June 3: Lower Turtle, Wilson/Nisqually Glacier
6/15/07
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2986
1
Had a great run down some nice spring snow this past weekend at Rainier. Got to Paradise Sat. around sunset and skinnned up to pan point and descended to the Nisqually moraine in nice corny conditions, a good sign of what was to come the next day...set up a meager camp and skinned up to the lower portions of Nisqually chute for corns turns with alpenglow off the summit lenticular...really aesthetic ski. The skiing down to camp from the pan point trail was so nice we decided to harvest some more corn by booting up from the moraine a few hundred feet just to whet the appetite for dinner and touring the next day. I love the 10:30 sunsets up there!! Had dinner and went to sleep to be awoken in the morning by some 20 odd people doing glacier travel training with the mounties. Skinned and roped up and headed out for the Wilson/Nisqually variation on the Kautz route. The fan approach didnt seem appetizing so we took the glacier variation which was in great shape and gained the main route to the turtle. Some minor crevasse negotiaitions and mostly stable snow led us to make good time up to the lower turtle.....noted Jason H. and co. turns down fuhrer finger..sweet!! Thunderheads and thunder to boot approaching convinced us it was a good time to head down a little lower than planned. Tons of turns down the steeper pitches of the Wilson in great dreamy corn snow, skiied sustained 45 degree pitch for 100 feet and triggered a really wet slide that just kept on going...slowly though. Dodged a few crevasses, but nothing too bad. Great Tour...scenic, no Muir Mess and wide open skiing for the soul.
Sounds like a nice trip. Scotsman and I were in the Chutes earlier in the day saturday. I'm glad to hear the snow corned up in the evening because it was pretty soft when we booted out to Pan point about 2:00 pm.
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