 Turns-All-Year backcountry skiing in the Pacific NorthwestBackcountry Skiing and Snowboarding Trip Reports |
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| This old version of Trip Reports is no longer being updated. It is being kept as an archive of ~340 backcountry skiing trip reports posted from April 2001 through August 2002. The new version Trip Reports is where new trip reports are currently being posted; it also has copies of the ~340 older trip reports and is searchable. |
| April 2001 Trip Reports |
April 29, 2001 Paradise, MRNP: "Birthday Hopes of skiing the Paradise Gl from Anvil were dashed by inclement weather. Nonetheless we trudged off into the whiteout to get some exercise and hopefully, a few turns. Heavy recent snow, also heavily reworked by the winds produced surfaces conditions beneath the base of Pan ranging from wind scoured boilerplate to massive corniced drifts. All in all pretty good Braille skiing for the vision challenged." Ron Jarvis (rjarvis@retfundingsyst.com) April 29, 2001 Mt. Baker Backcountry: "Two of us decided against driving over the pass for fear they'd close the North Cascades Highway if the predicted snow and high winds built windslab in the chutes above the hairpin turn. Instead, we had a nice, tame and humbling trip near the Mt. Baker Ski area: a foot or so of fresh wind-affected powder, rapidly turning heavy in rising temperatures, with moderate snow, high winds and whiteout above 4800 feet. Windslab was releasing in our switchbacks, so we backed off the steeper places which, in any case, we couldn't really see in the whiteout and settled for a number of short runs on a variety of aspects. Lots of snow scoops and holes where we least expected led to an extraordinary selection of spectacular wipeouts. Getting back up after each fall seemed to be taking longer and longer, so we beat a retreat back to the world of double lattes and mundane responsibilities. One of us professed to have had a good time; the other claimed a new understanding of those who, after reading the weather forecasts, decided not to come with us. For better or for worse, the ski area closed today with the deepest snowpack of this very dry year, somewhat over ten feet. Should be good skiing through June this year. Enjoy." Mark April 28, 2001 Bean Creek Basin: "Hoping to ski Earl five of us drove to appr. 3000' on the main Teanaway Road. Very high clearance vehicle needed to go further. Long walk and usual dicey Beverly Creek crossing brought us finally to snow at 4600'. The main Earl ski ridge had lots of rocks showing. Very disappointed we headed up to the ridge connecting Earl and Bean. Lots of mixed crust and deep mush on the west aspect descent. Headed up to one of the Mary satellites for an east aspect run and found real dangerously rotten stuff on a north aspect near the ridge top. Top of the east run was mushy then fairly nice down below. Repeated two more times to get 5500 vert on the day. Some nice grappel snow fell at times. Two of the Volken brigade in the basin as well. Four on AT and the one heroic tele lover recommend you look elsewhere for this year. Just not enough." Nick Davies April 28, 2001 Chinook Pass: "7 of us Tacoma Mountaineers parked at Cayuse Sat morn in windy conditions with intermittent snow squalls and sunshine. Talked to dot road crew (always friendly). They are trying to open Chinook pass by next weekend May 5. Walked up the road to 1st switchback and skied up right hand gulley to quickly access false summit of Naches. Conditions were wind hardpacked to icy. Back bowls were socked in so we skied back as wind stayed steady, traversed back and dropped into little Tipso lake bowl. Here we found water saturated snow not the corn that we had hoped for. Skied on to the west aspect glades where snow was managable but character building. Last run was from top of glades down North aspect to PCT summer trail and beyond for 3 of our party who chose to continue on into the "Valley of no return" American river headwater. Anyway they did return and we all did a ascending traverse to the south for the run out to Cayuse which was pretty good as the snow was hardening! up. Good day /good skiing/Lousy snow. Oh yes as we got back to car there was a note on it "You will have to exit through Packwood as there is roadblock near Greenwater for the Desparados who stole boxes of dynamite,crashed truck and are now on foot in the area". We confirmed this with Dot road crew guy and drove home to Sumner/Tacoma via Packwood and Skatecreek rd." Robie April 28, 2001 Mt. Rainier: "Worked late Friday, so got a late start Saturday. Got to Paradise around 10, and it looked socked in above Panorama Point. We headed down Paradise Valley Road to Mazama Ridge. Top several inches of snow were dense and saturated with water. It was snowing with about 1 inch of new. We climbed Mazama and skied the back bowl--a combination of windpack, dense wet snow, and occasional traces of powder. Skied the north slopes of the bowl a couple of times but left deep trenchs with each run; still a lot of fun. Stopped for lunch and a wicked storm moved in. We started climbing out of the bowl in rising winds, heavy snow, snow devils, and, then, a big thunderclap--scary! Took the lowest route out of the bowl and fought the wind-driven snow over to Mazama--nice ski down, but snow stinging the face; goggles necessary. Given the thunder (only heard one big one) we weren't predisposed to climbing up again so headed back to the car and home. Probably had a couples of inches of new while we were there with more clouds moving in and ceiling dropping. abc" Andy Carey April 27, 2001 Lassen Volcanic Natl Park: "We entered the Southwest entrance and drove to the gate at Sulphur Works, although the road was plowed beyond the gate. It was a sunny day and we climbed towards Mont Diller and Pilot Pinnacle. There was good coverage and corn snow. This was our first trip to Lassen so I don't have a reference point on the snowpack. We descended our climbing route and then climbed Diamond Peak and descnded the ridge to the road. At 4pm, they unlocked the gate at Sulphur Works and we drove to the next gate at the parking area for Bumpass Hell. The south side of Lassen Peak still head sufficient coverage. We decided to return in the morning to ski Lassen Peak so we spent the night and camped lower down in our campervan. During the evening a major storm moved in and it began snowing, blowing and visibility was minimal - not the spring conditions we had hoped for. So, we left and headed for the Cascades." David "Zap" Czaplicki (zapjillski@aol.com) April 22, 2001 Mazama Ridge, Mt Rainier: "Finally, got out for a day of skiing. As it was our first trip of the year we decided to just go play around on Mazama Ridge. Wasn't expecting much in the way of conditions. Had visions of Saturdays sun creating a nice layer of breakable crust. We climbed up Edith Creek Basin and then dropped in toward Mazama Ridge. Fortunately things had froze hard enough overnight to form a firm base and there was about 1/2" of new over that. Not exaclty epic conditions but fairly nice turning stuff. It warmed and continued to snow as we Yo-Yo'd the slope four times. By the time we left about another 1" of snow had fallen and the base was starting soften. Hard turns would break trough, but if you backed off a bit it was nice skiing." Kurt Bosselman April 22, 2001 Hidden Lake Peak: "WENT UP TO SIBLING CREEK ROAD AND IT WAS DRIVABLE FOR ABOUT 3 MILES IN. WE HAD TO HIKED OR SKI ABOUT A MILE IN TO REACH THE HIDDEN LAKE TRAILHEAD. I WOULD SAY NEXT MONTH THE ROAD SHOULD MELT OUT. THERE IS PLENTY OF SNOW ON THE TRAIL AND THE BASIN. BUT WE HAD TO TAKE OUR SKIS OFF FEW TIMES AND WALK. AVALANCHE DANGER SEEMED LOW WITH THE SNOW BEING HARD AND ICY. THE ROUTE TO THE LOOKOUT WAS STRAIGHTFORWARD AND NICE ENOUGH TO RELAX FOR OVER AN HOUR. THE WEATHER WAS SNOWY AND WHITEOUT BUT THE SUN DID PEEK OUT FEW TIMES. IT STILL FELT LIKE WINTER OUT THERE BUT THE SKIING DOWN TURN TO CORN AND MADE THE SKIING ENJOYABLE." JERRY SANCHEZ (JERSAN@SAFECO.COM) April 22, 2001 Mt. St. Helens: "It was a nice weekend that might have been better had the weather been more accommodating. Nonetheless we had a great ski. Most of us being more skiers than climbers, we turned at about 6300 once we got to the true boilerplate and the higher winds with the summit in the soup. Skied about a 100 yards of boilerplate and then found real smooth and creamy untracked all the way down to the bench before the creek crossing. And then the nice trail ski out to about 100 yards from the parking lot, with just a couple or three dirt patches to cross in between. Fairly steady snow on the mountain, rain upon return to the parking lot at Marble Mt Snow Park. There was some evidence of skier/rider triggered wet sloughs on east to south steeper aspects from the day before." Ron Jarvis April 21, 2001 Hidden Lake Peaks: "Four of us left Bellingham early, clutching our lattes and feigning alertness. Snow is blocking the Hidden Lake Peaks road at about 2600 feet, 800 v.f. and maybe two miles before the trailhead. Snow coverage is much deeper than up at Washington Pass, and snowmelt looks like it is about 3 weeks ahead of last year, which in turn was a month ahead of the year before that. We climbed most of the way to the ridge (7000 ft.) in brilliant sunshine and gorgeous views one member of the party shirtless, the rest of us sweating furiously before clouds built in. Skied one run down very pretty terrain on the other side (towards The Triad and Eldorado) in alarmingly flat light but reasonable wet snow on a firm base. I found some surface sluffing at 40 degrees, and pockets of deeper isothermal snow releasing on my ski cut at 45 degrees. By the time we climbed back up to the ridge, what the weather service prefers to call "fair-weather cumulus" had built into snow squalls with wind, whiteout and lightning, so we dropped down into better visibility and the long run back to the car. There was outstanding skiing on something which greatly resembled (but could not have been) creamy powder, more outstanding skiing on something which will soon be corn snow, a couple of shots of slop followed by some steep slop, then refreezing, crusty slop mixed with avalanche debris which, it must be noted, appeared to present no problems to anyone but my hefty self followed immediately by some rather desperate thrashing through the trees, out onto the road and to within a quarter-mile or so of the car. By this point there was general agreement that we had done the right thing by deciding against clambering back up for another run or two, having had quite enough vertical for the day. In fact, we all looked fairly stunned, and! lots of moans and groans were shared around. Conversation seemed to falter quite a lot on the drive back, since members of the party kept falling asleep in mid-sentence. Certain plans and promises were made for next weekend, but no one got anything in writing. Enjoy." Mark April 21, 2001 Chinook Pass: "We parked very near Cayuse pass (the only option) and hiked the road to the first switchback under sunny skies. From there we climbed counter clockwise around Naches Peak. 1st run NE into bowl South of peak was good, by then clouds were thickening and we waited for a good sun break to make the run, finding a good entrance between cornices. 2nd run off bump farther east was good too, conditions were mainly 1-2 sofened inches on top of crust which we rarely broke through, ocasionaly slushier with lots of snowballs, but not much other sliding activity. Some more significant slide were heard and sometimes seen in rocky areas, mainly obove 410 east of Chinook Pass. We passed on third run as weather turned to snow showers and continued around making a couple short descents before heading back. The trip back down below Tipsoo lake basicly sucked and we chose to ski down the drainage below 1st switchback in heavy snow and deep creak beds, hiking half mile back up! to Cayuse. It would be better to walk the last part of the road or wait till Chinook opens, hopefully in two weeks." Jay Carlson (jcarlson123@hotmail.com) April 21, 2001 Paradise, Mt. Rainier: "Perfect corn from 8,400 (just below Moon Rocks) to 5,200 (paradise valley rd); most consistent I've ever skied. Almost beat the clouds--but only had to put up with 200 vf of whiteout below McClure Rock; back at the parking lot at 1:30." Andy Carey April 16, 2001 Silver Star Mountain: "We got a head start on Sunday (15 April) - which was a mostly clear day, and mild. Many details are the same as the previous Silver Star report from ca. the 15th of April. Snow at the bottom of the route is melting fast! Many people are walking, both up and down, which makes skiing the trail that much more difficult. Skiing the lower part of the rout on the way down was a bit messy, but all part of the fun. We left the car ca. 5pm and hiked to the swamp, where we bivied for the night. There was no wind where we were and the temps. were mild (low ca. mid to upper 20's). Monday brought high clouds, but still little wind down low. The route up is well beaten in and easy to follow. We also found pretty good windpack on the lower parts of the glacier. A quick snow pit suggested pretty good bonding between the wind slabs and lower layers, but the wind slab was still a concern. This was also variable -- some parts were very firm, some were soft. The upper portions of the route had less wind-packed snow, and the ski down these parts was AWESOME! The last pitch before the saddle was wind packed on one side, but sheltered on the other. We saw no cracks, no whoomping, and we triggered nothing. As a side note -- back at the swamp we watched and heard a series of ca. 8 wet slides come down the W-facing slopes of the upper valley - between 2pm and 2:20pm. We were no where near these, but they remind us of the very predictable nature of wet slides in the spring. It was a warm day (ca. 50-60's F). If you're thinking about Silver Start -- get up there while the getting's still good!!!" Phil Higuera (phiguera@u.washington.edu) April 15, 2001 Silver Star Mountain: "I BLEW IT! WE STARTED ON THE WRONG VALLEY - WE HIKED UP VALDZ CREEK INSTEAD OF SILVER STAR CREEK. I DIDN'T REALIZE THIS UNTIL THINGS DIDN'T LOOK SIMIAR THE LAST TIME I WAS HERE. BUT WE HAD A GOOD PACE AND IT WAS EARLY IN THE DAY. WE GOT TO THE END OF VALTZ CREEK BASIN AND CLIMB WEST ON STEEP WOODED SLOPE TO GAIN THE RIDGE TO SILVER STAR GLACIER. IT WAS A LONGER WAY IN AND LITTLE BIT MORE BRUSHER BUT WE MADE IT TO THE GLACIER. SAW ONE SOLO TRACK ON THE GLACIER (SEE MARK'S APRIL 14TH REPORT) SO WE FOLLOW IT UP TO WHERE IT ENDS JUST FEW HUNDRED FEET FROM THE COL. WE DIG A PIT TO CHECK THE SNOW CONDITIONS AND IT APPEARED FINE. THE BASE LAYER DIDN'T RELEASE UNTIL 4 HARD JUMPS. WE GAIN THE SADDLE AND AWARD WITH VIEWS AND LITTLE WIND. WE CLIMBED TO THE SUMMIT WITH SOME 3RD CLASS MOVE AND REWARDED WITH MORE VIEWS. SKIING DOWN WAS NICE BUT I FELL ON MY FACE TOO MANY TIMES NOT FROM BAD SNOW BUT EXHAUSTION AND POOR TECHIQUE. WE WENT DOWN SILVER STAR CREEK AND ! SKIIED ALL THE WAY TO THE HIGHWAY. HITCHHIKING THE 2 MILES BACK TO VALTZ CREEK AND INTO MY VEHICLE AT 6:00 PM SHARP. I ACTUALLY WAS GLAD THAT WE DID THIS INTERESTED LOOP. IT MADE THE WHOLE DAY LONGER AND HARDER." JERRY (JERSAN@SAFECO.COM) April 15, 2001 Early Winters: "We headed up to Blue Peak Col for a quick tour before getting a head start on Silver Star later in the afternoon (see next report). There were many tracks on both the north and south side of the Col, a sign of many happy turns, but not too many to prevent some freshies. The cornice at the Col is big, but abscent in the middle. It should be a concern with more heating. The snow on the south side is not quite corned up yet, but it was still fun enough to ski twice. The north side still held fabulous powder, particulalry on the steeper slopes and those that were in the shadow of mountain (west of the col). These turns were some of the nicest of the season. On the shallower slopes there was a slight sun crust on the way up, but as temps. warmed, the crust melted and the snow became just a little thick (but great none the less)." Phil Higuera (phiguera@u.washington.edu) April 15, 2001 Muir Snowfield: "As RonJ reported below a good time was to be found on the Muir Snowfield from Pan Point to the base of Anvil Rock. Through the Golden Gates and Edith Creek basin was heavy. Everything looked and acted stable. A fair number of people were out, but more snowshoers than skiers. I spoke with a party who had attempted the summit. They started via the Gibralter Ledges, but abandoned it due to slab conditions below the ice chute. Then re-traced and tried the Ingraham Direct. 'Sketchy' for crevasses already. Wind and poor visibility turned them at 13K. Thanks for getting this Trip Reporting going, Charles!" Brent Hostetler April 15, 2001 Muir Snowfield, Mt. Rainier N.P.: "About 6 feet of snow at the Paridise parking lot and sunny weather greeted us on our somewhat late start to Camp Muir. Ego snow was to be had between about 9,000' and Pebble. Warming made the snow below Pebble more challenging. Bumped into Brent Hostetler grinning like a chessie cat on his way down at about 8,500'. There's still a lot of varied layers up there; far from a solid summer corn patch. The snow pack still warrants careful monitoring and consideration on each trip; especially Pan face and other steeper aspects." ron jarvis April 15, 2001 Mt. Baden Powell (So. Cal): "Good coverage, good corn down to the parking at Vincent Gap. Highly recommended. T-shirt weather. View of N. Side of Baldy looks good if you can handle the hike." Randy April 14, 2001 Stevens Backcountry: "If you have ever skied the backside of Stevens Pass ski area in Mill Valley, you have probably drooled at the ridge line above the powerlines and that steep chute. Stevens had received 10 -12" over the past 2 days and we rode the lift to the top of Double Diamond. Skied the area to the powerline and Jill and I skinned up and headed for the chute. Breaking trail in 12" of powder was a pleasure on a sunny day with the temperature in the upper 20's. Everywhere the sun touched ignited point releases but the north facing slopes were dusty. After wetting my diapers down the chute to Lake Susan Jane, we climbed another chute to reach the basin that is above Josephine Lake. Again all the north facing slopes were powder. Descended to Lake Susan Jane and thru the trees to the lifts in Mill Valley." Zap (Zapjillski@aol.com) April 14, 2001 Bear Gap: "About six inches of good snow above 5000' on open slopes on the north side of ridge west of Bear Gap and in trees below. We avoided upper steep areas for the first run. With no sliding activity and clouds had pretty well covered the sun by 1:30 I followed a couple other skiers up to the ridge top in one of the few places cornices would allow. I did not ski the south side but it looked like there is enough snow there. Plenty of snow to ski to parking lot, heavy but light crust had softened." Jay Carlson (jcarlson123@hotmail.com) April 14, 2001 Mt. Rainier: "Well it worked today; no fog; clear blue, light wind low, no wind high; new powder. Climbed 4,000 vf from the parking lot; Regine and I did powder 8's for the 1st 2,500 vf down; after that it was just fun traversing and me adapting to breaking thru some crust buried under the powder that Regine floated on; that's the one disadvantage to me (225 lbs + pack and gear) skiing 185 cm 94-70-84 Excalibur Pluses. Didn't bother to use cables (just 3-pins) for the 4,200 vf descent and ended up with some sore knees after negotiating the inconsistent snow for the last 500-1,000 vf. Good day tho. We were very pleased. Saw lots of tracks off Castle Saddle and Pinnacle, but as we climbed to the parking lot, we saw one party had skied the north face of Denman Peak, 1,000 vf from the summit down through a steep hourglass chute; we've never seen anyone ski that before." acarey April 14, 2001 Ski Acres: "While not a epic trip in terms of distance, steepness or depth of powder it was epic to watch an old close friend make his first tele-turns. Most slopes up at the pass were unskied with 3-4 of older wet snow on solid. We parked at the base of silver fir and had exclusive use of that run for learning. Little clothes for lots of sun. My friend an old backpacker on skinning up for his 2nd run "Its nice, there's a certain rythmn to it." Lunchtime we sat,ate and swung on the comfy chairlift. By the end of 5 runs Old Friend was linking his first turns and eyeballing bigger slopes. On the way back in the car I was hearing of secret backpacking spots where skis could be carried to. Some days are Epic and some just Huge. Charles thanks for starting up report page." Robie April 14, 2001 Silver Star: "Five of us from the seldom-seen Bellingham Mountaineers aborted a planned Shuksan trip and thought about the Birthday Traverse before settling on Silver Star as holding the best potential for long powder runs in a spectacular spot. Left the parking lot around 9:30 and skinned up through the trees on the usual assortment of weird frozen lumpy stuff carpeted with pine needles and debris, finally hitting the fresh, soft snow at swamp elevation, around 5000 feet. Unfortunately, all four of my companions turned back with skin icing problems after climbing a short distance further, and I continued on alone in a foot to 18 inches of dry powder, totally trackless. The first 400 feet of the glacier was pretty wind-crusted, and I almost turned back myself from a combination of caution and exhaustion, but the setting was so spectacular in periodic snow showers and intermittent sun that I kept chugging away uphill in the powder....past my turnaround time (4:00), my revised turnaround time (5:00) and my absolute-outside-no-messing-around-let's-get-real-here turnaround time (5:30). Finally gave up at 8450 ft, just shy of the final saddle at 5:45, when the slope steepened to 45 degrees or so and common sense got the better of me. The ski down was epic soft powder rolling over to 40 degrees in places, narrowing into couloirs then spreading out into big bowls. No sluffs, no cracks propagating, no whumphing; just that irritating little inner voice telling me it was going to be dark soon and I was a long way from the road. The windcrust tripped me up a couple of times low on the glacier, but aside from that it was definitely my best powder run of the year; first surrounded by sculptural granite spires and cliffs on the glacier, then down through meadows spotted with larches and finally a section of steep, deep trees down to the swamp. There, I located the track left by my partners and followed them out to the highway, chortling and smirking to myself. I arrived at the parking lot at 8:15, collapsed into the front seat, guzzled the coffee I'd been clever enough to leave there in a thermos, and drove at excessive speed back to Bellingham. An altogether epic day; I don't think I've ever broken quite so much trail alone, but it was worth every hard-fought foot of it. Just a foot or two of fast-melting snow at the trailhead, but the swamp is still covered and stream crossings not a problem. Not much snow coverage above the trail, therefore little apparent avalanche danger from above, though the climb up the glacier feels a bit exposed at times, especially after the recent snow (and alone late in the day). Where the coverage is shallow there is lots of rotten faceted snow at the base, and this would be worrisome on a warm day or where the snowpack was exposed to cornice fall or other major stress. Enjoy." Mark April 8, 2001 Crystal Mountain, Washington: "Skinned from the base to the top of Northway Peak. Skied east facing aspects to the bottom of Green Valley with mostly good coverage and a bit heavier than ideal snow. Then skinned up to the summit house at Crystal Peak, over the top and down Lucky Shot again with good coverage but even heavier snow. Part of the group skied down the upper portion of Green Valley reporting their best skiing there and then out down Iceburg Gulch and Sunnyside where they reported low coverage and lots of rocks. North facing are probably the best aspects to ski in the area at this point." Ron Jarvis (rjarvis@retfundingsyst.com) April 7, 2001 Castle/Pinnacle Saddle, Mt. Rainier National Park: "Weather report said 1500 ft. snow level so 3 of us headed for the Tatoosh. Followed kicked-steps up from Narada Falls parking lot to the road. Road has been plowed so we walked to the trailhead for Castle-Pinnacle and then skinned from there. Saw 3 other folks on the way up but they must have stayed on the north aspects as we had south-facing runs to ourselves all day. Great conditions,some of the best of this season (at least for me!). 12 inches of cold fluff on top of the previous crust. We three cut up most of the south aspects until the legs (at least mine!) couldn't go uphill anymore. Snowed off and on all day. Looked like mid-winter. Lower elevation snow, down to the road and the slope down to the Narada lot, was a bit stiff but higher stuff was delightful. As is said "It ain't over till it's over!"" Tim (mthartman@mindspring.com) March 25, 2001 Snowking Mountain: "Forwarded to me by JerryS. This is too good to be unreported. Subject: MORE USEFUL REPORTS Just got back from a day trip up Snowking Mountain. Here are some details to let people know how snow conditions are around the Cascade River Road: The road (FS Road 1570) was open all the way tot the end. The USGS maps mislabels it at about 2400' but it actually seems to be at about 2200'. There was one patch of snow at 2000' that 4x4 helped, but this will probably be gone in the next day or two. From the end of the road the climbers trail is visible and easily followed straight up until about 3400'. At 3400' the snow quickly takes over and I was able to start skinning up on skis at about 3800'. Snow in the trees was below 5000' was crusty (easily breakable and not too icy). Above 5000' had about 2"-3" of new DRY snow (some hoar frost had formed on the top). In places, the new snow was on top of semi-solid hardpack. On south facing slopes the new snow was not evident and harpack persisted, and higher up (above 5800') on northeast aspects there was little to no signs of any crust, just windpacked powder. Snow conditions up high will inevitably change daily, but it was surprising to see the snow level on north facing slopes all the way up to 3400'. As far as the route goes, gaining and following the ridge south to Cyclone Lake did not pose any problems. Some route descriptions say to go clockwise around/above Cyclone Lake, but it seems much less direct and more exposed to cornices above and cliffs below than the alternate route of going counter-clockwise. It's probably easier to go clockwise in the summer, but not right now. No difficulties gaining the summit (7433'). The icing on the cake was the snowboard back down (I ride a Split- Decision, ski up and snowboard down). From the summit down to Cyclone Lake (was the best ride this winter). Lightly windpacked 2" powder on top of pack- powder. The descend to the lake was about 2100' of bliss. Overall, ~10 miles and 10.5 hours (6 hours from Car to summit .5 on the summit and 4 hours back out). Wahoo! Tod" Brent Hostetler March 22, 2001 Cowlitz Rocks, Mt.Rainier National Park: "Four of us took a trip from Paradise to the Cowlitz Rocks/Stevens Ridge area of Mt. Rainier yesterday (3/22). It had rained about 2 inches at Paradise on Sunday, followed by just a dusting of snow. The subsequent period of clear nights and sunny days had produced a mostly walkable crust, and we had another beautiful day. We headed for sunny slopes to get our turns, and found nice, spring-type skiing along the south slopes of Stevens Ridge: a firm crust just loosening up on the surface. Slopes with a NE to NW aspect remained frozen and were not inviting for skiing. In the afternoon, slopes which had been in the sun since the morning lost their supporting crust and become about 8 inches of mush, though nothing was ever close to sliding. The best run of the day was the roller coaster run from the Stevens-Van Trump Memorial down and off of Mazama Ridge into Edith Creek basin. The snow pack is very low - Paradise resembled a typical May-June." Charles Eldridge (tay@turns-all-year.com) Jan. 26, 2001 Paradise backcountry, Mt. Rainier National Park: "The weather was great, the snow was not. I skied from the Paradise parking lot to upper Mazama ridge, then up into the Paradise Glacier valley to about 6600ft in search of good snow. There was a consistent and unpleasant crust virtually everywhere. Looks like there HAD been a few inches of nice loose snow from two days ago on the crust (which overlies 6-12" of loose snow), but the east winds were blowing strong and many areas were cleaned down to the crust. Panorama Point and the Muir snowfield looked blasted. Low avalanche danger - the crust was holding everything firmly in place, and there was not very much loose snow to be transported into slabs. I did find a couple of short runs in pretty good snow, and the sun and The Mountain were out, so all was not lost." Charles Eldridge (tay@turns-all-year.com) Back to top |