Feb 5, 2001, Norse Peak via Bullion Basin
2/5/01
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1823
1
Jeff and I parked at the Crystal overnight lot... went the standard route/trail up to Bullion Basin, then up the ridge all the way to the summit of Norse Peak, my first time ever! I'd been to Bullion Basin 2 or 3 times, and into Union Crk basin once, but never to Norse Pk.
Along the ridge, we skinned up parts of the west side, parts of the east side, off and on. The west side was mostly hard and crusty (as had the trip from the car to the ridge crest been)... but most of the sections on the east side of the crest had about 2 to 4 inches of windblown powder, which made things muucch nicer. We figured that most of it was windblown; lookin at the snow/frost on the trees, some of it might have fallen the night before. After traversing through this for a while, we were really tempted to do a lap down into Union/Cement basins, but the decided to stick with the main objective for the day, Norse Peak.
On the way back down, we followed our skin track to Scout Pass and then started heading SSW to eventually regain the Bullion Basin trail.
Visibility was variable, but overall very good; had views of Crystal for much of the day. Winds were almost constantly from the west; sometimes light, sometimes very strong.
Along the ridge, we skinned up parts of the west side, parts of the east side, off and on. The west side was mostly hard and crusty (as had the trip from the car to the ridge crest been)... but most of the sections on the east side of the crest had about 2 to 4 inches of windblown powder, which made things muucch nicer. We figured that most of it was windblown; lookin at the snow/frost on the trees, some of it might have fallen the night before. After traversing through this for a while, we were really tempted to do a lap down into Union/Cement basins, but the decided to stick with the main objective for the day, Norse Peak.
On the way back down, we followed our skin track to Scout Pass and then started heading SSW to eventually regain the Bullion Basin trail.
Visibility was variable, but overall very good; had views of Crystal for much of the day. Winds were almost constantly from the west; sometimes light, sometimes very strong.
