March 1, 2008, Longmire
3/1/08
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2713
4
When the gate failed to open at the predicted hour , and the time was pushed back another hour, we decided to go ahead and ski the Eagle Peak trail since there was 4" of fresh snow. It snowed lightly all the way to our high point at 5200' where we had 300' of soft mid-calf powder. The rest of the way down was ok in open slopes, and scratchy crust in the trees.
Once back down we drove up the now open road to Paradise where we dropped off two of our crew who wanted more turns. Despite the breeze in the parking lot, they found nice knee deep powder down Dead Horse creek to the Nisqually bridge.
Once back down we drove up the now open road to Paradise where we dropped off two of our crew who wanted more turns. Despite the breeze in the parking lot, they found nice knee deep powder down Dead Horse creek to the Nisqually bridge.
Fun day with good folk on snow!
After looking again at the topo, looks like it was Dead Horse and not a nearby couloir. Careful if you're routefinding in there - slots adjacent to what we skied looked like nifty ice climbs.
After looking again at the topo, looks like it was Dead Horse and not a nearby couloir. Careful if you're routefinding in there - slots adjacent to what we skied looked like nifty ice climbs.
Way to save the day with a bold, impressive line! Looks at least 45 degrees from the bridge? Thought I remembered a small summer waterfall in there - did you enter right down the creek?
As near as I can tell from the map, we skied straight down the creek. We followed the drainage that comes closest to the road-bend just below the visitor's center. The route we skied did include one (and only one, in contrast with nearby stuff) small waterfall (We were in complete agreement that it was between 45 and 60 degree water ice, but weren't sure at any higher precision - 10-20' high, it seemed). Edging under the powder was fabulous - Will made the crux go with a combination of sideslips and jump turns. I sidestepped and traversed the steepest bits. The fall may or may not be bypassable by staying left of the main creek at the top and joining up with a tributary. Going too far left may very well result in getting cliffed/waterfalled out. Nothing about the terrain compelled us to explore to the right of the creek. I'm not sure that much, if any, of the rest was over 45. If so, the snow was so good as to render it fun, rather than scary.
Thanks for the info, tho I won't be trying it on purpose. You probably crossed our track contouring beneath the treatment plant from a half-day car-shuttling the 'Old Trail' down to Canyon Rim. If you ever need another 'quick fix' on a late-opening powder day, check out the line below the N overlook railing on Nisqually Vista Trail. The usual boulder-shedding erosion scarp is drifted right to the top. Sorry, no water-ice...
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