Home > Trip Reports > Dec 23, 2019, Paradise

Dec 23, 2019, Paradise

12/23/19
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2434
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Posted by Robie on 12/23/19 11:35am
After seeing Randy's report that confirmed my decision to head to Rainier.
Picked up Mike in Puyallup , 9 amsharp at gate that didnt open till 10:22 am . Very icy road.
6-8" fresh snow skied great. The new snow mostly filled in the rain runnels and coverage is about or slightly better than before this last wet weather event.
Visibility was low and more than slightly humid.
We skied easterly off of ALta Vista near small trees for definition. returned to our up track at various points along the Edith basin track.
No avy issues on steeper slopes of Alta Vista.

Thanks for the report. Did the road condition improve by the time you came down?

Yes the road improved a whole lot. I would expect good skiing tommorow as well. Given the coverage.

we were there today.  Skied off Manama ridge, East side.  Lovely conditions.  Did laps from about 6k to 5200.  Upper part of that was lovely, things got noticeably thicker at the bottom but still good.  Vis was flat but doable.  My first trip this winter, worth it.  Think those conditions will last another few days at least

That's great. Planning to be out there tomorrow morning.

Anyone been to Paradise since this report?  Need to burn off some holiday calories, but could easily be convinced to stay home and consume more calories if conditions are marginal.

The 24th was really quite nice. There is a real base, and there *was* nice boot top pow.

Yep, was real good on the 27th as well. Moderately limited visibility, but easy to find soft and smooth snow below tree line. Some creeks are still open (and Nisqually bridge route is still rocky), but coverage is good for nearly everything else.

frankfrank had better food but we had sun...





with vintage boot top pow (measured in hours, not years 😉)  that got very glittery in the lower chutes (large hoar crystals), a magical run that offered a degree of christmas ski redemption after traipsing around the snoqualmie crust two days earlier on the 24th. (charming in its own way...

Also--that benign looking wisp of cloud in the photo expanded into a full mid-mountain white-out so that fifteen minutes after skiing this we couldn't see any of the run we had just skied!
We felt very lucky...

Poppy skiing. Teamed up with Matt & Pete for the run--good to meet you!


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14684
dec-23-2019-paradise
Robie
2019-12-23 19:35:07