November 30, 2002, Camp Muir

Headed down to Paradise Friday with little expectations of great snow, but hopes of wonderful views. As we reached the parking lot our expectations for both were met. Although there is snow down to the parking lot, it's very patchy. The temps seemed to be hovering in the mid 40s and the sun was shining strongly. Crystal clear day.

Up we went. Although you could skin your way up towards Pan Point, we really didn't deem it necessary. Up past Pebble Creek, the snow was still looking pretty thin, but views of the snowfield were of snow. Towards the bottom of the snowfield we decided to throw the skis on. If we timed it right, the sun would soften things up and our ride down would be in fantastic spring mush.

I stopped just a few hundred feet below Muir Camp, as the rest of the group continued up. Despite the extremely warm temps - upper 40s and zero wind - the top section of the snow field never really softened up. But heah, we were skiing! As we made our way down things soften up very nicely and some superb turns were made. Almost December...if felt more like April.

Although we had to take the skis off a few times to get around the bare spots, we did manage to ski all the way to the parking lot dodging rocks and gliding through low-lying bush. Overall it turned out to be a great day. We do need snow though, as this inversion is quickly melting the base we had. The views the entire day though were world class.

Ian