Glacier Vista Snowshoe

We drove up to Paradise at Mt Rainier National Park this morning to do a leisurely snowshoe up to Glacier Vista, about 3 miles round trip with 970 ft of gain. The snow was fairly consolidated. View of Mt Rainier as we snowshoed up the hill.

For a grey, cloudy day, the views were spectacular. Looking back to the Tatoosh Range.

Mt Rainier as we continued up. They weren't very people here today, we would often look around and not see anyone, most of the skiers and snowboarders headed up to Panorama Point and CampMuir.

zoom to the west of Iron Mountain, Copper Mountain and Pyramid Peak

There were cornices along the ridge facing towards us. 

Part way up, we stopped to take a break and admire the changing sky over the Tatoosh Range to the south, We could see Mt Adams and Mt St Helens further to the south.

zoom of Mt Adams 

zoom of Mt St Helens

Another view of the Tatoosh and looking down the route we took up above Glacier Vista.

Mt Rainier  and down towards the Nisqually Glacier.

From here we could see Mt Hood further to the south

zoom of Mt Hood behind Pinnacle Peak

Eastern end of the Tatoosh Range with a distant view of Old Snowy in the Goat Rocks 

zoom of Old Snowy beyond the Tatoosh Peaks

More views as we snowshoe backed down 

There were some interesting striations in the snow caused by heavy rains earlier in the week after the heavy snow fall.

Large crack above a section of the snow near the route most people take above Paradise.

Lots of lovely cloud formations today.