[TR] Mt. St. Helens - South Climb 2/12/2009

[leora]

Trip: Mt. St. Helens - South Climb

 

Date: 2/12/2009

 

Trip Report:

We started from Marble Mountain snopark. Broke trail the whole way up, but now there is a nice trail. . . My ski buddies told me that the skiing was crap - on the 11th, the snow was too heavy for nice turns, and on the 12th, it was just really inconsistent - sometimes ice crust, sometimes powder snow. We saw one skier ski from the summit - he seemed to do well. Other than that, no one on the mountain. Ridges were easy to walk on, and up higher, small ice gargoyles made the going easy by using them as steps.

 

Looking at the snow pack - there were varying amounts of powder snow (from 0 to 3ft) on top of a thick ice crust. When I could get through that uppermost crust layer, I did find multiple layers of crust below it.

 

(Sorry, no pictures!)

 

Gear Notes:

We took ice axes and crampons, but never used them. I used the snowshoes when breaking trail at the start, but the snow started to accummulate on top of the snowshoes, making them heavy (never had this happen, before!), so with skiers breaking trail up to 5200ft, I ditched the snowshoes. Created steps the rest of the way.

 

Approach Notes:

When we went in on the 11th, there was no evidence of snow mobile usage. When we left on the 12th, the very first part of the trail had snowmobiles on it (1/10 of a mile at MOST), but everything else, thereafter was ski/snowshoes/boots, only.

[phdiexxx]

4 days with out anyposts and still no photos. if i wasnt so lame myself id be more upset

[Frikadeller]

4 days with out anyposts and still no photos. if i wasnt so lame myself id be more upset