April 1, 2003, Mazama MRNP
4/1/03
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2463
1
We hit Muir up to 9,000 ft on Sat & turned around as fog got denser, skied down the way we skinned up--too foggy to fool around; cleared up just in time to ski the mashed potatoes on Pan face; nice fun on 192 cm Tua Sumos (me) and Atomic Tourcarv Alpins (Regine); slow; grabby snow.
Had to check on some things in Ashford this a.m., so I took a 2-hr tour on my Karhu Pavos and new Karhu Serius leather tele boots (they need some breaking in) down Paradise Valley Road, up Mazama to the Back Bowl; 2-4 inches of new powder on top of crust; on the far side of the ridge lots of icy rain crust on top of old rain runnels all the way including down the entrance to the bowl. Front of Mazama still choppy from skis and snow shoes; now we have nice breakable/trap crust under a few inches of new--the kind that when you weight your ski it cuts a trench in the styrofoam and doesn't want to turn; not a problem for those with bigger new skis (ron) but had with XC/BC stuff. Met Gary he went to run the gully, i went home. Snowing nicely, beautiful day. abc
Had to check on some things in Ashford this a.m., so I took a 2-hr tour on my Karhu Pavos and new Karhu Serius leather tele boots (they need some breaking in) down Paradise Valley Road, up Mazama to the Back Bowl; 2-4 inches of new powder on top of crust; on the far side of the ridge lots of icy rain crust on top of old rain runnels all the way including down the entrance to the bowl. Front of Mazama still choppy from skis and snow shoes; now we have nice breakable/trap crust under a few inches of new--the kind that when you weight your ski it cuts a trench in the styrofoam and doesn't want to turn; not a problem for those with bigger new skis (ron) but had with XC/BC stuff. Met Gary he went to run the gully, i went home. Snowing nicely, beautiful day. abc