November 20, 2005, Grand Park, Mt. Rainier

Vince wanted a good workout and not a long drive. I wanted a forest tour and not a long drive. Stevens and Snoqualmie seemed to be staying cold from the east flow, so we decided to give Grand Park a try, hoping that the coverage would be good and that we would be in the warm air. An informant (thanks!) thought that the 73 road should be drivable at least to the bridge over Huckleberry Creek, and we found that we could drive one mile past that, leaving us just under 3.5 miles to the beginning of the Park and nice forest.

It was balmy at the car. We hiked the road for a while, alternating between bare and deep hard frozen areas, with the snow becoming continuous where the road turns into Eleanor Creek drainage. Monster truck wheels had created two trenches in the snow with a hard platform in between, and the hiking was easy. After about a mile we put on the skis, and found that the fishscale pattern worked fine although the snow was firm (surface hoar helped). It was chilly with cold air flowing down the drainage, but as soon as we left the road and entered the old-growth forest it was much warmer, and the snow was generally soft and moist enough for good fishscaling. Every glade, however, had brittle breakable crust. Coverage was also good - better there than it often is in June. When we reached the saddle that drops down to Grand Parklet, the warm weather had melted the snow and we had to carry the skis for about a minute. We skied into brilliantly sunny and warm Grand Parklet and took a break.

From there we generally followed the route of the trail to the northern end of Grand Park. Coverage got better and better, and as long as we stayed out of the glades and in the forest ascending was great (we brought skins but never had to use them). In Grand Park the shaded areas remained firm, but in the sun the snow was soft enough for good cross country skiing. There were tons of animal tracks, some hard to identify due to age: rabbit, fox, coyote, elk, bear. We skied south past the area of silver snags and had another lunch. It was late enough that the north face of Rainier had lost all of its sun and the Mountain was just a looming bluish mass. There was no breeze, and it was pleasantly warm in the sun and very quiet.

If we'd had more time I would have liked to ski around Grand Park some more, but it was 2:15 so we headed back. We decided to ski off the north end of the Grand Park plateau by following a sunny glade as far as we could, then get into the softer snow of the forest and stay out of the glades with their breakable crust. The forest snow was definitely better than the glade snow, but still a challenge with the light weight gear. My floppy joke boots, without supercharging cables, were no laughing matter. I did manage to make a few real turns, but generally we resorted to a variety of inelegant descending techniques. The skiing back across Grand Parklet was still good, but then more "no photos allowed" descending through the forest to the road. The road itself, however, was great. Except for a small section part way down, which was mysteriously very slow, the road was an enjoyable 2.5 mile glide, in and out of the tire tracks to control speed. We de-skied at the turn out of Eleanor Creek drainage and had a 10 minute hike back to the car, arriving at 4:15. A very enjoyable day, and we were both satisfied that our goals had been met.

Here's a photo of Vince in skiing Grand Park (and a larger version is here); movies available on TAY home page: