Home > Trip Reports > June 2 upper Nisqually Chute MRNP

June 2 upper Nisqually Chute MRNP

6/15/07
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3012
4
Posted by ovrthhills on 6/3/07 12:16am
Scotsman and I arrived at the park gate at 8:00 AM heading for the Tatoosh range.  We arrived at Reflection lake were there was only one other car parked and immediately looked at the Muir snowfield and the Nisqually Chutes.  The quiet and solitude of the Tatoosh was to much to bear so we  decided to go for the Nisqually and the madness of Muir. 

The parking lot at Paradise was so full we had to park far down the loop road.  Climbing above Paradise was an amazing array of climbers, skiers,  Hindi tourists and other colorful folks.  It had the air of a pilgrimage.  Scottie, as always, led the skin track and we arrived at the 8300 ft  entrance of the Chute at 12:15.  There was one set of tracks visible from a previous day and the snow was softening rapidly in the heat.  We stopped to ponder the stability and the judgement of skiing this steep long line when two other skiers appeared.  TAY member Spin Fast and his partner came up and went directly to skiing after first politely asking if we minded if they went first. We were glad to have the slope tested and it looked safe, so, without ado we donned our skis and after a little hyperventilating I led out onto the Chute.

My first turn released a good size hisser which caught me on the second turn and took my feet out. Fortunately, I was able to continue gliding while basically sitting on the tails of my skis and cleared the flow.  The moving snow appeared to be the new snow from earlier in the week and it left a more solid bed surface. After the flow passed lower I made another turn across the bed surface to more stable snow and linked turns skiers left for a few hundred feet.  At this point we had agreed to traverse to the right shoulder where the previous skiers had regrouped.  Scottie  joined me and I led the ridge down to where a rock outcropping separated the main chute from a couloir.  Our predecessors had taken the couloir but it rolled over so we couldn't see what lay below.  The main Chute was visible to our left but had quite a bit of debris from wet slides filling the throat. 

At this point Chris, who was above me, said "we gotta go there's a slide coming".  ??? I went into the couloir since it was closer and skied past the rollover where it steepened to 40 + degrees and progressively narrowed to a rock obstacle and then to a solid rock band about 20 ft wide with a bergshrund/glide crack below and a narrow bridge on the left side against the cliff.  The snow in the couloir was more stable  and we were able to stop above the crack and exit with a quick right turn over the bridge.  Once on the apron the skiing was open and the last 500 ft were relaxing and fun.  We rejoined Spin Fast who was roping up for a trip up the glacier for another lap.  We continued down to 6000 ft. where Scottie said he didn't think about work even once on the descent.  We had a group hug and bootpacked back up to the summer route and a sticky ski back to the lodge.

Two thousand feet of puckery skiing. Sorry no pics.
Welcome back to the knee-knockers' club, Michael. :)

Great day Michael, and thanks to Spinfast and his buddy whose tracks we followed.
As you say I didn't think about work once during the descent. ;D
Famous last words, " let's follow their tracks, if they can ski it, so can we!" NOT ;)

author=Scotsman link=topic=7307.msg29138#msg29138 date=1180969661]
Great day Michael, and thanks to Spinfast and his buddy whose tracks we followed.
As you say I didn't think about work once during the descent. ;D
Famous last words, " let's follow their tracks, if they can ski it, so can we!" NOT ;)

We could call it the Lemming line. For my part, I will be proud of that line for some time to come. Thanks again to our young scouts.

The Lemming Variation to the Nisqually chute. I like that and very apt! ;D

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ovrthhills
2007-06-03 07:16:16