Home > Trip Reports > Sep24, 2006, The Edge of Paradise

Sep24, 2006, The Edge of Paradise

9/24/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
5955
9
Posted by silaswild on 9/24/06 12:06pm
Shamed by Jim Oker and motivated by last week's excellent report by Pete Alderson as well as the forecast for a beautiful day, I signed up to join our esteemed webmaster for a day in Paradise.  Sir Charles picked me up at 6:30AM sporting the fine tay shirt featured on the current website frontpage, and we were hiking up the Muir trail by 9:20 (after allowing a group of enthusiastic Singapore business visitors to pose with us and our skis for photos.)  We dared to venture off the pavement, which was luckily rangerless, for an occasional ripe blueberry.  Several other skiers were encountered along the way, this September skiing is getting popular.

The upper Muir snowfield did not look good from our vantage point (wish David Coleman had posted last night!) so we headed east to the Paradise Glacier along with two Enumclaw HS teachers, tay lurkers with nearly 100 months each.  The edge close to the rock ridge held a nice cover of inch deep corn remaining from last week's snowfall and it skied very well for about 1200'.  Contrary to the Muir crew of yesterday, the skiing did not inspire us to go for another run.

Company was great, the crystal clear atmosphere provided spectacular views, and we somehow avoided most of the Seahawk game traffic.  A nice return to the Northern Hemisphere, and yes Jim, I now have a legitimate September day in the bag.  :)

Some photos:

Silas on the upper Paradise Glacier soon before he punched a foot through a snowbridge that looked just like this patch of new snow:



Victor and Brian skiing the Patches of Paradise:



Charles skiing the Patches of Paradise:
Well Silas, I was just waking up in the parking lot (2:00 am arrival from California last night) as you left.  I caught a glimpse of Robie, plus an assortment of snowboarders, but no skiers.  I looked uphill, saw a long hike for limited return (particularly compared to my single 3500 foot run last weekend at Mt. Hood), and opted for a nice hike at Sunrise instead.  Then: a traffic jam extending solidly from the Sunrise parking lot to my own driveway in Bellingham. 

Glad you found the goods, such as they were, and glad Charles opted to continue his streak through one more September. 

Mark

I think you'd have been up there even w/o the shaming. Good job keeping the PNW streak going!

Yanna and I enjoyed a wonderful overnight up at Yellow Aster Butte, which gave us a good view out to the new snow starting to cover the ice on Baker. Made me think it might be time to start making sure the ski gear is in order. No streak for me...

I added the allowance of photos to Silas' post.

Not sure why you sound so disappointed about the skiing, Silas, maybe jet lag? I thought that, for September, the skiing was quite good, and definitely better than last September. I thought the areas with only patches of new snow added some fun, giving us something to aim for. Plus, all of the new snow seemed to have corned up nicely and was smooth and fast (helped by the fact the the underlying old snow was smooth and not icy, if somewhat dirty).

If anyone is planning on heading up to this area, properly called "Ron's Edge" I believe, be careful of the well hidden crevasses. There must have been some pretty good wind when the new snow fell, because some crevasses were bridged in a way that made them look just like all of the other new snow patches, and Silas punched a foot through one around 8500 feet (out toward the center of the Paradise Glacier, not right on Ron's Edge).

From our high point Silas and I skied right down the fall line, left of the rock island, just to get a look at the Big Crack and see if there would be any reasonable way to continue down to the bottom of the Paradise Glacier. There was not, and in addition the lower glacier was really broken up, had very little new snow, and it looked like there wouldn't be much skiing available in the lower Paradise Glacier area. We were able to traverse back to Ron's Edge without removing skis, and then got some more turns on the lowest Muir snowpatch, which ironically had the most complete coverage of new snow.

Forgot to add: Sorry we missed you, Mark. Yes, I did add another September to my streak, using the stragegy that has worked for three years now: I tell Ullr that I am not going to ski in September unless there is new snow, and apparently Ullr is not only listening, but sympathetic. Congratulations to Victor and Brian for their 96th month in a row! Also, it was good to get a chance to visit with you on the hike back, Robie, Bronka, and Ken.

Yes it was good to see and meet Silas. Kinda got my juices flowing and now I'm fiddling with bindings and wax.
skiless in paradise Robie

author=Robie link=topic=5328.msg22518#msg22518 date=1159240397]
skiless in paradise Robie
Whoa, Robie, I can't believe YOU were skiless  ;).

Silas,

Great photographs, and I'm not saying that just because I'm in one. It was enjoyable meeting you and Charles on the trip. I can't say this enough, no matter how good, bad or marginal the snow is, there is nothing I'd rather be doing on the days above Pebble Creek than being right there. It's good to know people who also "get it."

Victor

You better have had more than a liter of water or otherwise I will be very disappointed in you. So where is your proof? I wanna see photos of waterbottles or better yet, photos of you guys actually drinking it!

(Voice of sanity, right here!)

Good job getting snow in Sept!

-T

Victor,

Thanks for coming out of the lurker closet!  Hope you guys can share the occasional trip report to help us all choose optimal destinations for skiing.  There's plenty for everyone, other lurkers need to give a little info this season too, instead of just consuming it.  Let's connect for a tour near Crystal this winter.

Thanks too for everything you do to keep our kids motivated to learn, you are building our future's leaders and good citizens.

Silas

author=Tony_Bentley link=topic=5328.msg22551#msg22551 date=1159514331]
You better have had more than a liter of water or otherwise I will be very disappointed in you.


Muir is such a mellow tour, who needs liquid?
;)

Way to prod the lurkers, Silas!!

Reply to this TR

3443
sep24-2006-the-edge-of-paradise
silaswild
2006-09-24 19:06:53