Nov. 19, Nisqually Chutes. Mt. Rainier

Kevin, Nisqually Chutes

Met Greg in Four Corners, Maple Valley at 8:15.   Greg was driving his newer Audi wagon, so he insisted on driving.   The benfit of absolutely no new snow, meant that we could take the back way to Paradise.   We went out through Greenwater on 410, then took the Stevens Canyon road up to Paradise.   Due to the cold temps we have been having there was quite a bit of frozen waterfalls and plenty of ice falling on to the roadway, especially near the tunnel entrances.  Ski approach from Paradise parking lot, was much longer than year's past.   We kept our sneakers on until above Pebble Creek.   Finally stuck our skis on about 7,400.   Traversed up and over to 8,200 feet and the Nisqually chute entrance.   Chute was smooth and steep.   We made the mistake of transitioning from skinning to downhill mode, far to close to the chute entrance.  The snow was very firm and a fall here, would have put a person sliding through the rocks adjacent to the chute proper.  Luckily I had a small rock, jutting out of the snow to perch on.   I am not quite sure how Greg maintained his balance during his transition.  Chute skied firm but well.   2000 feet of descent.   A whole day of travel and hiking for only 2k of skiing.   Oh well, weather was super pleasant, and good to get out with Greg.   Day NUMERO Uno for new season!

Greg with Pan point to the right

Finally skis on at 7,400"

Greg  -  smooth

Hiking again,  booted out of drainage,  back to below Pan Point

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Oct 15, Chinook Pass

Kevin boots up from highway 410, Chinook Pass

Greg and I missed the powder dump about a week ago.   Greg still needed to get some October turns, and with no precipitation in sight, we thought we might as well enjoy the sunshine.   We considered hiking up to Green Valley at Crystal, but the idea of driving to 5,400' convinced us to try Chinook.  Snow was looking a little thin, but there was snow on the ground at the parking lot.  We hiked around to our usual spring, north facing slope, and were pleasantly surprised to see pretty good coverage.  Snow was firm, but softening in the sunshine.  We took four laps and called it a day.  We both agreed that we had never worked so little for October turns.  Pretty nice to step out of the car and have snow in October.

Greg skins up the slope

fall corn snow

Day 1 of the new season!

Kevin 

May 3, Mt. Rainier - Paradise to Muir

Kelly was itching to get a big day on his new alpine touring setup.  Beautiful day on Rainier, and we were all quite tired by the time we finished the day.

Francine climbs with the
Tatoosh Range in the background

Kelly

Francine booting up Pan Face

Mt. Adams in the distance

Kevin, Francine, and Kelly.
Camp Muir

F                                      K

Kelly

Oct 25, Day Numero Uno - 2012/13 Season

Woohoo!  What a great day to start the season!  Headed to Paradise on Mt. Rainier with Greg Louie, Frank Neuman and Elissa Eng.  It was snowing lightly as we geared up in the parking lot.  We had just enough snow to put our skis on in the parking lot(5400ft.), and start heading towards Camp Muir elev. 10,800ft.   About Pebble Creek(7,200ft) we started to break out of the cloud layer and pretty soon I was wearing a t-shirt as we skinned up the Muir snowfield in glorious sunshine, with Mt. Adams poking its head out of the cloud layer to the south of us.    A group of 4 skiers had broken trail ahead of us, and provided an easy skintrack to follow all the way to Muir.  We made good time to Muir and took a quick lunch break.  We soon started to cool off in the crisp clear air, and it was time to start skiing!  Whew, good turns.  I think we were all in agreement that the turns below Camp Muir were about as good as we had experienced on Rainier.  It was great day to hook up with friends and start the season with a bang.  It's hard to not ski the Muir snowfield and not be blown away by the amazing views.

Elissa, Frank, and Greg.  Our destination, Camp Muir is on the shoulder of Rainier
 in the upper right portion of this picture.




Frank with Mt. Adams in the distance





Frank at Muir





Elissa leads the charge





Elissa




Greg




Greg





Frank cranking out the powder turns

Kevin




Whew!  lot's of turns.





Mt. Adams in the distance




Greg



Elissa




Frank



Greg




Elissa




Greg



Frank



Kevin

Oct. 17, SKI Camp Muir to Pebble Creek, Mt. Rainier

DAY NUMERO UNO!  First day of the new season, hooked up with Greg and Frank for some of the best conditions we have had on the Muir snowfield. 

June 26, Chinook Pass

Steve Sandberg drops in for the first run of the day.



Kelly motivated me to go ski Chinook Pass with him. He had talked about skiing Chinook Pass a couple of months prior. I am sure he did not realize the pass would take until June 23 to open. Chinok offers some great end of season skiing. It's pretty nice to be able to start on snow, right from car, in June. Kelly, also, invited his buddy Steve, to keep the pace manageable. Steve had the full downhill setup with heavy Volkl powder skis and Marker duke bindings paired to his Dalbello Pro boots. Kelly took the lightweight approach and borrowed a dynafit setup from me. Steve might have been a little more worked by his heavy equipment, but he looked pretty happy, once he pointed the skis downhill. Did the Naches Peak circumnavigation. Parked just on the East side of the pass, then circled clockwise into the nice backside bowl. Took two runs on the back then dropped the frontside back down to the highway. Timing was perfect as we followed the warming snow around Naches Peak.

Steve

Kelly boots the final pitch to the summit ridge

Kelly

Steve

Still a little bit of the snowpack left.