Glacier Vista Snowshoe — Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014

Mount Rainier Area > SW - Longmire/Paradise

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!