Quick report
We started the morning right after the gate opened at Rainier. The top 3-4 inch layer of snow was dry and fluffy. We were so afraid it was going to melt immediately that we skied a great baby lap off Alta Vista before continuing up the pan face and Muir Snowfield. The snow stayed light and fluffy for several thousand feet, but once the wind died down we could feel the sun getting hotter and decided to lap down while the skiing was good. We skied all the way down the Snowfield and pan face, then traversed over to the Mazama Bowl to get a little more vert down. As we got lower the snow got softer until we eventually triggered two small wet loose avalanches in low consequence terrain.
Avalanche
- Size
- D1
- Aspect
- S
- Trigger
- AS
- Elevation
- 5700 ft
Several small wet loose slides on south facing slopes. We saw two natural and set off two ourselves when on the steeper sections.