The Muirky snowfield 10/23, 11/24
Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:50 pm
I headed to rainier to get some October turns in and keep the streak going. My partner bailed on my at nine last night so I had to make the lonely drive to Longmire (LDL) by myself. Even partnerless the drive up was stunning. The slide alder and maple's colors are unbelievably vivid right now. I arrived at Paradise at about 10. Visibility was so bad I drove past the parking lot without even seeing the ranger station. After several laps around the lot I found the trail head. There were maybe three other cars in the parking lot. I don't think I have ever seen fewer than fifty up there. I took my time gathering everything together hoping that the cloud would lift. I was more concerned with finding the bears that I had been warned about than I was about getting lost.
I started climbing towards Panorama Point. The visibility did not improve. In fact it seemed to get worse the higher I climbed. The continuous snow started somewhere above beyond Pebble Creek. The forecast said the clouds were supposed to lift after morning clouds so at about 7200ft I hunkered down for a half hour and waited... and waited... Nothing.
I didn't want to go out on the snowfield proper if the with visibility so poor, especially since I was alone. The last thing I wanted to do was fall in a crevasse or wander off onto one of the adjoining glaciers. But I had made it this far and I was at least going to get some turns in so I slapped on skins and headed higher. Just when I was about to give up and head back the sun started to break through. The snow above 8000 was much better than lower down. There were several inches of old new snow which made skinning easy. The only downside was that the it of one of my skis had partially delaminated and was acting like a plow. I climbed to moon rocks (about 9000ft) where I stopped for lunch. It was getting late so I decided to turn back here.
The snow was good and the skis were fast. I was skiing an old pair of sks. Not my best pair but really quick, especially for a ski as wide as they are. They have square tails which really help powering out of turns. Even with the snow as heavy as it was I could still pop the turns. I am going to lay up their replacements this weekend.
I stopped just above the clouds for a few photos.
Now I remember why I hiked all the way up here.
...and then I headed back into the clouds for the slog back down.
Finally, near LaGrande, the clouds lifted
And now a contest.
"There is something about skiing above an inversion. It's nice to know its warm and sunny up here, and cold and dumping down there."
The first person who can correctly identify this quote will get a free can of rainier. If you can tell me where it was said I'll even let you have the beer.
I started climbing towards Panorama Point. The visibility did not improve. In fact it seemed to get worse the higher I climbed. The continuous snow started somewhere above beyond Pebble Creek. The forecast said the clouds were supposed to lift after morning clouds so at about 7200ft I hunkered down for a half hour and waited... and waited... Nothing.
I didn't want to go out on the snowfield proper if the with visibility so poor, especially since I was alone. The last thing I wanted to do was fall in a crevasse or wander off onto one of the adjoining glaciers. But I had made it this far and I was at least going to get some turns in so I slapped on skins and headed higher. Just when I was about to give up and head back the sun started to break through. The snow above 8000 was much better than lower down. There were several inches of old new snow which made skinning easy. The only downside was that the it of one of my skis had partially delaminated and was acting like a plow. I climbed to moon rocks (about 9000ft) where I stopped for lunch. It was getting late so I decided to turn back here.
The snow was good and the skis were fast. I was skiing an old pair of sks. Not my best pair but really quick, especially for a ski as wide as they are. They have square tails which really help powering out of turns. Even with the snow as heavy as it was I could still pop the turns. I am going to lay up their replacements this weekend.
I stopped just above the clouds for a few photos.
Now I remember why I hiked all the way up here.
...and then I headed back into the clouds for the slog back down.
Finally, near LaGrande, the clouds lifted
And now a contest.
"There is something about skiing above an inversion. It's nice to know its warm and sunny up here, and cold and dumping down there."
The first person who can correctly identify this quote will get a free can of rainier. If you can tell me where it was said I'll even let you have the beer.