The Harvestors of Winter Corn

Nisqually Chutes (MRNP) - November 18 and 19, 2005

It sure as hell ain't powder but its corn.  The forecast was perfect for a harvest on Friday and Saturday.  I carpooled through the fog and crazy temperature inversion with another splitter, John on Friday.  Pulled into the Paradise lot around 8:45.  Only other car there was a Hummer.  Eventually a few cars trickled in while we geared up.  Rainier had a small lenticular and seemed to be sucking all the surrounding high clouds.  So the sun was partially obscured the whole day.  So you could imagine the skinning.  Actually it was variable on the entire ascent.  There were some soft creamy sections, soft crust, hard crust and the supportable kind to.  In certain sections, especially higher, it was slippery.  

John and I skinned to the base of the Pan Pt winter route.  Besides the 2 glissade tracks, bootpack dominated the hillside.  Both of us ended up shouldering our gear to top of Pan Pt and a break followed.  Instead of going through Pebble Creek we veered right and curved along with the ridge towards McClure Rock.  Soon after it was a direct diagonal line to the chute entrance.  There was a nice big wind lip for shelter at 8300ft.  During summer its a refreshing waterfall.  Anyway from the top of Pan Pt till the shelter, winds weren't an issue.  There were only nice breezes.  Temps were also a bit warmer up here compared to below.  

After lounging till 1pm it was finally time to start our descent.  First few turns right near the chute entrance felt good so I proceeded to slope cut high, just beneath the cliff band.  Only few small pinwheels on a soft recycled surface and no signs of instability.  Top section was anywhere from 40-45 degrees and petered out quickly.  Since we were the first ones down we took the opportunity to wander around and feel things out.  Boarders left was firmer than the right.  Softest goodies were straight down the middle until the fork in the road.  High right would dump you on a nice slope but you would have to cross the gully at some point.  High left forced you to carve a nice firmer slope just above the start of the rock filled gully.  We went left before funnelling into a shallow gully.  From here there were 2 choices.   One could access the main gully but would eventually have to gain enough speed to ride out the natural ramp on the side.  Or stay high left, which we did, above the main gully on a short, steep traverse.  How long of a traverse depended on how fast you wanted to go.  From here the snow became crusty, about inch or so thick on top of cream but easily carvable till the hike out point around 6200ft.

John and I took turns kicking in the steps I would be using again tomorrow.  It was boot to knee deep as we plunged through thick crust.  When I used my board on the steeper sections 3-4 inches of crust would crumble slab like and slide off easily, uncovering all the good snow.  Glad it's a small hill.  Anyway from the saddle to the car the snow could best be described as soft crust gradually becoming hard crust.  Mother Nature once again blessed us with large natural quarter pipes and transitions.  What a good way to end the day as we all went our seperate ways.

Saturday, the next day I arrived solo into the lot around 8:20 with a few cars scattered about.  Within a few minutes splitboarders Rob and Greg pulled up.  Destination the chutes again of course.  Weather wise, compared to yesterday, today the snow was softer, little to no wind and the absence of clouds left the sun beaming.  The 3 of us pretty much followed the established track to the shelter.  Here we discovered a single ski track that had meandered its way through the rock garden and into the chute.  We all chatted while marinating in the sun.  Before long we saw 2 people headed up our way followed by 3 more not too far behind.  Okay time to go.  At 12:15 we left for the chute.  It was so much softer today.  And with that the chunks released were bigger too and followed you further down the hill.  Aside from the release while turning nothing to raise any red flags.  All our lines were pretty much down the gut.  Towards the bottom, left was the preferred direction of choice.  Rob and Greg decided to chance the pipe while I traversed left above them.  From here to the hike out zone there was soft, creamy carvable crust.  The steps from the day before didn't hold up well in some places.  Regardless it was a short hump out.  We soon found ourselves strapping in for the last runout to the cars.  It was even more enjoyable than the day before, thanks to the softer snow.  I'd say it was a successful harvest!