January 28, Bullion Basin
1/28/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2635
2
Hey there---my first trip report. Chad and I joined the skin-commuters about 9 AM and went into the bottom of the basin. Avy was obviously a concern: pronounced crust from last Tue. evident when I pushed a pole in a bit over 12". some others skinned high on the left/SW face, called East Peak I think? Too scary for us. We hooked up with Bruce and Randy to take turns breaking.Lots of compliments from the back 3 kept the leader gasping away.
Randy dug a pit on thre lower R of the east Peak slope and found just what we felt: over a foot of fresh, more soft, and then a crust and maybe a bit of surface hoar?
So we stayed away from the most open slopes and skied near trees most of the time. There was a natural slide below the cornices opposite, and steady snow all day. On our third run, the furthest SE, we found a skier-triggered slab about 8-10" thick and maybe 20' wide that ran about 50 yards.We hugged the trees to the side of it and nothing happened, but on each run we hit the crust in a place or 2.
Now for the good news: the turns were fabulous! :)
Light, floaty pow, chest-to-face shots almost every turn, plenty of room to get tracks, and decent visibility. I've looked at this slope for years and it was great to track it, and Chad was quite pleased with his first day out in almost 2 years. Hi Scotsman! Now close the window and get back to work. TELEMACK
Randy dug a pit on thre lower R of the east Peak slope and found just what we felt: over a foot of fresh, more soft, and then a crust and maybe a bit of surface hoar?
So we stayed away from the most open slopes and skied near trees most of the time. There was a natural slide below the cornices opposite, and steady snow all day. On our third run, the furthest SE, we found a skier-triggered slab about 8-10" thick and maybe 20' wide that ran about 50 yards.We hugged the trees to the side of it and nothing happened, but on each run we hit the crust in a place or 2.
Now for the good news: the turns were fabulous! :)
Light, floaty pow, chest-to-face shots almost every turn, plenty of room to get tracks, and decent visibility. I've looked at this slope for years and it was great to track it, and Chad was quite pleased with his first day out in almost 2 years. Hi Scotsman! Now close the window and get back to work. TELEMACK
author= Hi Scotsman! Now close the window and get back to work. TELEMACK
Nice work TELEMACK. Glad you found some safe freshies.Went lift skiing on Sunday due to high avy danger. Woops, got to go, boss is looking over my shoulder. 8)
Mac, glad you came forward and wrote the trip report, representing the hordes in Bullion Basin(12?) on a high avalanche danger day. Now we can all surface and admit our folley. That SW slope sure skied well, even while scraping the ice layer occasionally. It seemed to be the only reasonable line under the circumstances.
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