Last weekend a stream of visitors to Mount Rainier National Park pulled over at the crest of Chinook Pass, east of the mountain, and asked around: “Where is the start of the Tipsoo Lake trail?” Skiers who’d just descended from jagged Naches Peak, carving snow all the way to their parked cars, gestured generally past the highway’s shoulder-high snow berm to the all-white landscape beyond. “It’s under there.”
Summer may be here with a bang—hello, sunshine—but a high snow year means that many high elevation destinations are not yet ready for dry land hikers. The white stuff can mean anything from an annoyance to a grave risk.
“When folks encounter areas that are
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