Skiing Around Crater Lake - Seeking Info

I have wanted to try this for some time. Obviously it all depends on conditions, but with hard snow I think this would be a real classic. Proposed trip is to just follow the road going counter clockwise.<br><br>Have you done it? How long did it take you? The loop road is almost exactly 50K. I ran around it a few summers ago in a leisurely six hours. I am wondering how long it would take on skis (probably some sort of nordic setup). There are some big hills with several multi-mile ups and downs. You could scream on the downs!<br><br>Also - when would be the best time for this enterprise?<br><br>Thanks for any advice.

I don't have any first hand experience on this but I do know from talking to the rangers about getting back to Mt Scott in late spring last year that you have to watch out for a situation that's kinda similar to what would happen if you wanted to ski up from Early Winters to Washington Pass in the spring, or up to Sunrise: the road might be closed, BUT at some point along it they might already be plowing and are waiting to open the road til the whole thing is done, thus you'd have to struggle along the edges of some of the road in plowgunk rather than on a nice smooth road, if you went too late in the year.

I can't offer a complete answer either, but I've been up there in mid-to-late June in an above-average snow year and found the road two-thirds open, with plowing proceding slowly on the last third.  No need to ski along the edge of the highway, though; in all the areas I can remember there's plenty of adjacent terrain.  <br><br>I drove as far as the road was open at the time, then skied the last several miles to Mt. Scott, where I played around in the meadows and descended a couple of different lines from the summit.  I'd guess the ideal time would be early May or maybe late April for long days and reasonable weather, with minimal plowing complete (therefore minimal crowds).  It is also possible to access the Mt Scott area via the logging roads just outside the park boundary, and I assume this is equally possible from other directions.  <br><br>Amar's ever-expanding site has further information ( www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/Cascad....php?name=CraterLake .<br><br>Hope that helps.<br><br>Mark

Thank you very much for the info. This sounds like a great trip!

You might want to contact Amar directly, as he did this trip a few years ago in March and raved about it. You could send him a pm here or get his email from his website.

<br>We did the loop last year at the beginning of March. It couldn't have been better.<br><br>In a nutshell, it's pretty straightforward. There are a couple of places where the routefinding is tricky, namely the SE corner past Mt. Scott. You will also want to watch some of the exposures along the north shore - a fall would take you all the way to the water. Believe the beta on the avalanche areas too. There were fresh slides in there when we passed through the runout.<br><br>All this advice is "use at your own risk"- we were there in blue sky conditions. Pm me if you like and I can give you more.<br><br>