Overview
The king of ski mountains in the lower 48 states is 14, 411 foot Mount Rainier. This volcanic monster offers up some huge descents with over 10,000 feet of vertical possible. Almost every aspect of Mount Rainier has great skiing if you're up for long approaches and steep turns on glaciated terrain. Most lines are aided by camping out and many folks use Rainier as a training and test piece for stepping up to larger mountains in Alaska and beyond. Spring is the best time to attempt the mountain when days are longer, the snow is consolidated and approaches are much shorter with the opening of forest roads to White River and
Skier access
Mount Rainier is a National Park and permits are required for skiing above 10,000 feet. Most of the skiing like the Fuhrer Finger, Success Couloir and the standard Disappointment Cleaver routes are accessed on the south side of the mountain via Paradise Park. Get to the town of Longmire and follow the Paradise Road up until it dead ends.
