May 19, 2003, Muir

After all that new snow, it was uncertain how good the skiing would be.  Traces of new snow were present at the roadside as low as Cougar Rock campground, but in contrast to typical years, there were no patches of winter snow pack at that altitude. Hike up was straightforward in quite a boot/skin trough from the weekend.  Pan point was solid.  A high overcast and some lower cloudcap action were settling in as we began to descend about 2:30.  Very suboptimal technique, new meadow-skipper tele boots (Garmont "Excursion") and sun-effected fresh (crusty...yet sludgy!) reduced me to walking down the top 1000' and also Pan, but the rest was actually pretty OK.  Did observe sponaneous sloughing on the steeper aspects of the Tatoosh.