June 16, 2007; Sourdough Chutes, Sunrise

Thanks for the report, Marcus.
Did you get a look at or get a chance to ski Dege?
At any rate it sound like there's still a decent supply of white stuff in the chutes.  I'll try and smooth it out a bit for the rest, tomorrow.
Radio on 12-34 for anyone that wants to crank a few with the geezer.

We skied down between Antler and 6,951, then a nice gully to the same basin from near the top of 6,951.  After that we hopped around and skied a thin finger into the bowls on far skiers right of Huckleberry, so we didn't get near Dege.  Plenty of snow left to piece a skin track up there though.  Have fun tomorrow!

Today june 16th Holly and I joined forces with Park Ranger Casey and skied 2nd Bouroughs down into Berkely park. Lov vis  but managed to open the jets once we traversed out above some rocks. Many good lines on Burroughs 2 ,pocket glacier to the west and entincing run between those two spires. Hisser management still nessecary on North facing,East facing xcellent back down into maintenece road. No pollen ! No Pollen! East facing Dege looks doable to me with ski tracks on it already. all sourdough chutes ready and awaiting your skis.See my pics from today at Chutefest thread in random tracks.
Have fun ! sorry we missed you all we came out at around 430.

Here are a few of my pics from Saturday.


Booting up a steep chute.


Anastasia skiing with faint figures of our party visible through the clouds.  It wasn't a blizzard -- I had the shutter speed a bit too high for the conditions -- everything came out pretty noisy.


Undaunted by the snow flurries, we remained dedicated to our plan to grill in the Sunrise parking lot. 

I saw you guys on Saturday but left early as the weather was really coming in. Went back up on Sunday with my son Stewart and skied two chutes but again left early as we had brought no food and my teenager needed feeding. On Sunday I nearly turned around at Enumclaw due to the weather but on reaching Sunrise it was dry and a mix  of sun breaks and clouds.
chutes skied really well. I guess a lot of peple where put off by the weather.

author=Scotsman link=topic=7405.msg29568#msg29568 date=1182180569]
I guess a lot of people where put off by the weather.

Yeah...my date stood me up for the prom(s) without even a call. Went to the dance solo and met up with a great crew that filled the dance card. :D

Nice job on the BBQ you guys know how to do it right!
Joe

I was also there with my teenage son for a Fathers' Day outing.  Weather was much better than I expected (given the rain between Enumclaw and Greenwater).  Another example of "You never know unless you go".  The cool weather kept the surface conditions just right (soft enough, but minimal sloughing).  Coverage was a bit better than the opening weekend last year.  We did 5 laps of the chutes just up from the lodge.  Best of the day was the 3rd chute over from where the main hikers trail first meets the ridge.  Tight enough to be interesting, but not yet frightening.  If weather is really good, we'll probably head to Paradise next weekend.  But if it's iffy again, we'll probably go back to Sunrise.  It's a good option for iffy weather or low visibility.

author=Joedabaker link=topic=7405.msg29572#msg29572 date=1182183107]
Yeah...my date stood me up for the prom(s) without even a call. Went to the dance solo and met up with a great crew that filled the dance card. :D

Nice job on the BBQ you guys know how to do it right!
Joe

There was dancing?  A BBQ??  why oh why did i have to leave so soon???

Brenda and I had an excellent weekend at the chutes. Great to see and ski with familiar and new faces. Saturday we had a great time skiing with Marcus' group in low visibility and a brief blizzard. They nearly killed us as we tried to keep up with them booting up a long steep run that Ron J calls "fear factor".  Fun ski down. We took a chance on the weather and returned on Sunday. We were rewarded with a much better day weatherwise. We didn't arrive until 11:00 thinking everyone would bail on account of the weather and we were in no hurry to ski in the rain anyway. We get to the hairpin at Dege Peak and I'll be damned, Jarvis' truck is already there and he and his crew are already descending from the summit.  Skies are breaking up and there are views of Rainier. Jodebaker arrives just behind us and we catch them just as they climb out of the bowl, then skied and hiked with them up the ridge towards the visitor center. Car shuttle back to the hairpin.

Excellent coverage in the meadow. ;) Here's a shot of a lone straggler in our group just before our little run-in with "the law". I'm supposed to pass on the word, "don't ski in the meadow". Don't walk off the trail either.

I'm heading down to Sunrise on Wednesday- I haven't skied their before.  We will be hanging around for 2 days-any recommendations other than those mentioned in this thread?

The earlier opening gave us access to to better snow coverage than we've had in years.  Dege was in fine shape with a line off the north side that we never had coverage on before.  "Fear factor" had the most snow in it that I've ever seen. 

Also haven't had enough snow to ski down the front side to the car for years, albeit the coverage was thin and, as Michael pointed out, a well mannered ranger on duty pointed out that the vegetation on the meadow has such a short growing season it has a hard time surviving without having to deal with skier damage.  He said they'd like to see at least a foot of snow over any meadow skied over.  Makes sense. 

It would also make a lot of sense to open Sunrise to skiers as soon as the road is cleared rather than wait until all of the snow is melted off the meadows.  Earlier openings would allow better coverage for skiers and mitigate damage by allowing skiers more time to ski the chutes on Sourdough and Burroughs without worrying about harming fragile plant life at Sunrise.  Most of the skiers I know want to preserve Rainier, not harm it. [now stepping down from soap box">

Here's a shot of Darryl dropping in at the top of "fear factor".  Posted a bunch more -- see if you can find them  ;)

Stella C , by all means go further west to second Burroughs and chute out the multiple ski lines there to the north. Between 2nd and 3rd burroughs lies a pocket glacier .And beyond that 3rd burroughs with the easiet skiing but best scenry for a tour. We often combine lunch at 3rd and then take a steep line off 2nd down into berkeley park ,smell the wildflowers then skin or hike up to 1st burroughs ski the NE shoulder down into valley and finally walk back up the Maintenence rd. I kinda repeated my above post with a little more detail.
IT's all good. Rons right about getting the Park to Openup Sunrise as soon as the road is cleared .
Open sunrise a little a little earlier and a  party could Leave a car down down at white river and ski down from 3rd Burroughs  Maybe even take in MT Ruth ?

author=ron j link=topic=7405.msg29606#msg29606 date=1182222113]

Here's a shot of Darryl dropping in at the top of "fear factor". 

Ron - thanks for leading a great tour and for not posting the pictures you have of me "dropping".

Fun times at the chuting gallery!  Great to have such excellent coverage in the chutes on the opening weekend of the Sunrise Road this year (and nice to ski a couple lines that are usually too melted-out by the time the road opens).  A few photos from Sunday are posted here.