March 11-13, 2006, Rainer Gibralter chute and muir

Sorry for the late report, but I felt like this trip was worth noting. I climbed from paradise to muir on saturday the 11th of March.  A large front had passed through the area the week before, dumping over two fresh feet of snow on the mountain.  I was blessed with three straight days of sunshine and great skiing conditions. I made a summit attempt on the morning of the 13th. I joined a man who was at muir named Berry and we climbed along the cowlitz cleaver to the top of gibralter ridges. I was afraid that the fresh snow would have not created a stable enough base to ski down the chute from gibralter to  muir (a 45 deg chute), but as we climbed the ridge and tested the snow pack we realized it was actually a somewhat stable base. The ski from the top of the ridges to muir and then down to paradise was amazing. the pack on the upper mountain was thick and I could tell that there was a thick slab that was ready to slide once the temperatures begain to rise; however, the entire snowfield of the lower mountain was completely covered and harmless. I even skied in and out of parts of the nisqually glacier nearby without having to climb out. I would say that there has been a substantial amount of fresh snow on the mountain providing for great skiing conditions for this spring season.
Here's a pic of the the chute

muir snowfield

camp muir