TR: Let the season begin, Muir powder!

**bfree** · 10-21-2012, 11:19 PM

With 9-14 inches of fresh, Keith and I were off to Rainier. Maybe 20-30 other skiers up there, ~10 of which made it to Muir. The gate didn't open until 10, and after a lazy start we were on our way at 11:15 under light, variable clouds. Skinned from the parking lot with no carries. Rainier looks so much better with a blanket of white, it was an unbelievable sight and fantastic coverage for October. I was grinning for most of the first hour, just excited to be back in the fluffy goodness.

Approaching the snowfield proper, the wind effects began to show and the snow was a bit more dense and windblown. Still nice and smooth, and the upper mountain began to show itself for the first of a few welcomed sunbreaks.

Just under 3 hours to the shelter for me, including a fair amount of breaking trail on the snowfield. It was exhausting, yet felt so good. It was 14 degrees with gusts of 30+ mph, so we ducked into the shelter pretty quickly.

After missing one nice sunbreak and waiting some time for another, we just had to head down. Visibility was fairly poor until we got back down to Pebble Creek, but good enough to stop for a quick picture.

It's a little easier to skin through rocks than ski through them, but still managed to ski roughly 4000 of the 4600 vert, exceptions being a few patches through Pebble Creek, Pan Point, and above Alta Vista. One core shot and half a ptex candle worth of scratches between the two of us, but well worth the price of admission. Winter is back in the northwest!

**workinforturns** · 10-22-2012, 11:27 AM

Getting after it I see. Looks like another good day in the PNW!

**KansasBoarder** · 10-22-2012, 11:35 AM

Love it! God that had to feel good after summer. Thanks for sharing!

**Ski to Be** · 10-22-2012, 12:10 PM

Way to get after it. Hard to believe you can ski down to paradise after one storm.

**Theo-san** · 10-24-2012, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by Ski to Be

Way to get after it. Hard to believe you can ski down to paradise after one storm.

Seriously. After seeing it a couple of months ago, I wouldn't have believed it would be good to go after one storm. - But it's hard to argue with results! Good work.