Glacier Vista Snowshoe — Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014

Mount Rainier Area > SW - Longmire/Paradise

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.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://havetent.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/paradise-inn-glacier-vista/