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| Weather | Exquisite |
| TrailConditions | rock trail followed by okay snow |
| Owned By | Cynthia |
| Mailed to WacList | |
| RowId | 112 |
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Since the weather has been unbelievably beautiful, I easily justified taking last Friday off to play. I met my friend Steve K. in Ashford under cool misty skies and headed up to Paradise for a day of skiing. Despite the “updated” Mt. Rainier report on the web, there was not 1-2 feet of snow at Paradise. Grateful for the cool clouds, we humped our skis up the trail to several hundred feet above Pebble Creek, at which point we found skiable snow, brilliant sunshine, and a soft breeze. After some solar loafing on the BFR’s (Big Flat Rocks) we skinned up to just below Muir. The slopes were littered with climbing parties, most of whom were headed for Muir. We talked with one of the rangers on the way down and learned that 150+ were at Muir that night. Armed with this knowledge, Steve & I were grateful to have stopped shy of the circus. Another lunch later, we peeled off our skins and skied down over the grit-covered snow. It wasn’t sun-cupped, however there were boot prints all over the place and the slope was striated with huge runnels, not unlike moguls. The skiing surface was firm with just a few inches of soft stuff on the top. Steve, being the wisest of the pair, was on randonee gear and cut graceful turns with a minimal amount of effort. I on the other hand, sucked buckets of air with every turn at 9,700’ and was grateful that my partner took enough pity on me to let me pant at his feet about every 10 turns. He tried to hide his smug expression, but to no avail. Above Pebble Creek we found a perfect BFR, were we indulged in a nap in the late afternoon sun. We felt like lizards, albeit very happy lizards. We eked out the very last safely skiable snow, then pounded back down the rock trail with our skis. Scarpa’s are not great pavement boots, as my feet will attest. Nevertheless, it was one of the finest days in the mountains that I have ever had and I am still glowing.
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WASHINGTON
ALPINE
CLUB
