June 25, Muir

There really was 1-3 inches of wet snow at Paradise this morning.  It drifted in up to 6-9 inches in places on "the trail".  It did not help that I was first up, by myself, and in a dense whiteout until approximately 8000 feet.  Just keep those Pebble Creek rocks in sight sorta, and keep going up.  After exiting the clouds, it was a race with the sun to try to descend before there was too much solar damage.  The skiing was fun; previous holes, ruts and tracks were largely invisible and you had the feeling of "untracked" even if it was sludgy.  Hikers were post-holing but by the afternoon the well-trod path was re-established.  Trying to avoid Pan Point and re-tracing, I had 3 or 4 carries on the way down and finished to the east of the creek in Edith Creek Basin, really on the W side of upper Mazama ridge, to once again hit the road at the "U" and the bridge, but this time on the east side of the creek.  There were miracle connections for the last several bits but they won't last long.  A few pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/koelle/