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Sunny December at Paradise Paradise, Mt Rainier National Park December 8, 2002

Kim and I had been looking forward to trying out our new (to us!) telemark skis but the unseasonably warm weather has kept the snows away. So we drove up to the one place that would have snow, if any place did: Paradise at Mt Rainier. The forecast had predicted clouds with increasing precipitation, but as we drove through the park we were treated to beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine. It felt more like July than December. The Tatoosh range had only a few patches of snow on their north facing slopes, and we could see plenty of rocks still poking through.

The Paradise meadows were spotty too. We were told at the park entrance that because of the low snow cover skiing was not allowed in the meadows and that we would have to hike up to the Muir snowfield. This would have been no problem if we had brought hiking boots and packs that were equipped to carry skis. Unfortunately we had planned on skinning up right from the parking lot with me carrying our frameless day pack. Kim was willing to forget about skiing and just go for a nice hike, but I was determined to ski so I talked her into hiking up a ways to find some snow.

We were a little below Glacier Vista when we looked up and saw how bare Panarama Point was. I finally gave up on my hope of doing any real skiing today. There was enough snow on the trail for some skinning, so I put on my skis and skinned up a few hundred yards more to a big rock where we stopped for lunch. Afterwards Kim put on her tele boots and skinned around some too. It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains.