June 4, 2019, Paradise / Nisqually chute

Today was sunny and calm until a south-westerly wind showed up and was fairly strong above 8,000ft. A lenticular formed over Rainier by late morning and occasional clouds floated by. Snow was firm in the early a.m., softened some by later morning. We poked our noses into the Nisqually and found hard water ice in the upper gut....a previous slide took all the newer snow down leaving a very icy surface. Too risky to ski, if you lose it up high you're in for a slide for life and likely a bad outcome. Back on the Muir snowfield we skiied great corn to maybe 7,500 then progressively stickier, wetter snow but still fun. A good day.