May 29-30, 2019, MRNP

I took a couple days midweek to camp in the park at Mt. Rainier and do some skiing. I was hoping to be more ambitious and do some longer climbs like Interglacier, but had just come off a backpacking trip in the Olympics and was fighting a cold, so had to moderate a bit.

On Wednesday, I headed up the Muir snowfield to check out the Nisqually Chutes, which I'd never been down before. The snow was already pretty soft by mid-day, so an earlier start would probably have been better. A couple exploratory turns into the top of the main chute did not produce anything more than a couple slow rollers, so I decided to give it a cautious go. Really fun line even if the snow was a bit grabby, and it was neat to see the Nisqually Glacier. Thanks to the skier ahead of me that set a skin track back up towards Paradise.

On Thursday, I hiked up from Reflection Lake to check out the Tatoosh ridge without any set plan. Snow is continuous to the road in most places around there, but may be getting a bit spotty in the lower trees soon. Foss Peak looked like an obvious winner, so I followed the ridge up it, and skied from near the summit there. Hugging the NW facing aspects, I found some good firmer conditions and a grin-inducing run through the various drops into the woods, and then much to soon, back to the road.