For my first hike of the year, I headed out with a few members of the Kitsap Climbers Group (Cheryl, Robbin and Dave) and we snowshoed up to Panorama Point from Paradise at Mount Rainier. The snow was firm in most places and not too icy. I tried going up in my microspikes but after post-holing a few times, we all switched over to snowshoes. After Panorama point we kept going up and traversed over and came down via Mazama Ridge and walked the Paradise Valley Road back to the parking lot at the Paradise visitors center. I was surprised how little snow there was on the drive up to Paradise. The ground was bare at Longmire and the snow along side the road at Paradise was not as deep as I expected. All in all it was a good trip. What I will take away from this trip is the subtle grays, golds and silvers of the clouds and the neat lenticular clouds above Adams and St Helens. Oh yeah, this was my first snowshoe hike as well.
