[TR] Mt Rainier- Nisqually Chutes 5/16/2004

[Dr_Crash]

Climb: Mt Rainier-Nisqually Chutes

 

Date of Climb: 5/16/2004

 

Trip Report:

Sunday, we decided to head to Mt Rainier to ski Paradise Glacier. However, the visibility was not really with us, as this magnificent shot of Rainier from the road shows:

 

 

So instead we decided to forego the glacier and go ski the Nisqually Chutes instead. The chutes are about 3,000 feet above Paradise, and I was told were really fun to ski. We were a party of 6 and found 4 friends on the parking lot, and decided to combine our trips to make one.

 

So here we go, slogging along towards Panorama Point...

 

 

After a while, we decide to boot up to gain the upper ridge. I am not a big fan of booting up with G4s and Trekkers on my back...

 

 

... but some people apparently love the boot up:

 

 

Anyway, we resume the slogging, and slog, and slog, and slog...

 

 

We finally reach the entrance to the chute we were to ski. Kim checked the snow conditions on that aspect.

 

 

 

And we went for a few nice turns.

 

 

 

Different people have different styles

 

 

(Damn, can't make this one work: http://tinyurl.com/2lhba is a link to Webshots; maybe try this link instead).

 

 

After all that fun and these precious minutes of skiing, time to get on the skins again...

 

 

And reach the parking lot.

 

 

The day was spent in light rain and fog, with a bit of snow thrown in at higher elevations...

 

drC

 

Gear Notes:

G4s + Trekkers. Ugh.

[jonthomp]

Looks like a typical day in the Cascades. Turns are turns though. I never see many people doing this, but a buddy of mine and I have been dropping over the rock ridge a bit east onto the Paradise Glacier the last couple times we skied up there. We've found some fun terrain all the way into early October. Worth checking out.