Freshiez!

I'll write a full TR sometime in the next few days (tonight?). I'll post a link. Short version: wet, heavy, deep snow. Slushiez rather than freshiez. Even Sky fell a few times!

You really shouldn't dog the snow too much, it wasn't that bad. It was just a little bit on the heavy side of pow.<br><br>Big lesson for the day: If you stray from the trail, maybe you should try and find it again instead of thinking that you're tougher than the forest. The forest has been there longer.<br><br>We must be starting to appease the snow gods. They're giving us lots of precip so far, but the snow level needs to come down a bit more. To continue to try to please them, I'm thinking about heading out into the rain next weekend. And the snow level looks like 7000-10000 ft on weather.gov right now, so it should be wet and miserable again (I CAN'T WAIT). You'd think this weekend would have taught me a lesson, but I'm a slow learner. If the possibility of precip subsides, I'm going to do something overnight. Anyone want in on this???? I don't know where yet... scimitar glacier or roosevelt? If it's an overnighter, chocolate glacier is going down! Those are the stupidest things that come to mind so far. If anyone can think of something dumber, please let me know.<br><br>Corey... Dave... you aren't getting out of this next one...

I think I want to stay off crevassed glaciers, Jeff, the bridges are going to be WAYYYYY thin. Another stupid trip sounds perfect though, but this time, bring some insulation! <br><br>And if we had followed the trail we wouldn't have gotten as much bushwhacking in! See, there are compromises everywhere. <br><br>I'm in for next weekend, though.

OK, I just checked. Freezing level 9000 feet on Saturday. Jeff, you wanna do Rainier? Might be a good weekend to get some work done (right?) and repair some skis.

If you enjoyed the bushwhack, then I'm happy for you. I'm glad it upped the epic factor a little, but I would have rather spent the time up in the snow.<br><br>You aren't as core as I thought if you don't want to be on a crevassed glacier. That's what ropes are for. We'll go bust up the scimitar and brag to all our friends about how tight she is.<br><br>I'll do Rainier if you want to do the Tahoma glacier. I've had my eye on her ever since the prom.<br><br>So is this a stupid idea: cut some holes in some plastic trash bags, one to cover your torso and one to cover your backpack? Seems like you could last a little bit longer in the backcountry rain if you had the waterproof layer. And no doubt you'd look like a total dork, which would be bad, cause backcountry is ALL about style. Just a question for those more experienced than me.

Last year when Alpental was getting constantly pissed on I would go out with 2 jackets on, and I would stay mostly dry underneath. I think when you're talking about that type of rain something like a garbage bag or a rubber rain coat is a good idea.<br><br>I'm not sure if a 9000' freezing level will get me out there, but you could borrow some of my raingear if you might need it. The forecast could change I suppose though, so I'm not completely out. When I looked at the forecast for this last weekend I thought, 2,700' starting elevation + 6,000' snow level = wet to the bone before the fun really starts. If you're going to do it again, why not start higher like Paradise or Timberline?