April 2, 2006, East Peak / Bullion Variation
4/2/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1946
0
After breakfast and bottomless beer at the City Hall Saloon/Eatery, Marie and I pulled up late Saturday afternoon to cooling temps and light snow. I skinned 200ft up an east facing, treelined chute, topping out at a whopping 4600ft. Dug a pit 36'' down on a 35 degree section. Found the top 4-6'' to be quite saturated and slid easily on a rotten layer that was easily cleared out by my hand, a couple inches thick. About another 14'' down we found another layer similar, but not as rotten, about 6'' thick. Compression on this layer was bomber however the snow on top sheared off clean/easily when pryed upon this layer. I proceeded to take a run back down to the car where I bumped into 2 freeheelers who said that up top conditions seriously improved.
So we spent the rest of the evening bumping into old friends and meeting a few new ones before catching a great reggae band called Little Big Man at the Elk. After all the guinys and a waterfall of tequilla via body shots, everyone stumbled home. Next morning came real fast thanks to daylight savings. By 9:30, oh I mean 10:30 but proly closer to 11, I found myself skinning up East Peak on a highway accompanied by an Austrian named Peter. In the meantime Marie needed some more rest and let the lifts do the work. Up top the winds were tolerable and the clouds started to set in. Conditions right from the top were real wind slabby. I got a 6" slab to fracture and slide quite easily but it only ran about 10ft, stopping with the terrain. However that surface that slid was seriously wind effected and directly below the wind effect disappeared into nice powder.
Our run could simply be described as heaven, 6-12'' of untracked powder. It was especially kine in the trees as Peter and I floated effortlessly without being effected by the crust below. Gotta love how with the right winds, certain lines seem to delivery everytime. I was really suprised to see the absence of tracks in the area this weekend. Only saw 4 people up there while we were getting ours. Sorry no pics. My camera lens started to fog up. But take my word...it was sick.
So we spent the rest of the evening bumping into old friends and meeting a few new ones before catching a great reggae band called Little Big Man at the Elk. After all the guinys and a waterfall of tequilla via body shots, everyone stumbled home. Next morning came real fast thanks to daylight savings. By 9:30, oh I mean 10:30 but proly closer to 11, I found myself skinning up East Peak on a highway accompanied by an Austrian named Peter. In the meantime Marie needed some more rest and let the lifts do the work. Up top the winds were tolerable and the clouds started to set in. Conditions right from the top were real wind slabby. I got a 6" slab to fracture and slide quite easily but it only ran about 10ft, stopping with the terrain. However that surface that slid was seriously wind effected and directly below the wind effect disappeared into nice powder.
Our run could simply be described as heaven, 6-12'' of untracked powder. It was especially kine in the trees as Peter and I floated effortlessly without being effected by the crust below. Gotta love how with the right winds, certain lines seem to delivery everytime. I was really suprised to see the absence of tracks in the area this weekend. Only saw 4 people up there while we were getting ours. Sorry no pics. My camera lens started to fog up. But take my word...it was sick.
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