jshamster

pure speculation 'cause i haven't been that far up the road yet, but i would say it's about the same as last fall. there was no real snow that low. iirc, dreamer got climbed in february or so. axe, limbing saw, chainsaw are all good things to have in your rig anytime you go to the wilds of dtown. i'll be out there all weekend & can provide updated conditions after. cheers jimbo

You will not get an accurate picture from some poll on cc.spray. not only do a lot of folks not get permits/avoid NPS personnel, but they avoid the interwebs as well.

jeez john. isn't it always 88.76493 degrees?

any slabmasters lookin' to get on some sunny rock this sunday? i don't have anything in particular in mind. just wantin' to get out for some slap & pray fun. spring mtn. is also an option, but could be hot. saturday is not an option for me because it's USA vs. ENGLAND in the World Cup. PM works for me cheers jimbo

doood. i'd be down, but i'm stickin' to the westside this weekend. are you livin' over there yet? lets get out soon. werd jimbo

yeah. what ivan said. go climb a rock or two. plenty of time left to slog on volcanoes when shit settles down.

ya just ask the Googles.......the Googles knows all. http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/current-conditions/roads.shtml all i asked the Googles was "mt. adams road conditions" try it, you'll like it! cheers jimbo

cd-rom

you'll pretty much never find a line up for Fantasia or Scimitar. Both classic run out lines on the east wall. Psychedelic Tree is another good one, but rumors of loose rock keep folks off. it's really not that bad, and the roofs at the top are super fun. I'd guess around 80% of the routes down there are pretty uncrowded. East wall & the two classics on main wall (corrugation & traveler) get all of the traffic. Most times i've been down there, we climbed at the leap on weekdays & went to phantom spires or sugarloaf for the weekend. tons more awesome sierra granite with no crowds at all. if yer climbin' to the top, which a lot of routes do, then two ropes are not necessary. walk off is easy. some of the single pitch climbs require at least a 70, and occasionally two ropes. Labour of love comes to mind, right next to the line. phantom spires still has free camping, as do some of the other FS roads around there. unfortunately the days of camping in the campground for free are gone. one of my absolute favorites places to climb. cheers jimbo

Was just up there on Monday. With snow it is very easy to just go up the valley, cut through a cliff band, and yer at Cascade Pass in no time. I have no experience with that area without snow.

no, no, no. snowboards are for POWDER. skis are for spring.

Hey John. I rode the splitboard all season. Just wanting to see what I'm capable of on skis. That's funny Scott. We saw one person disappearing over the horizon right as we were coming up to the summit. Great day on the mountain!

yup, 161. he used to be an AAI guide. only my third, but by far the best.

Trip: Mt. Baker - Park Glacier Date: 5/12/2010 Trip Report: First, a bit of backstory... I moved to B'ham in '92 to snowboard at Baker. The view of Mt. Baker from the ski area amazed me on every bluebird day. Namely staring straight at the Park Glacier. Even though I had absolutely no backcountry, glacier or mountaineering experience at that time, I couldn't help but dream about snowboarding that giant face. Fast forward 18 years, and I've paid a fair amount of dues in the mountains both climbing & snowboarding. Managed to get up & down and stay safe in a large part of our wonderful playground, the North/Central Cascades. Climbing & riding the Park Glacier hasn't sounded like a far-fetched idea at all the last few years. On Wednesday the stars finally aligned, and my brother-in-law & I left the Baker Ski Area at 3:30am, bound for the Park. We skinned up through the ski area towards Table Mtn. in the dark. Temp leaving the car was probably 37F or so, and the snow below 5500' hadn't frozen overnight. This made for pretty easy skinning all day. Upon reaching the shoulder before the last scrambley bit up Table, we deskinned & dropped around Table towards Ptarmagin Ridge. Skins back on after a short ski/traverse under the south side of Table, and on towards the Coleman Pinnacle. We reached the pinnacle in a couple of hours taking skins on or off as needed. Being able to traverse a lot without skins saved a ton of time. From the Coleman Pinnacle saddle we skied down onto the Shales Glacier & skinned up to the Portals. Once on the Portals shoulder we were able to ski all the way down to the base of the Park. Here we stopped to rehydrate & eat lunch. Did I mention it was hot out? Cookin' hot! We were in t-shirts from first sun to about 10,400'. We were a bit concerned with the avy danger, given the warm temps, but the Park had no recent activity save for some point releases from the Cockscomb. Looking over at the Mazama glacier, there was a ton of recent avy activity, both point release & slab. So, feeling great after noodle soup lunch, a ton of water & some , we started skinning up the Park. We roped up, but saw no visible, open cracks save for a bergschrund at the base of the Park headwall. We were pretty much able to skin in a straight line right up the middle of the glacier, except for a couple of steep rolls that required a switchback or two. There was a convenient break in the 'schrund, and once through that we made a rising traverse toward the ridge above the Cockscomb. Around 9700', below the ridge, skinning became a bit sketchy with no ski crampons, so we threw the skis on the packs, donned crampons & booted up to the ridge. From there another 600' of booting up the ridge saw us to the summit. We didn't spend much time on the summit. Despite the roasting temps, there was a chilly breeze on top, and it was 2:30pm with a long ways to go still. The Park headwall looked steep & icy, so we skied back down the ridge toward the Cockscomb. Snow was an inch of pow on ice or hard windpack. Don't wanna fall, but not bad skiing. Dropping off of the ridge was the hardest part for me. See, I'm a snowboarder, but as soon as the ski areas closed this year I put away the board and vowed to learn to backcountry ski. I skied as a kid, but this was my 12th day on skis this year, and all in the last three weeks. After a bit of side slipping, and messing around, I managed to start linking turns down the 4000' of the Park glacier. The snow up high was not that great. Breakable crust on a few inches of mush. Below the bergschrund the turns got better & better, finally turning to fast creamy goodness for the last 1500' or so. Needless to say, the ski/skin back to the Baker Ski Area was long. We were hampered by low flying clouds that forced us to keep skins on and follow the track out in zero vis. We were really looking forward to the ski down from the Coleman Pinnacle saddle, but we couldn't see a thing. Luckily we had a skin track to follow from some guys who were climbing the Park the next day. Thanks! Finally got back up to the Table mt. shoulder, and had a nice ski back through the ski area. Got back to the car at 8:10pm. Whew! So, there it is. I got to realize a long time goal of mine, and my brother-in-law got to climb and ski a route he had never done before for his 161st time up Baker. cheers jimbo p.s. - all photos credit Christopher Olson Gear Notes: 8mm 30m rope skis skins stove for water 'cause it was hot! Approach Notes: Baker Ski Area. Go past Table mt. & traverse straight to the Park glacier. Approx. 8 miles to base of the Park.

spring powder at stevens pass on may 4th!

Great skiing with you Doug. Gotta be the most relaxing tour I've done all year. Cheers. Jimbo

If y'all make this a weekly event I'd love to come meet some folks and swill some suds. Can't make it this week, but almost any other week would be great! Cheers Jimbo

Weather looks like sun & powder on Saturday! http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?site=otx&smap=1&textField1=48.53&textField2=-120.65

Call me crazy, but I think Easter was a few weeks ago.

Open for the masses as of a few days ago.

Sheeeet! At least someone has a pic of me smoking. I'll see 'bout postin' some video here shortly. Cheers. Jimbo

I'll be there to represent the splitboarders again. jimbo

I was on Godzilla during the nisqually quake. Full account ins in ANAM and the Everet Herald, and posted on this board a couple of times.

C-D & Easton are both good. I'd say Easton is better because it is more consistenly fall line. Always rope up on the way up. If the crevasse situation looks managable, then ski down unroped. I'm a snowboarder, and I ride with an axe in my hands when on a glacier. Most of my skier buddies rock Whippets. Cheers. Jimbo