May 7, 2007, Van Trump Park, Mt. Rainier

Will and I decided to head down to Mt Rainier and enjoy the nice weather on Monday.  We figured Van Trump Park would make a nice tour and wondered if anybody had been up there this year.  We started hiking in shoes since the trail was dry, but quickly reached snow.  After cruising along for about a mile Will decided to switch to boots to make traveling over the snow easier.  We continued traversing steep, soft slopes above the creek in boots until the snow looked continuous enough and appropriate to throw on the skis and start skinning.  We passed the second bridge not realizing we had to cross it and headed up towards the small falls ahead thinking they were Comet Falls.  We ascended a short but steep snow slope to the side and sat down for a break.  Turning around we noticed a HUGE cascade falling from the cliffs and quickly realized where Comet Falls really was and our error!

We downclimbed the short slope and made our way back to the bridge which was about 8-10' below the slope on our side.  With nowhere else to go I pulled out my shovel and started digging.  Will joined in upon reaching the bridge and we started constructing a pretty serious staircase down to the bridge.  It took over an half of an hour to build a decent set of stairs down, but much less for the other side.  It was actually kind of fun!

After the constuction work, we were back on skis and heading towards Comet Falls, then up the prominent gully.  We nearly bailed due to soft snow conditions most of the way up this, but decided to go on and soon after reached Van Trump Park.  Superb views of Mt Rainier, the Tatoosh Range, Mt Adams, and Mt St Helens surrounded us, and even Mt Hood was visible in the distance.  The skinning was relatively easy so we continued up a narrow arm between two deep gullies towards the Van Trump Glacier.  We aimed for a knoll and reached it at 6,850' after a bit of steeper skinning work.  It was so hot here we were taking off shirts and rolling up pants!  It seriously felt like 75 degrees up there!

After soaking in the sun and the awesome views, we switched to downhill mode expecting poor skiing down.  The top 200' or so were actually very pleasant to ski!  Below that it  became a bit slower and softer, but still decent.  We made quick work of the rest of the descent, strapping the skis to our packs at about 4300' since the snow in the trees was covered in junk.  The snow is actually almost continuous to the first bridge, so if you're desparate for vertical you could ski further.

Awesome day in the mountains...sure glad MRNP is open now!