Comet Falls — Saturday, Apr. 8, 2006

Mount Rainier Area > SW - Longmire/Paradise

We made an attempt to reach Comet Falls via the summer route that skirts above Van Trump Creek. Not a good idea. The route involves crossing a number of steep, slidey, avalanche prone slopes with the ultimate run-out being the creek bed. Since the snow was reasonably stable, we pushed across some of these, but finally stopped at a particularly steep slope with a nasty drop down into the partially snow covered creek. We then decided to drop down into the creek bed to see if we could travel along it and then find a way out of it beyond the avalanche slopes. We couldn't, so we backtracked and went home. The only safe way to get to Comet Falls in a heavy snow year might be to climb-up through steep forest to the top of the ridge above the creek and avalanche slopes and then maybe be able to reach the falls. Perhaps next year we'll find-out.