Road conditions to St Helen's Bivi?

[wannabe]

Wondering if anyone has a recent road report on conditions up road 830 to the climber's bivi?

 

I called Jack's today (Wed 10/24/07) and they said it was accessible with 4wd. I am guessing the mild weather may have melted off what snow fell last week and the road may be clear now or at least by Sun.

 

Thanks -

[Bcdadush]

Is St. Helen's a safe summit in Nov or should I just wait until spring time? I am a bit of a rookie but I would be going with experienced climbers.

[wannabe]

I decided not to wait and checked it out myself.

 

Road in is clear. Just a few patches of snow in the shade at the bivi.

 

Trail to timberline has a bit of snow as you go higher. Should be melting out this week.

 

The lower part of monitor ridge can be done on rock if you desire. I put crampons on for the top half and was glad I had them as it was hard frozen snow early in the am. Good cornice starting to grow at the rim. Clouds were blowing in by late morning.

 

Felt like early summer climbing conditions. Road and lower trail should be passable until we get some solid snow.

 

I decided to excuse the three college boys in running shoes and cotton sweats heading up after I saw their license plate said FLORIDA.

[chef_raekwon]

Anyone know how the road is now? Thinking about heading up this weekend.

[mtndfndr]

I went up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the road was closed at the turn-off to the bivi. The sign said 3 miles but it only took us 45 minutes to walk at an average pace with only a few inches of snow on the ground. The trail conditions were much more difficult. Once we broke out of the tree line, it was knee deep powder the entire way. There wasn't enough snow covering the boulders to skin or snowshoe up so it took much longer than a normal winter ascent with snowpack. With all the recent snowfall it might be pretty hard to hike but there might be enough now to skin up. If you decide to skin, it might be faster to park at the Marble Mt. Sno Park (I think that's the name). Anyway, good luck.

[godskid5]

hey, anyone been up to st helens lately? im guessing the road to the bivi is closed. any idea of conditions on the mountain? heading up next weekend.

[Irish Guy]

I was up there on Saturday, and the road to bivi was closed.

[godskid5]

figured it was. any idea what the conditions on the mountain are? did you go up to the marble mountain snow park and head up at all? thats where we are heading, then up the worm flows.

[RogerJ]

We skinned up today.

 

First off Jack's burned down last night! It was still smoldering this AM.

 

There is skinnable snow from the Marblemount lot. The snow is thin and there was a huge slide to the climbers right of the climbing route right arond tree line. I wish there was better visibility to take some shots.

 

The day did not amount to much in terms of skiing, but it was good to get out and the fresh falling snow was really nice.

 

We'll need a good dump to cover the rocks and to start to fill in on the enormous avy debris field.

 

-r

 

 

[blurpy]

http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2007/12/fire_forces_relocation_of_moun.html

[godskid5]

cant believe jacks burned down! crazy. our prayers go out for the owners.

looks like the avy danger is going to go up this weekend. may be just sticking to the ridge, and have to abandon the summit. any one know of any routes that get close to the top without crossing any snow fields? probably not eh. i know the worm flows has a large one at the top, but if i remember correctly, until about 6800ft, you can stay on the ridge, and should be out of harms way, no?

i dont want to abandon the trip altogether, but then again, i would also like to be able to come back and see my wife and kids again!!!!!