28 February 2010 - Reflection Lakes Mt Rainier

Spring skiing in February!

All week it's been warm days with off and on rain in the mountains. The grooming reports from the sno-parks have been grim. The parks at Snoqualmie pass were reported to be icy and the groomer admitted on his website that his machine was just making things worse, so all the lower elevation sites were ruled out. This is also the weekend for Hog Loppet, which was fun last year but we weren't signed up this year so Blewett Pass was out too.

The weather report was good though, so we grabbed the skis and headed down to Mt. Rainier. If we couldn't have groomed trails, we at least wanted something easy, so we skied from Paradise to Reflection Lakes. This is a different kind of tour because you start at the top (5400') and ski down to the lake (4800'). Trip is mostly on the road, but the slope can look a little intimidating, because the steepest grade is at the top just as you leave the parking lot, and you can see all the way down the valley as soon as you make the first little turn. But even though it looks like you could build up some speed on the way down, it really is pretty gentle. Good thing too, because you have to come all the back up on the return trip!

When we got down to the bottom of Paradise Valley, we took the marked route over Mazama Ridge to avoid an avalanche slope above the road. This is a little shorter than staying on the road, but the trail through the woods was a bit much for fish scales and skinny skis so we carried the skis on our packs in a few spots. There had been so many snowshoers over the pass packing down the trial that it was no problem walking in ski boots.

By the time we stopped for lunch at Reflection Lakes, the morning clouds were gone. Mt. Rainier hides in the clouds a lot during the winter, but man when it comes out on a day like this, it almost hurts to look at it.

Too soon we had to turn around and hike back over Mazama Ridge and make the long climb back to Paradise, but the snow just got better as the day went on, and it really didn't feel like much work at all on such a beautiful day as this.

The snow wasn't perfect, but the weather was, and I think we'll remember this little tour as good one when the lower elevations aren't available to us.
Check out the rest of the pictures[here on Picasa].

By the way, I haven't given up on the overdue posts listed in the previous entry - check back later and look for updates in the list below.