October 6, 2007, blower leftovers near Paradise
10/6/07
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2857
3
Gotta envy those weekday skiers, nice report from the 'slut and nice day they had. Luckily for me the warming weather trend held off long enough for a good day from Paradise today. Wish I had started at 8 like Steve, who found sunny conditions all the way to Muir. Two hours later I found kind of an ice fog at Paradise, no wind, and finally elusive sun above Pebble Creek. Took a rest at 8200', and watched the clouds join me and then head for Muir while I ate lunch.
Steve arrived, headed down solo, so given the weather, it was an easy decision to follow him. We saw a dozen more skier/boarders headed up on our way to Paradise in a light rain. Nice stiff layer below an inch or two of wind blown powder to 6500', then 4-5" wetter powder atop a softer crust, and near Paradise we found about a foot of bottomless wet powder.
Still it was a great October ski day, no photos and no complaints (except for the $15 day visit fee, even for federal employees from Fort Lewis!)
Steve arrived, headed down solo, so given the weather, it was an easy decision to follow him. We saw a dozen more skier/boarders headed up on our way to Paradise in a light rain. Nice stiff layer below an inch or two of wind blown powder to 6500', then 4-5" wetter powder atop a softer crust, and near Paradise we found about a foot of bottomless wet powder.
Still it was a great October ski day, no photos and no complaints (except for the $15 day visit fee, even for federal employees from Fort Lewis!)
I may be a Virginian who's never skied much powder, but does "a foot of bottomless powder" make sense? :) If it does, how so?
Wish I could've been there this morning!
Wish I could've been there this morning!
author=trumpetsailor link=topic=7898.msg31548#msg31548 date=1191740149]
but does "a foot of bottomless powder" make sense? :) If it does, how so?
I dunno if it makes sense, but here's what it means to me: nothing under the powder until you hit ground. Guess you (and others?) have a different name for that. Or maybe I should have just said "a foot of powder". "bottomless" is my enthusiasm to put a positive spin on the situation?
I agree with both assessments of "bottomless" and will add one of my own. When I worked at Schweitzer Mountain, and we received 100 inches of snow one Thanksgiving...it was truly bottomless. 120 inch base on dirt. But there was no 'base'. Hence I took off on a 30-35 degree slope, went strait down and only managed 10 mph, if that. Pacific bottomless = Sucky bottomless. Grew up in Montana and skied 30 inch 'dump' and still hit ice underneath at Bridger...That's 'Montana bottomless'. Skied a rare 45 inch Montana storm, up to my arm-pits in snow and rolling faster than ball-bearings on a lard-greased platter.... that was 'True Bottomless'.
BTW light snow in the Pacific is more common than commonly known...
BTW light snow in the Pacific is more common than commonly known...
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