Spin Fast Posted February 8, 2007 Posted February 8, 2007 (edited) Trip: Mt St Helens, Washington - Climbed Monitor Ridge. Descent was based on snow Date: 2/2/2007 Trip Report: With no new snow and back-to-back-to-back sunny days in almost two weeks in the typically moist NW, most are (or were) talking about corn skiing rather than face shots. With ugly weather expected for the weekend a buddy and I opted for a last minute Mt St Helens summit ski on Friday. Many happy skiers had been skiing St Helens in the past week so we figured it was worth a shot. It's not the best sequence of images, but here they are anyways. With skins on at the car, it's just under 5500 ft of climbing to the rim, which of course means a great ski descent High clouds kept the snow a little firm up top, but they didn't limit any of the views Looking south, Mt Hood was easily visible (not necessarily in this picture unfortunately), as were some of the more southern volcanoes...even the Sisters could be seen near Bend Crawling over the rim in great anticipation, the steaming crater is a sight to see As are the surrounding views Another day at the office Ian --- www.mackieimages.com Gear Notes: Skis: G3 Tickets mounted with Hammerhead telemark bindings Boots: Garmont Synergies Camera: Canon Rebel XT w/ Canon 17-85 IS Edited February 15, 2007 by Spin Fast Quote
cluck Posted February 8, 2007 Posted February 8, 2007 Climbed Monitor Ridge, huh? Where'd you park? Looks like a great day in the hills - thanks for the pics! Quote
chester Posted February 8, 2007 Posted February 8, 2007 Sweet. May have to head up this weekend. About how long does it take to get from the parking lot to the rim? Quote
Spin Fast Posted February 11, 2007 Author Posted February 11, 2007 (edited) Sweet. May have to head up this weekend. About how long does it take to get from the parking lot to the rim? Chester - it took just under 4 hours to get from car to rim. Ian Edited February 11, 2007 by Spin Fast Quote
Spin Fast Posted February 11, 2007 Author Posted February 11, 2007 Climbed Monitor Ridge, huh? Where'd you park? I'm pretty sure it was the Monitor Ridge route; it was my first time skiing the mountain. Although, we didn't catch the ridge until about halfway up. Please correct me if I am wrong. Looking at that first picture I posted, you can see the ridge we would eventually ascend on climbers right. As for parking, we started at the Marble Mountain Snow Park Ian --- www.mackieimages.com Quote
cluck Posted February 13, 2007 Posted February 13, 2007 If you parked at Marble Mountain snow park and took that packed out snowshoe/cross country ski trail then you probably climbed the Worm Flows route. That is the standard route in the winter because the road to the Climbers Bivouac is closed to snow. It actually joins Monitor Ridge for the last few hundred feet to the crater rim. Climbing the Monitor Ridge route in the winter would be somewhat out of the ordinary - and that's why it piqued my curiousity. You'd have to work pretty hard (or make friends with the slednecks) in order to make it over to Monitor Ridge proper. In any case, the turns down are sa-weet! Quote
Spin Fast Posted February 15, 2007 Author Posted February 15, 2007 (edited) We only followed the snowshoe/cross country route to treeline, then went climbers right. About half way up we got onto the ridge. We need new snow. NOW. Ian Edited February 15, 2007 by Spin Fast Quote
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