April 3, Saint Helens
4/15/08
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2041
4
We decided to try for Saint Helens Thursday while there was still enough snow to snowmobile from the 83/90 road junction (still about a foot as of yesterday). Who knows how long it will be before the road is opened up to Marble. At the closed Cougar snow park there was 10 feet of snow (2400')!
The ride up the 83 road was rather bumpy but got better after the Cougar SP. We rode to about 3300' (maybe 6 miles total) on the trail toward (T#243) climbers bivouac. From the sleds we skied up a somewhat strong sun crust over 12"-20" of newish snow that was rapidly softening in the sun. Above 6000' the crust was stronger. The descent was breakable crust till about 6500 then fairly good/fast mush from there.
It was fun to finally get to the mountain this year. Didn't see any sleds high on the mountain but lots of evidence from earlier this week (tracks to the summit near the Monitor ridge route).
The ride up the 83 road was rather bumpy but got better after the Cougar SP. We rode to about 3300' (maybe 6 miles total) on the trail toward (T#243) climbers bivouac. From the sleds we skied up a somewhat strong sun crust over 12"-20" of newish snow that was rapidly softening in the sun. Above 6000' the crust was stronger. The descent was breakable crust till about 6500 then fairly good/fast mush from there.
It was fun to finally get to the mountain this year. Didn't see any sleds high on the mountain but lots of evidence from earlier this week (tracks to the summit near the Monitor ridge route).
Great pics! Any difficulty parking on the side of the road at the junction? Any idea if they'll start plowing at least up to the snowpark? That would be County road at that point wouldn't it? Thanks, Boot
We were one of the first parties to drive into the Climbers Bivouac during the first week of June, last year. I don't image that it will open any earlier this year. Of the 50+ people on the mountain, only a half dozen of us were skiers. It would have been nice to have the mountain to ourselves like your party. Great to see the photos with all the snow in the crater.
author=Boot link=topic=9686.msg39005#msg39005 date=1207345505]
Great pics! Any difficulty parking on the side of the road at the junction? Any idea if they'll start plowing at least up to the snowpark? That would be County road at that point wouldn't it? Thanks, Boot
There was plenty of room (probably because it was a Thursday) but we heard it was worse on Wednesday. For some reason two school busses arrived and blocked in a couple of trucks and trailers that day.
It would be nice if someone plowed it but I don't know who would feel compelled to do it. Washington Parks ran out of money to plow but they had been grooming until last week. Unfortunately the website says they are done grooming for the year. The bumps will get a lot worse now.
It would be great if some agency could plow to Cougar, or some wide spot nearby... When the snow melts out on the pavement I cant turn the sled. I've heard of people using "wheels" but don't know much about that (sounds like a lot of trouble).
author=Telemon link=topic=9686.msg39006#msg39006 date=1207347109]
We were one of the first parties to drive into the Climbers Bivouac during the first week of June, last year. I don't image that it will open any earlier this year. Of the 50+ people on the mountain, only a half dozen of us were skiers. It would have been nice to have the mountain to ourselves like your party. Great to see the photos with all the snow in the crater.
It was definetly a very quiet day.
It's hard to imagine all that snow melting out for a while. On the way down in the woods we found a "warm" spot that had melted out a hole from the ground up. It must have been 15'-18' down to the ground and that was probably around 4000'.
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