September 14, 2003, Paradise Glacier (Ron's Edge)

Pete, Ryan, and I headed for the "new stash", scoped out by Ron and tested earlier this month by a number of skiers - so many, it seemed, that we expected to find the slope perfectly cleaned and gleaming white for our descent (it wasn't). The day started mostly sunny and pleasant for our hike up to Pebble Creek, but with a vigorous cloud cap on Rainier and downstream lenticulars. As Paul mentioned, the Muir looked pretty devastated from several bad summers, and we cut over to the Paradise Glacier from just above Pebble Creek, hitting it at ~7700', near where previous turns ended.

During a bite to eat, clouds started blowing across the upper Muir, so we quickly booted up the western edge of the Paradise Glacier, making note of terrain and crevasses. Not quite quickly enough, though. By the time we were ready to start down our tracks from ~8800', the fog had really moved in, and the whole ski down was in low visibility - we were glad we had made the mental notes on the way up. The natural moguls at the top were fun, and below that most of the snow was surprisingly smooth, though somewhat slow due to the dirt (but better than the rest of the Paradise, and far better than the main Muir). We crossed rocks back west at ~7800' to the lowest lobe of the Muir and then skied down to right above Pebble Creek; the eastern part of this little lobe was so dirty that I almost faceplanted several times. We took turns leading on the hike down so everyone could have a chance to answer The Question.