Doerte and I started from the 4th Crossing Trailhead shortly after 9 am. 4th Crossing Trailhead is the first turnout just down the one way road from the Paradise Inn. It was perfectly sunny weather with excellent visibility. An absolutely gorgeous day! The meadows were green and just filled with flowers! We saw huge patches of blue Lupines!

We hiked up Mazama Ridge to the end of the Trail at the former toe of the Paradise Glacier at 6,200'.

We gained about 500' on the snow and then yo yo skied under McClure Rock.

My 1971 Mount Rainier map shows the Paradise Glacier Ice Caves in this area. They used to be quite the attraction at one time. Lou and Jim Whitaker used to lead guided trips to them. I am not sure when they melted out.

Doerte skiing down on nice snow. Mount Rainier had a big cloud cap on the summit.

We had great August skiing, although on a pretty short run by volcano standards. The snow was sun cupped, but not too bad, and the snow softened up a little. We easily did over 1,200' of vertical today.

We did see one party of three skiing down from Camp Muir on the Paradise Glacier. From our vantage point there seemed to be quite a bit of route finding and backtracking.

Looking back at the Paradise Glacier. We skied the lower part. That is Little Tahoma in the center, and the summit of Mount Rainier on the left, with a summit cloud.