May 29, 2007, Paradise Glacier Descent

Robyn and I met and carpooled for an early start.  We reached Muir by the standard route around 11, to find it pleasantly lightly occupied.  Just a little windy on the way up.  For the descent we decided to try something new and explore the Paradise Glacier.  Great choice.  We peeked in above Anvil rock, but then realized that was the Cowlitz, not the Paradise.  After a few quick turns we were peeking over the edge below Anvil.  We could see broad, largely untracked rollers dropping down and generally skier's rightward, but no direct line of sight to the valley glacier.  By going down several hundred vert. steps and trending right, we managed to descend on safe, moderate slopes between cliffy areas, cornice features and some crack/crevasse areas.  I would estimate 2000 vert of very nice, mostly fall-line, 25 degree or so snow that was just perfectly softened corn.  Down on the obvious valley glacier, no cracks were showing.   Some pretty flat glacier cruising led to a mini-crux where we crossed a future creek/low point to head back West (skier's right) to the East edge of the Edith Creek Basin headwall area.  This required zooming across a slushy bottom-land and re-skining to climb 5-10 minutes in soft snow.  I think if we'd missed this, we would have commited to Mazama Ridge.  We then entered Edith Creek basin via a fairly thin lead, and finished down at the U in the road below the lodge, where there is still a 6-8 foot wall of snow lining the road at the bridge.   A few pictures later at http://www.flickr.com/photos/koelle/ and one movie at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILJgAuA_ywk