March 19, 2003, McClure Rock, almost, Mazama Ridge

Went on a good trip today with three others. We had planned to go up to McClure Rock via Mazama Ridge, Sluiskins Falls etc rather than climbing up icy Pan Point or icy Golden Gate. We found about 2" soft snow on Mazama and higher up promising good skiing. Above Golden Gate the wind hit us hard, and the snow was blown away leaving hard ice, so we decided not to go any higher. Once we were off the ice, there was great snow on the protected east slopes close to the ridge all the way down to the creek (well covered) and back up Mazama. Went over and looked down "911", wanting to ski it, but it turned out to be very wind blown, hard snow. So skied over to Backbowl and yoyoed it a few times in very decent snow. From there we skied down Mazama in a round-about way that one of our friends knows very well, to the saddle above the road. The snow got progressively worse the further down we skied, often icy in the trees, sometimes breakable crust, hard rain runnels, but still quite skiable. Ended up at the big curve in the road above Narrada and skinned back up to Paradise via Devil's Dip. Our knowledgeable friend calculated that we skied 8 miles, with a total of 3,000 ft el. gain. It was snowing on the way to the parking lot, and kept snowing quite far down before turning into rain, much lower than the projected 5,000 ft snow level.