MRNP ice conditions?

[Jens]

Did anbody driving to Paradise get a peek at the routes above the Nisqually bridge today or yesterday? How are they lookin'?

That place seems to ge quite cold.

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Gotta love the internet for ice reports! --Spend a lot less on gas than before the net!

[Mr_D]

Anybody have any information on these? I saw them from the road on 12/10 and the looked good. Well at least they looked climbable. The one on the right was the fattest (using the term loosely).

[Jens]

Just bringin this back to the top. Anybody seen these lately?

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I have some personal business near the park enterance for few hours tomorrow and the next day and am thinking of doing some soloing with the tools. The weather looks to nasty to ski up high on the mountain.

If you are in the area, pull over at the bridge and join me. Or perahps at Narada.

[Chad_A]

Allright...someone must know somethin'!

[treknclime]

Saw some guys racking up...getting ready to climb Narada on 12/17. Looked down the falls later in the day, and it was wet, but the climber's left side looked climbable.

 

The visible routes above the Nisqually Bridge looked marginal, but then again...we didn't spend more than a few seconds look'in at them.

 

IMHO avi danger would be the issue now, at least for awhile. There's a winter weather advisory for the Rainier area through tonight; they're expecting 4-10". Not sure what they received the last few days snow-wise, but the freezing level varied between 5-9k for several days, so the new stuff is probably setting down over a hard crust.

 

Post an update if you head up.

[Chad_A]

Saw some guys racking up...getting ready to climb Narada on 12/17. Looked down the falls later in the day, and it was wet, but the climber's left side looked climbable.

 

The visible routes above the Nisqually Bridge looked marginal, but then again...we didn't spend more than a few seconds look'in at them.

 

IMHO avi danger would be the issue now, at least for awhile. There's a winter weather advisory for the Rainier area through tonight; they're expecting 4-10". Not sure what they received the last few days snow-wise, but the freezing level varied between 5-9k for several days, so the new stuff is probably setting down over a hard crust.

 

Post an update if you head up.

 

Will do, thanks for posting what you know. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on up there from the forecasts and webcams.

 

Planning on heading up there Friday. I'll put up a few pics of what we find.

[ckouba]

12/30- No bueno.

 

We headed up Friday (12/30) and after a ~3h drive to get there, ~2.5h "bivy" at the closed gate (opened ~1030), we drove to Narada Falls to watch lots of water (the NON-frozen variety) spilling over the falls.

 

So, there is NO ice on the falls. Nothing else looked in. The biggest icicles we saw would fit *inside* the screws we brought. No really attractive ice anywhere...

 

There wasn't enough snow on the ground to avoid leaving half of ski bases ground off on rock so we didn't bother heading to the Tatooshes. We couldn't see Lane through the clouds/fog so didn't bother with that as avy conditions were high.

 

So we turned around and went home.

 

Nothing like ~12h in the truck to not even put a boot on! Hopefully this post will prevent others from happening and encourage a little more beta on the board.

 

Chris

[ivan]

shoulda just hoofed on up to the muir hut n' fired up a bowl!

[JoshK]

Yeah, no shit...getting down from Muir to Paradise in a whiteout while sporting a nice little head change is at *least* as exciting (even more challenging?) as any of the things you had planned to do!

[Chad_A]

Haha, well, I have a legitimate excuse...I'm a health care worker, succeptable to random drug screens.

 

Didn't matter, anyway, they were diverting traffic into the Narada Falls parking lot, due to (I'm guessing) avalanche conditions. Some new snow up there, with rain falling on top. Pancakes at the Copper Creek Inn sounded good all the sudden.