Muir Snowfield, June 25, 2006

It was Day 3 of our 3-day/3-volcano ski trip so it had to be Mount Rainier. We had lucked out the evening before when we (Nick, Peter and Bob) had found a motel room just outside the Park gates. Aware that parking spaces were limited at Paradise and that we had a 5 hour car ride to end the day, we made sure that we hit the trail to Muir by 7:45. There were several bare spots in the first half-mile and adequate coverage until the ridge with the junction to Panorama Point. A couple carries got us onto continuous snow to the rock islands above the Nisqually Chutes. Our time frame dictated that we start back from there. We dropped to the top of the Chute, but had second thoughts when we observed how dirty and narrow the throat looked up close.

  We had great turns on the slope to the east of the Chute, but then had to do a little rock scrambling to continue on to the point where we were able to reconnect with the climber's ( and there were lots) trail. We arrived at the parking lot circus at 1:45 and our volcano trifecta was complete. The border official was more interested in talking ski stats ie. 30,000 vertical feet, 9,000 ski-climbed feet, etc. than how much we had spent in the U.S.A. on our 4 day/1000 mile trip. How Canadian,eh?!