from March 28, 2005:
Grand Park Headwall, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, March 13, 2005
Snow! on the
trail to Lake Eleanor | 
No snow on the
trail past Lake Eleanor | 
No snow on the
trail in Grand Parklet | 
No snow on the
trail up to Grand Park | 
Snow! for backcountry
touring in Grand Park | 
Ski touring in Grand Park,
with sunlit Ptarmigan Ridge | 
Backcountry touring
amid the grandeur | 
Ski touring in Grand Park,
with Mount Rainier | 
Mount Rainier close up
photos: sunlit Liberty Ridge | 
Skiing toward an
evergreen gateway | 
All-terrain skiing in Grand Park | 
Connecting the snow patches,
with Sluiskin Mountain | 
Connecting the snow patches,
with Mount Rainier | 
Russ proudly displays his new
REI Garage Sale waxless skis | 
The Grand Park Headwall
looms ahead | 
Skiing to the summit of Grand
Park, with Mount Fremont | 
Matt skis toward the
Grand Park Headwall | 
Matt, first turns
on the Headwall | 
Two nice runs and
someone's "butt" "hole" | 
Charles high on the Headwall | 
Russ parallels the Headwall | 
Charles tries to
avoid a "butt" "hole" | 
Backcountry touring
toward the afternoon slope | 
Mount Rainier from the
west side of Grand Park | 
Russ skiing the
afternoon slope | 
Matt on the afternoon slope | 
Matt on the afternoon slope | 
Charles skiing the
afternoon slope | 
Russ on the afternoon slope | 
A job well done
| 
Grand Park ice skating? | 
Ski touring toward silver snags | 
Aftenoon light in Grand Parklet |
Photos by Matt Depies, Russ Schwartz, and Charles Eldridge
| Backcountry skiing trip report:
March 13, 2005, backcountry ski touring and cross-country skiing,
Grand Park Headwall, Mount Rainier, Washington
New gear, and what better place to put it through its paces than the varied challenges of Grand Park. Matt had new lightweight Garmont Venture 3-pin leather/fabric boots to replace his T2s, which tend to overpower his waxless skis. Russ, but not any Russ that anyone knows, just broke into the waxless world with some new Karhu Dorado skis and Garmont Excursion boots.
My Highway 410 informant had been sending info that access on the 73 road was good, and we were able to drive to the trailhead, with a little icy snow on the very last bit. It was a bright sunny day, but cool and with a fresh north breeze. There was essentially no snow in the forest, with some thin coverage in glades, so we hiked the trail to Lake Eleanor, then on to Grand Parklet. This meadow was largely melted out to brown grass, with thin snow cover only around the perimeter. The trail remained largely snow-free until just before entering the glades leading into Grand Park, maybe 5300 feet, where it was 2-4 feet deep, smooth, very well frozen corn.
We put skis on when we got into the sun in Grand Park itself. We strode west to get into the main openings of Grand Park, with their panoramic views of the northeast and north sides of Mount Rainier, then south toward the tip of the park. Very nice striding conditions - smooth, fast, and just softening frozen corn.
Great areas of the largest meadows in Grand Park are melted out to brown grass or thin patches of snow. We skirted the Grand Park Headwall on the east with hearts aquiver at the thought of actually skiing the thing, and skied as far south as the snow lasted, which was just where the trail starts descending toward Cold Basin.
Slopes on the north side of Mt. Fremont had amazingly little snow, and looking up Lodi Creek we could see that the north side slopes of 2nd Burroughs Mountain had some continuous lines, but very shallowly filled in. I wanted to see how far we could get up toward Burroughs, but Russ and Matt we eager to tackle the Grand Park Headwall, so we skied back to the summit of Grand Park and battened down the hatches for the big descent.
We knew that morning-sun slopes would be softened, while afternoon-sun slopes would still be shaded and frozen. Our line therefore led us into The Headwall with a little morning sun aspect. This was a great plan, except for the fact that the tightness of The Headwall couloir forced left-hand turns over to the frozen side. Matt was the first to discover this dangerous fact, but somehow, somehow, he managed to self-arrest (even without Whippets) and then creep down the rest of the slope.
Russ was next. Carrying his many years of backcountry skiing experience with him, he boldly plunged over the lip onto The Headwall, having never made a single turn on his new gear before. The guy's got guts! He too, fortunately, was able to self-arrest, keeping those guts in the proper place. I was next - oh well, I don't really want to write about that.
Not willing to concede defeat, we began the long ski back up to the summit of Grand Park. Since we had fishscales, this was real skiing, not that skinning stuff. Once there, we discussed a new plan for tackling the Grand Park Headwall, which basically came down to, "let's do it again". Ahh, the thrill of victory! We nailed that sucker, not just once, but repeatedly. It looked like moguls were starting to form when we were done.
After a light lunch in the sun, we decided to head to the mellower Afternoon Slope, starting with a great fast glide down into the big Grand Park meadows.
The Afternoon Slope was in prime shape, with good coverage top to bottom, and generally with 2-4" of softened corn on top of a reliable base. Although we were already tired from our Headwall adventures, we skied the Afternoon Slope until there were just no good lines left. Talk about shredding a slope!
All of the excitement, not to mention the exertion, left us a little drained, so we headed out for the ski back across Grand Park. The snow was still very nice and fast for striding. We were able to ski down to the end of the glades where the trail descends from the north tip of Grand Park, then it was just a pleasant hike back to the car.
Charles
What a fabulous trip. Sun was warm, the snow was cool, and the coversations innane. Due to the difficulty in turning our nordic cambered skis we made frequent use of a German technique known as a sitz turn. It is an effective turn but given its radical dynamics it tends to damage the slope. We found that ones "butt" would tend to make a "hole" in the snow. On one unfortunate occasion Russ fell into his own "butt" "hole" and then immediately did another sitz turn.
Matt |
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