btowle

I demo'd Shuksans but ended up buying World Piste with Dynafit boots and bindings. A year ago I found some new dynafit bindings with wide brakes on Ebay for $200 and so I looked for skis. I bought BD Verdicts. They were last years version. The people that I ski with commented that it seemed like I skied better this year. I took credit, but I suspect it is the Verdicts. I am really liking them.

If this is your first volcano, do St. Helens. You can leave the rope, harness and helmet at home unless you want the practice climbing with them. You can snowshoe right to the top. Well, I haven't done that, but I have skinned right to the top, and have seen people on them at the top. The Adams trailhead will open around July 4 in a normal year. Just some piles of snow in the road for a month or so before that.

I have been up there at this time of year before. If you are actually from SW Washington, you will remember that we had snow down low just last week. We had 8.5" here at 1200 feet. So, you will hit snow right out of Trout Lake. I would say a two day summit will not be possible without skis. On skis you can get to timberline or so (7000 feet) in a day. From there it depends on the snow. Sometimes it is scoured ice with big areas of deep snow that you flounder in even with skis. It will be a lot of work.

I am looking for another set of AT skis. Right now I am using Dynafit boots and bindings with K2 World Piste skis. I really like the setup, but have come across another set of dynafit bindings. These bindings have the wide brakes. I am thinking of even wider skis than my World Piste since the wide brakes are really wide. Do dynafit bindings handle really wide skis? It seems that since they make the brakes that wide that they must. Anyway, what wide skis have you been happy with with light bindings and cascade snow? I am about 185lbs (no pack) but many times am carrying between 20-50 lbs in a pack.

dmuja...you beat me to it. The next time I climb Mt. Doom after the MLU law passes, I am going to push the button and see if I can get Cluck to carry my pack down for me because I "might" have "kind of twisted" my ankle. Maybe I could get a ride in one of those cool sleds. Cluck...you wouldn't roll one of those sleds and give a guy a nose burn if you thought he might be faking it would you???

On the route out of Marble Mountain Snow Park, after you get to timberline there are a few intervisible poles up to the trail around the mountain (4800ft). From there you keep going up the ridge that you are on. Any nice sunny day will find 10-20 people on the mountain. Later in the spring there will be 100-150 on some nice weekend days. Just show up at the snow park and you can find someone to climb with or just follow them up the mountain. In summer, you can see the trail all of the way to the top of South Sister. I think that there may be even more people on that mountain than St. Helens. You don't need a guide in good weather on either mountain unless you get lost in the mall. Oh, and you pick up your permit at Jack's. It is a few miles before you get to Cougar. You will sign into the register outside of the store and then sign again when you get out.

I agree with Beecher. Scarpas are (or at least used to be) pretty narrow. I had demo'd a pair of Lasers, but when I went into the Mountain Shop to buy a pair, they measured by feet and said "No Way!". It was true. I could wear a full US size smaller Dyanfit than Scarpa just because they are wider and I didn't need the large boot to get my foot into it. I love the boots to climb in.

You park at Marble Mt. snow park. When you get there, there is a lot for vehicles without trailers. It is to the right before turning into the smokey lot with lots of noisy machines. They ask you to park there if you are not pulling a trailer. A lot of climbers don't but it always cracks me up that people going to climb Mt St. Helens, can't walk 100 yds to the trailhead. I would much rather park where there is fresh(er) air. Then walk through the smokey lot past the bathrooms and warming cabin to the trailhead in about the middle of the parking lot on the far side.

In July, the route from Cold Springs will be very easy to follow. You can pick a permit up at the ranger station in Trout Lake on the way. They are outside, so you don't need to worry about it being open. If you are bringing enough gear with you to backpack, camping at the Lunch Counter is unforgettable your first time. Bring everything you can think of to purify water though. Even in July it will be windy and cool by morning. Great views though. I usually just do it as a day hike now. So if you don't want to bring all of the camping gear, you can still do the climb. I get to the trailhead at 5:00am, leave at 5:30 and get to the Lunch Counter at 8:30. False summit at 10:30 and the summit at 11:30. Of course all of this depends on weather, snow, etc. With a 14 year old, the camping would probably be nicer, just have to haul your stuff up there.

Wishbone shape: When you dig a snowcave, you have to put the snow somewhere that you take out of the cave. You normally start piling it on each side of the opening and, because of the effort to heft heavy shovels of snow too high, keep piling it down the hill from the entrance. From the air this would sometimes look like a wishbone.

In a properly constructed snow cave (with the entrance at the lowest point),and not too big for the number of people in there, it can be around 40 degrees. It can remarkably comfortable, but quite humid. Snow is a good insulator to the outside air and noise, so it is also very quiet. It takes a bunch of work to build one. It is easy to get wet from the snow or sweat. Either one is not good, since the humidity on the inside of the cave makes it difficult to dry anything out.

In general, there are more satellites south of us than to the north. We do land surveying. If we need to obtain coordinates on a point in a field near the edge of a tree line, if the trees are north, it will probably work, but if the trees are to the south it won't. The geometry of the satellites will not be good in either case for survey grade accuracy, but in general is true.

LHwildcats76: In hard pack snow, any hole will work for a snow cave. In fresher snow, I round the roof to an arch. In warm weather you will still have to do some minor maintenance after a day or two because the ceiling may start to sag. In snowing conditions this is fine. In warm conditions you may have to build another cave in a few days. In snowing conditions, if the roof will glaze over, it will last for a while. A rounded roof will keep water from dripping on you when the cave warms.

That was us. We met the FS as she turned off of the main road, but decided with all of the trailers starting to line us at the gate, that Sunday might work out better. Still no guarantee that she would have let us head up there. Nice to have met you.

I suppose that we saw all of you guys at the gate. We were in the gray Yukon with a Vancouver address on the side windows. Since we live close, we just headed home for the day not sure when the gate would open. I could see by the ski tracks that you must have got in before afternoon. We went back yesterday and had the benefit of your trailbreaking services. The skiing wasn't any better then. The upper part was okay, but the thin crust lower down was really tiring. I think that there were 10-12 climbers Sunday.

When I bought my AT boots, I had kind of decided on Scarpa boots. I had rented some and they seemed okay, but not too compfortable. I went into the Mountain Shop in Portland. They took one look at my feet and said "No Way". My feet are short and wide. They had me try on a pair of Scarpa's and a pair of Dynafit's. I could wear a lot smaller Dyanfit and the Scarpa. I have done multi-day tours, climbed most of the local volcanoes with them. I like them better than my plastic climbing boots. Buy somewhere that you trust and try on a lot of boots. Look into Dynafits.

Snowshoes are sometimes better when pulling a sled. We usually strap a pair onto the sled for those times when sidehilling isn't appealing or possible (steep roads with large cutbanks with steep drifts). They make a nice path for the sled also.

Take a soup can. Eat soup. Cut off the lids. Take pliers and bend the edges over so you don't get cut. Take nail and poke small hole in center. Take tent cord and run 3' or so section through hole and tie knot. I have about 12 of these in my 4 season tent bag. I usually only use 6 or so. They will bend if you hit them with a shovel, but they are easy to bend back. I dig a hole, throw one in, holding the chord and then tie it to the tent. In really fluffy snow, I may wait a few minutes before I tighten down the tent to let the snow settle. They are lite, durable, cheap and work great. At least in the Pacific Northwest.

If you look at frameless (internal frame) packs, so will see that anything more than 2500cc or so will have a lot a support (frame) against your back. The rest of the pack gets filled out with your stuff. For me, I can always seem to fill up whichever pack I take. If you take a 5000cc pack on a day hike, yes, the top will flop over unless you are on a Mazama outing. Some packs are tall and slender and some are shorter and wider. If you really like the bag, look at the stuff sack size. Is it long and with a small diameter? If so, some of the Gregory packs may not work well because they are not very wide and you want to put it in the bottom, it won't fit. Take you bag with you and try it in the pack. I put mine in the bottom of the pack below the divider. My 0 degree bag just fits with some shoving. Then do like Bill explained above.

I use the Osprey Ceres 50. If you bushwack a lot, there are plenty of things to get hung up, but there is a place for everything without getting into the pack. That's nice in high wind. I love this pack. Too small for much overnight stuff if it is cold though. Great for a summit pack.

For me, I have three areas that I don't want to get cold. My feet, hands and torso. For 90% of the PNW winter stuff that I do I wear expedition weight underwear, plastic boots and big gloves. I wear gore-tex or schoeller pants. Then it depends on the temperature and wind. I generally just wear a windstopper fleece vest. It vents well and keeps the torso warm. If it is very windy or rain I may use a gore-tex shell and skip the vest. I think layering is good only to a point. In my pack I carry a big puffy down coat. It is light and stuffs well. The stuff above almost always keeps me warm. If not, I go straight to the coat.

We were up there Sunday and Monday. There is snow starting about a mile from Morrison Creek, but you can still drive there. I don't think anyone will be driving on to Cold Springs until we get some warm weather. Including the people who left the Chevy blazer (small size with Idaho plates) stuck in the road about a mile above Morrison Creek. There was probably 8-10" of new snow at Cold Springs on our way in. It snowed 6" more at Cold Springs while we were in there. It snowed a lot up high. It looked like good skiing when we got there Sunday afternoon, but after high winds all night, it scoured the rocks bare and left 3-6' of drifted snow elsewhere. Without skis, you would sink to your waist in the snow. Here is a picture after digging our tent out on Monday morning. We are camped next to South Butte.

When I was there, we found the information center which is a 10 block or so walk from from the train station. It was right down the main street from the station just past the center of town. They ask you requirements (# of stars, cost, etc.) and will give you some options and then call the hotel if you want. They were actually quite helpful, although in typical French fashion, didn't seem overjoyed with helping clueless Americans.

Well, if they are a pair of 10pt Grivel's with anti-balling plates, sized for about a size 12 leather boot, and had been laying there for a month, they may belong to my son. He had attached them to his pack on the descent and well...I guess you know the rest of the story.

Yes, we are painfully aware that we have to pay to climb where you get to go for free.