Ricardo_Montalban Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 is it difficult to find the trail back to cold springs from the bottom of the chutes? (snow covered?) is there much time difference between riding the chutes and glissading the south side? thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 Traverse left from the bottom. By now the trail may be melted out. Timewise probably not. Different trip goals really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaper_Jeffy Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 When we skied the SW Chutes on June 20th we actually missed the trail though bushwacking was probably just as fast. Given less snowcoverage now you'd probalby have a much easier time finding the trail. Look for it around 6100'. Next time I ski the SW Chutes when there's a lot of snow I'll probably try to traverse higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattp Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 I've done it both ways, and in my opinion it is easiest just to follow the stream down from the lake below the Chutes, all the way to the trail. You have to climb up a 200 foot hill as soon as you hit the trail, but this is a lot easier than trying to contour around higher, where there are several subsidiary ridges to cross. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashw_justin Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 We made a traverse from the bottom of the actual chutes at 7800', left around the nose of a ridge and then angling up on moderate snow slopes to a steep snow finger and a tiny amount of rock scrambling at the end. It put us a few hundred feet below the Lunch Counter. I do believe that we couldn't have done it any better because our bivy was around 9000 feet, on one of the last rocky spots before the Lunch Counter. For the next couple of weeks it will still be almost all on snow so I highly recommend exiting this way unless you're just doing the whole thing from the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_a Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 I skied the SW chutes on July 3rd, we opted for a one day climb from Cold Springs, we carried our running shoes with us and were happy to have them for the hike out. It was relatively easy to find the round the mountain trail by following the continuous snow as far down and to the left (south) as possible, then we descended on foot about another 500vf till we found the trail. The last of the descending to the trail was involved minimal bushwacking and the occational following of a goat path through short cliff bands. The trail is now 90% snow free and you should have no problems finding it as long as you have a map and know at what elevation to start looking for the trail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climbaround Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 Pete is right on all counts (esp. doing it in a day from Cold Springs). The Chutes add about 3 miles of traversing/slightly climbing trail (which feels tough on a hot afternoon) but it's well worth it. Snow in the chutes stays smooth longer than the S ridge, and is steeper, for one of the longest continuous runs in the state - a classic! Go get it next week - it was in good shape a week ago when we did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo_Montalban Posted July 9, 2004 Author Share Posted July 9, 2004 excellent info! thanks all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfs Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 The best info is the elevation. Start looking when your altimeter reads 6200, and start worrying that you've missed it if your altimeter reads 6000. Once reaching snow's end at 6800 or so, I made a point of angling left rather than trying to just fall-line, mainly because I had caught a glimpse of the trail over there on the part where it goes up the mentioned 200'. Angling increases the chances of obstacles (minor cliffs, rock slides) so I think next time I'd just make it a point to boot-bomb the fall line til I hit 6100. Re: exiting up rather than finding the RTMT. As a skier, I might have imagined that the other means of exit to return to LC might have been OK even tho snow was far from continuous. But I was boarding that day, so I wanted no part of any on-snow traverse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo_Montalban Posted July 12, 2004 Author Share Posted July 12, 2004 (edited) i didn't have an altimeter so i had to wing it. i've done plenty of back country route finding so it wasn't that difficult. the RTMT is pretty obvious too. Â all i did at the snow's end was head south/left angling towards the trail. i wanted to cut off some trail time and took a chance with encountering cliffs. the only real obstacle i had to deal with was a short rock band that i downclimbed, and even that could have been circumnavigated if needed. (maybe i got lucky?) Â EDIT: as far as timing goes... i dropped in on the chutes as my buds were dropping in on the gliss track (false summit) and i got to the parking lot 20 minutes after them. Â Edited July 12, 2004 by Ricardo_Montalban Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfs Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 Yeah by this time of year the trail is very obvious at least at the point where you're likely to find it below the Chutes. But I have heard that in June or so the trail is not so obvious, seen a couple of reports from folks that tried to hit the trail but never found it under the snow. Not many people bootmark it any time before the majority of trail-level snow melts; the only people that might would be climbers on the way to White Salmon Gl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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