mc_tree

Is the gate at the cougar sno-park open yet and if so how close can you get to the junction of the bivouac road junction?

How far could you drive? Was the road gated or snowed in? I am looking to ski Mt. St. Helens the last weekend of March, but a route that I call the Dryer Route to the west of Monitor Ridge. The route starts very close to the bivouac road junction. I would approach from the Couger Sno-Park.

A business owner in Cougar told me that the Monument was told that the maximum fee they could charge was $21. This double entity was a way to get out of that. Business owners in Cougar would mostly welcome the opportunity to sell permits, but they have been somewhat excluded from the process. There is certainly no reason to have an exclusive on-line permit purchase system when there is no quota limitation. Compare the cost to drive into Mt. Rainier with a car-full of skiers with a car full of skiers for Mt. St. Helens. The reservation system is badly managed and so is much of the Monument's activities. Who decided to put two visitor centers within 5 miles of each other? There is a heavy-handedness with the Monument's dealing with the publc compared to other federal agencies. The trail around Coldwater Lake is litered with signs threating a $100 fine for going off the trail.

To: shortstow: A is supposed to be paid in October. Kudos to you for not feeding this organization any money even if you were not perfectly legal.

This is not as much a middleman's fee as a just a disguised high fee. The Mt. St. Helens Institute which charges the $7 has as its address the identical address as the volcanic monument. These two fees go in the same pocket. I don't know how much active.com gets of the $7, but suspect the Mt. St. Helens Institute gets a good chunk. The Mt. St. Helens Institute provides nothing useful for climber. Write your Senator and Congressman. I have. I think it is pointless to write to the Monument. They don't care. The volcanic monument would be better if it were abolished. Get rid of the climbing ranger and save lots of money.

<I do not understand the mothers day thing I was there when they reopened the Mt after 1980. There was a short time of no quotas. But from the get go they planed on 100 per day.> St. Helens reopened in 1987. No fees were charged up to April 1, and there was a quota beginning May 15. Six years out of seven Mother's Day is prior to May 15, and typically there was a mass of climbers going up some dressed like Mom. In the past there was a Cascade Volcanoes permit which enabled you to climb Adams or St. Helens for $30 for the season provided you also had a reservation during the reservation system. Not now. Write to Congressman Brian Baird and the Monument to get a season pass system in place that would include the entire spring period and a reduction in the cost of this system. In the past if you had a reservation and the visibility was zero you did not use your pass. Now you lose $22 to make the reasonable decision to go somewhere else in bad weather. Perhaps someone will walk off the edge because they can't see in a whiteout and didn't want their $22 to go to waste.

Thanks, Stilleto Lake, seems right. I have the vintage maps (1969) which show only the elevation of the lake as 6795. My Washington Pass quad from the same time doesn't show a road over Washington Pass.

You can do an interesting trip by going either to Blue Lake and over the ridge to Copper Basin, go up another ridge and off trail hike to an unnamed lake north of Dagger Lake and rejoin a trail at Dagger Lake. You could also go south from the ridge south of South Early Winter Spire and then into Copper Basin.

Why would you wear crampons if the surface is soft enough to slide? It's to much energy wasted wearing crampons on Mt. Adams with our recent 14,000 foot freezing levels.

Mt. St. Helens is not a wilderness area. The fee is excessive and the reservation system is bad. Who complained about the masses of hikers on Mother's Day in the past. If you want solitude don't go up Monitor Ridge.

I was trying to put together a group for Powder Creek Lodge February 27-March 6. If you might be interested send me a message. Information about Powder Creek can be found at: Powder Creek Lodge and some trip specific information can be found at: Feb 2005 trip If I were able to get an adequate size group I would share the "organizer discount" among all skiers, i.e. a slightly lower cost.

Actually at this point with another individual interested I would be interested in another individual joining us (or pair of individual climbers)

Import duties depend on where the gear was manufactured. A tent made in Vietnam purchased from MEC may be subject to a duty. You're okay if it was manufactured in Canada.

Climbing pair to join Rainier Tahoma Glacier July 9-12. We have done this route once several years ago and would like to do it again. We are now a party of four. Send message.

Looking for another rope team to do this route with camp Saturday night summit Sunday addendum: will leave soon/ cannot hook up with another team [ 07-05-2002, 06:03 PM: Message edited by: mc_tree ]