July 2, 2010, Mt. Rainier- Paradise

Today me and my buddy finally got out for the first time in months to go skiing. This was her first time backcountry skiing and both of our first times at Paradise. Conditions were surprisingly awesome, for July... It was pretty slushy and sloppy where we were but we only got to about 6800' since she was on snowshoes and it got too sketchy of a trail for her balance to keep her going safely. Luckily we made it farther than most of the day skiers we saw. It sprinkled on us most of the way up so it kept the snow from being too hard. It was snow all the way up from the parking lot so it was pretty simple of a trek up since we stayed right on the path. Took us about 2 hours up with stops and what not and about 20 minutes of skiing down with stopping after getting a bit turned around. The fog socked us in all day but it supposedly was clear above 8000' according to the rangers. over all a great way to start off a month. Only negative to the day was that we had to buy a day pass for the park since they wouldn't let us into the park with our parents pass with the same name and a note from them... kind of a bummer but we didn't let it ruin our day. Overall great first experience at Paradise, now i know why its named that.