Hello WTA members! I'm from out of state but found your trip reports invaluable when planning my first trip to Rainier this past weekend. Your reports gave us the confidence to do the Skyline trail and we couldn't be happier that we did! Hopefully, this report will in turn be useful to all of you.
To start, we had no problems getting up to Paradise. We had a reservation for 7-9AM and got to the Nisqually entrance around 8:15-8:30. Because we had a reservation and parks pass already, the ranger fast-tracked us through and we didn't end up having to wait at all! We got up to Paradise around 9:15 and found a spot in the lower overnight lot with no problems.
The park representative stationed by the map outside the visitor's center was giving tips about current conditions. We were originally only planning on going to Panorama Point, so that's what we asked about. Because we told them we had spikes and poles, they let us know that we'd have no problem. That being said, they said they weren't encouraging people to do the whole Skyline trail at the time. Sure enough, in the visitor's center was a map outlining "Danger!" zones past the intersection with the Golden Gate trail (see attached photos).
We headed up to the Panorama Point trail and ended up putting our spikes on pretty quick. The trail alternated between snow and pavement for a good while, but eventually the snow won out. The route was pretty crowded, but not to the point of being unenjoyable. Route-finding was no trouble as orange poles marked the whole way up. Our spikes and poles were absolutely essential to having a good time! We saw many a hiker without them, but they were slipping and sliding the whole way up – needless to say the way down would be a struggle.
We got to Panorama Point around noon (we're not particularly fast hikers) and were treated to a wonderful view! We could see Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and (most of) Mt. St. Helens. We really lucked out with the visibility!
After making it to Panorama Point with no issues and having gotten some encouragement from other parties, we decided to continue on the Skyline Trail. Things definitely got rougher beyond Panorama Point – we encountered steeper climbs and descents, plus some sections where glissading was all but necessary. That being said, we have very minimal snow travel experience and still had an excellent time! At no point did we feel scared or unsafe. Some parts of the trail are melted out, but most of it is still snow-covered. The route also was not marked past Panorama Point, though there was almost always a boot trail to follow. When there wasn't, I used my phone's GPS and some downloaded maps to navigate and had no problems.
The trickiest part was probably right past the intersection with the Golden Gate trail, where we switched to that trail instead of continuing on Skyline. There's a steep part where if you lost control you'd end up tumbling down some steep rocky terrain. It's not too hard to manage, but the exposure made me think twice. After watching a few other groups go through, we gained the confidence to try ourselves and did so with no issues.
We walked down a brief melted-out portion of the Golden Gate trail, where a few early flowers are blooming! After that short stretch, we glissaded most of the way down toward Myrtle Falls. Encountering the crowds again was a bit of a shock! We'd only seen a handful of groups between Panorama Point and the falls (though we were never alone – there was always at least one other group in sight). Back at Myrtle Falls, though, we were back in the crowds.
Throughout the hike, we were visited by some bee-like bugs that I'm pretty sure were just flies. They were a little pesky but did no real harm.
Overall, this hike was a ton of fun, even for some novice snow explorers! The right gear and preparation made a huge difference and we had a great time.
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