Skiing Mt. Herman

[Stumph]

Does anyone have any information on skiing the coulior that come off of the west side of Mt. Herman (visible from the ski hill at Baker)? What is the best approach and what is the route like?

[ashw_justin]

I've been wondering the same thing...

[jshamster]

Are you talking about the very large couloir behind Herman?

Or the small, rocky ones directly above Bagley Creek?

The big one behind Herman is Stoneman's. Most fun approach is to summit Herman, ride backside, and hike straight out to, and up, couloir.

You can also skirt around the right side of Herman, but this is a lot more hiking. This is your return route, btw.

If'n your talking about the chutes on the face of Herman, I can't imagine there being much snow in those, although they are quite fun in mid-season. Course I don't know what the snow pack up there is like right now.

Either way, have fun.

Jimbo

[ashw_justin]

I think we are all talking about the unmistakeable dope-ass big steep couloir that nobody can resist drooling over should their craven eyes be lucky enough to fall upon it

[Stumph]

Yeah, I am talking about the big nasty, not the Bagley Lakes face. It looks from a topo that the best way to reach to couloir is to head to into the Herman-Table Mnt basin, up that face (is it the south side, which is a nice ski), skirt the ridge to the true summit and then DOWN.

Anyway, thanks for the input. What is the slope angle?

Edited April 29, 2004 by Stumph

[ashw_justin]

What is the slope angle?

 

I estimate steep, to "Oh. My. Gawd." But is it still in?

[Stumph]

I estimate steep, to "Oh. My. Gawd." But is it still in?

 

Two weeks ago it looked like it was in fine condition, no cornices, no bergschrund, and a nice long run-out. Of course we have been having a blight of summer weather so who knows.

[PONCHO&LEFTY]

This is 4-18. If this is the slope.

[ashw_justin]

Yeah that's the one! Cool, it's looking good. Is that a humanoid in the couloir?

[Stumph]

I'm headed there Sunday, I will report back if I survive.

[ashw_justin]

[Stumph]

So me and my buddy made it to about ~100 feet below the "huminoid", which is actually a tree. ~45 degrees, some burgshrund, and fine snow.

Oh, two more hours of time.....

[ashw_justin]

How did you approach? From the picture it looks like you could climb the couloir proper (from rockband) in an hour give or take. How was the snow?

[Stumph]

From the upper parking lot at Baker we crossed the river, traversed the snow fields on the NW side of Herman, and climbed up until we reached the bottom of the coulor. Essentially a bee line from the Baker Maintainence building.

 

I imagine the snow is going to give out in a week or two and that approach is going to be difficult. Better might be to follow the advice in this thread and climb the south summit, descend the back side of Herman. That puts you in the cirque right near the base of Stoneman.

We did ascend the route. That not only seemed the best approach, but allowed us to scope the route and note the burgschrunds. There are a couple of slots to steer clear of, most notably at around the elevation of that block of rock at the bottom, and some exposed rocks scattered about.

The slopes above our high point looked great, open and free of hazards.

I dug a pit at our high point and found ~4' of consistent sugar. The snow seemed very stable to me. This would be a good time to give it a try. Let me know if you are considering going up this weekend and want some company, I would like to do the entire run.

[Stumph]

Skied the whole gulley last Sunday. We climbed staight up from the upper parking lot, skied the back-side, and ascended the gulley. This is a much better approach.

The snow was sloppy, sluffy, and unworthy of the effort.