
The plus side of heading down at that point was we still had decent visibility and we enjoyed mostly untracked snow on the decent that skied nicely. Down on the Quicksilver run the untracked snow was wet, heavy and sticky -- packed down areas had a "luge run" feel.
Passed many more groups headed up on the way back toward the plaza.
Only one very minor rock scrape -- but stopped 100 feet from the plaza to avoid snowcat churned up rocks sticking out of the snow. Packed down snow depth there was maybe 6-8 inches.
Reply to this TR
Please login first: