In October of 2016, the crew got together for a day trip up Mt Rainier to do some BC skiing. The road to paradise was on it’s winder season schedule - so they didn’t open the gates until 8a and they close them down again at 8p. We had to make use of every moment we had!
2016-10-22
It was still early in the winter season, so the first bit of our trek was a hike. It was not too far, but hiking with skiis and boots on your back is always a chore. We had fun though and we were all pretty used to it at this point
Finally, we made it to the snow. There is something very different about uphill travel on skiis vs hiking - it just feels so much more in touch with the snow and with the season. Here’s Pam showing me how the uphill travel is done - by taking off gloves & hats and dropping everything… :)
These trips usually involve a big uphill travel for several hours and then some laps once you get to elevation and find a place you want to ski. This was no different - the snow at the beginning of our uphill climb was pretty icy from the prior day’s melt but it started to get better as we went up.
Finally, we got high enough for our first ski. I was the last to head down into the ravine, so I got a picture of everyone all lined up, having just dropped into the ravine and ready to ski down.
From there, it was lap after lap. There was some great snow if you stayed off of the Muir snowfield and stuck to the areas that were a bit less expose to the sun. I thought this picture was pretty epic.
Pam and I goofing around. After a few laps, we were all having a blast!
We skiied down at the end of the day, headed back to the car, and drove home. Great Day! I’ll leave you with pretty epic picture of Pam climbing into the sunset (which was at like 4p this time of year).
