February 12, 2006, Nisqually Chutes

Cool tour and great skiing yesterday NISQUALLY CHUTES on the south face of Mt Rainier 8)!  With RonJ, Maddog, JW, Jen, Darryl (we missed you Scotty) we went to Paradise on a brilliantly sunny Sunday.  On the way there we read the whimsical weather/avi report (those guys must be bored - probably should be doing yard work to keep busy instead).

Paradise parking lot was sunny and warm and empty - we left our gortex and goggles behind and started skinning up - stripping layers and adding sunscreen every hundred feet until arms were bare.  As we climbed at a leisurely pace, we spied three dudes swinging a wide arc around us and steamrolling past to the throat of the chutes at 8400ft.  There they waited cautiously and politely as we ambled up, then introduced themselves as Andy, John and Dan - they were notably well dressed and exemplary young skiers - and a satisfactory addition to our expedition as instead of taking first tracks they fell in with our group.

We dug a snow pit which exposed ice crusts at 5 in and 30 in - layers above and below were confirmed on shovel shear test however were very cohesive with crusts per shovel compression test which resulted in no failure.  Since we were on 42 degree slope we did not do Rutschblock test.

Jerry - our filmographer dropped into the chute first skiing the first several hundred feet of HERO CORN SNOW on the 42 degree south facing slope with grace.  It was perfect!  After that we had another couple thousand feed of equally nice corn snow on 35 degree slopes.  We then crossed high over the Nisqually Glacier to its western lateral moraine (skier's right) descending several hundred feet along the glacier where the snow thickened.  There we stood finally in the big gully looking back up at the snout of the glacier, SAGOY!  

But the adventure was not over yet, there was excellent snow coverage along the river all the way back to the bridge.  We made two exciting though uneventful river crossings (it never before occurred to me you could just wade in a river in ski boots and your feet would stay dry).  We then climbed up the old road on the skiers left to the bridge.  

Very exciting!  Excellent snow!  Great sunny day with huge views of Southern Cascades and volcanoes.  RonJ and Maddog said "WE HIT IT PERFECT!"  I don't think I have ever had such fun in one day of skiing ;D!  Scotty - and JibberD - we missed you - Har Har Har ;) (Maddog told me to write that).