It felt like spring or summer up at Paradise on Mt. Rainier today! The temp. was 65 degrees, the winds non-existent and the sun blazing. The road was clear with only a little frost in places. Hiked up to Glacier Vista with only micro-spikes. Didn't punch through the hard packed snow as long as you stayed on the well beaten path. Put the snow shoes on for the trip back to the parking lot. Made for a faster, easier descent especially with the sun-softened snow. The highlight was witnessing an avalanche on the Mountain!

My plan today was mailbox peak, but seeing road closed and not sure distance of road walk, i took a peak at Rainier webcam clear skies, i changed destination quickly. I didn't get the elevation gain i was looking for but i did get awesome views and snowshoeing conditions so it's all good! Mountain sun in January does a body good! Get that vitamin D while you can! Store it up! I started crossing bridge at edith creek and thought about the gentleman that lost his life just a few weeks ago near the creek. I had a moment of silence for him and thougth of his family he left behind. I was the second car in parking lot and it was really quiet on this side of the mountain. Most people go up the other side. I wandered up hills and bumps and enjoying the views, had lunch at glacier vista. Ran into some friends below panorama point. Great day in the hills!

We had to get out and give some new Christmas snowshoes a try, so headed down to Mt. Rainier where we knew there would be snow. Glacier Vista seemed a short and easy snowshoe to start the season. As most know, you are required to carry chains in all vehicles once inside the Nat'l Park, and will be instructed to put them on if you only have 2WD. That being said, despite snow on the road, in our AWD vehicle we were just fine and didn't require chaining up. It was a very crowded day up at Paradise. A school bus was parked in the lot, which was on its way to being full when we arrived around 10:30. The trail is easy to find, right next to the new visitor center, and easy to stay on. There are a few side trails formed already, so you can sort of choose your own adventure up to Alta Vista. Clouds starting rolling in earlier than expected and the sky was turning dark, so we stopped just short of Glacier Vista to eat our lunch before turning around. On our drive back, we made a short stop at Narada Falls. By this point, the sky was clearing up a bit, and we wished we had finished the last quarter mile of our hike. Oh well, it's better to be safe than sorry on the mountain! We ran into a few hikers walking up the road, between the falls at the Longmire entrance. They had managed to get lost in the woods, I believe on their way to Narada Falls. We tried to give advice, and hope they stayed safe!

This will be a short report, but since there hasn't been one in a while, I figured I'd chime in. Chains were required, as usual. There was both snow and ice on the road starting about 6 miles past the entrance - chains weren't necessary on the way up, but we put them on just to be safe, as did most others. On the way down hours later, they were definitely helpful. Snow started low, around 3000 feet. We went up to Paradise expecting to check out Mazama Ridge/the Skyline trail, but ended up heading towards Panorama Point and Glacier Vista instead. Gorgeous day - I hadn't been at Rainier since actually climbing the mountain this past summer. I thought I'd recognize the area: nope. Had no idea where the summer trails were. But there were plenty of skiiers and snowshoers and we had the map, so no concerns there. The snow was several feet deep, and the summer signs were all mostly buried with a few exceptions. I say "avalanche danger," but we only saw one that day, a very small one triggered by a skier near Panorama Point. Most skiiers and snowshoe-ers were unconcerned and trekked up to panorama point. When we started snowshoeing, it was 11 degrees according to weather.gov, but by the time we finished, it was almost 30. Snowshoeing is more labor intensive than I expected when you're going through powder! Views of Rainier were stunning. We left just as the sun was setting, and my friends were snapping photos from the car as we drove back down since Rainier was lit up pink and yellow from the sunset. We completely forgot to check in with the rangers (they wanted reports about hte conditions) but hopefully some other folks running around the Paradise area remembered. It was an incredible day, and we'll definitely go back to hopefully snow-camp someday.

National Park snowshoe so no Black Dog today. Early start leaving Renton giving us time for coffee in Ashford (much needed!) and a place near the front of the line for the 9:00 am gate opening. Ranger checking for chains as expected and we were so ready with 4wd, high clearance and chains... turned out none of it was needed today, but better ready than unprepared. Several who were not were turned away. The plan was to snowshoe Reflection and Louise Lakes leaving from the Narada Falls parking lot. The only thing lacking for the plan to succeed was snow! Just a dusting at that elevation (about 4,500 feet) so we continued on to the Paradise lower lot to activate plan "B" which was Glacier Visa. What a difference a few hundred feet can make! A glorious day playing in the snow! In spite of an overall thin snowpack (see photo of sign and outline of big rocks which should be fully covered) of about 40" we were told, there was about 6 to 10 inches of new powder on top of the somewhat thin, but consolidated base. Nice conditions for snowshoeing not to mention BC skiing and boarding. And did I mention the sunshine and mild conditions? Clearly our leader and organizer Dave has weather karma! After a full morning of tramping around in the snow and a nice lunch break at an exceptionally scenic spot overlooking the Nisqually Glacier, we made our way slowly back to the cars. We were pretty surprised that the crowds were so light. Not exactly a day of solitude, but if you stayed off the Skyline Trail as we did, plenty of space to play. The road to Paradise was a little slick in the morning, but merely wet on the trip down. As we know however, all that can change fast. The only slight downer was slogging back North through heavy traffic. On Saturday, really? Anyway, a lot of driving, but well worth it!