August 10, 2003, Paradise Glacier

Enlightened by Ron and Jeanette, I firmly decided this past spring that I too would make turns all year. How difficult could it be?  I ski 8+ months per year, what's 4 more?  

Enter summer.  

Having recently returned from a 5-week hiatus, I had not been on my skis since July 1 at Logan Pass, MT.  And though back at home, I found all of my August free time accounted for...save this weekend.  In a panic, I called Kam L. last night with a plea to help me keep the TAY dream alive.  He acquiesced, saying he knew just the spot: Upper Paradise Glacier.

Having not been in the trip reports since June, I had no idea all of the big names have been skiing Paradise Glacier of late.  It's flattering in retrospect.  Ignorant of his genius at the time, Kam and I followed the dirt track up to the glacier this morning despite NPS threats of "occasional showers and isolated thunderstorms." We of course paid no heed. How could we? What with the flowers bursting along the Skyline trail and the sky a spectacular smattering of grays, whites, and patchy blue--it was all too brilliant.

Outside of our coming across Jerry W. on the trail, himself with the same idea, we saw no one beyond the foot of the lower glacier.  Initially traveling on climber's left, we shortly opted to change course to climber's right for several large, thinly bridged cracks running from left-to-center mid-way up the ascent.  As we later discovered, these are still run-able on skis with a little speed behind you, but we chose not to tempt fate on the uptrack.  Climber's right continues to have virtually full coverage along the flanks of the glacier.

We saw a lonely few sets of tracks on the Upper, crossing over some as we climbed to the desired locale, then laid down 1000' of our own.  I don't know about all of this "sun cup"(?) business, as we spent the afternoon in the steep-and-deep.  Kam captured the day on film:



In our skins for a second go, an interesting thing happened: clouds suddenly blew in from the east, and a bolt of lightening flashed overhead close enough to raise the hair on my arms.  We opted to make a hasty descent.  In our retreat, the lower glacier offered several opportunities for turns on skier's right, a point proven first by Jerry.  My advice, however, is to ski here at your own risk, as we crossed over more than a couple of sagging bridges with rushing water below.  

All in all it was a lovely day, mild scares notwithstanding.  Though few, the turns we did make were well worth the hike.  Looking ahead, if any charitable soul can offer pointers for September-October, I'm all ears.