Alpine Scramble - Panorama Point

This was a wonderfully quiet day at Paradise! The parking lot was only about half full, so our two cars were able to park right next to each other. We hit the snow around 8:40 under a slightly smoky but sunny sky with no wind to speak of.  Although we could smell the smoke a little, it didn't bother us.

It was especially enjoyable to be almost the only group heading up above Panorama Point - quite a contrast to the many visitors on weekends!

The snow was very soft, and actually became softer the higher we went. We soon realized that we had to stay a good distance from exposed rocks because of hidden holes. My left leg found a nice deep one just above Pan Point as I punched through almost to the hip. Many thanks to Aditya who quickly pulled out his shovel, and to the rest of my team who helped with my extrication! No harm done; however, it was an excellent reminder to be appropriately prepared and to not venture out there alone.

We used the rocky ridge of McClure to reach the summit and had a relaxing  lunch enjoying the scenery. I was watching the clouds build, so we headed down before they got close enough to affect visibility, and got to the cars almost exactly at 2:00. We carried but did not use our snowshoes at all. I originally listed this trip as an Intermediate Snowshoe; however, based on the route conditions I decided to change the trip type to Alpine Scramble. All participants had scramble experience and we all had ice axes and helmets. Oh, and the glissade down from Panorama was pretty nice! In a nutshell, it was an enjoyable unexpected adventure with a wonderful group of Mountaineers!