TR Replies
We just did that route yesterday. Amazing. The exit was like a 2 mile half pipe. Able to mostly glide the road all the way back to our car. A bit of poling / skating.
Crazy how there's corn in Oregon and even southern WA, it's been dumping snow up at Baker.
Great TR more of those good pictures as well. Me, I want to ski the whole thing in boot top powder, or perfect corn. Thanks!
Tuesday conditions sounded fantastic! Along with a friend I took my 15 year old up Helens Monday the 5th for his first ski. Not many people at all considering reports of pre-permit season! I didn't anticipate how amazing it would feel to do the route with him, just a really amazing day!
Monday the top 2k was awfully firm and never corned up. In retrospect, it gave Quinn a full experience, from skins to ski pons down low to booting the last bit đ <...
A partner and I skied St. Helens on Saturday Mar. 27th. Like you experienced, the conditions were very nice for climbing and skiing, although ski crampons were a must early in the morning. Because of the number of skiers the Swift Glacier descent was quickly getting skied out. We shifted over and skied down west of the climbing route, toward Monitor Ridge, to find fresh corn. The forest service estimated there were upwards of 1,000 people on the mountain that day. Cars were parked 2 miles dow...
Looks like a nice outing. Those are some big cornices. -Ben
Helluva first post, Reid! Thanks for the inspiro, and please keep it up : )
Here's a quick video edit with some ski footage from Cashmere & Axis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJWoTv58qXA
Been there but was not aware of some of those lines - nice map and pics. Looks like a great day
Awesome photos and report! I was looking off the summit of south around 11am, you were probably hidden between Middle and North. I've been itching to get out and do this as well... 10k is a legit day.
Pretty epic adventure right outside town.
The snow firm. Few hard patches but I could edge. The road is snow covered after the power lines, but not good enough to skin on unless you like taking skis off every couple hundred yards to cross rock sections
We did a similar after dark descent a couple of weeks ago from the base of the top cliff band. Tons of snow! Super fun.
Approach is hiking shoes for a few miles.
Had a similar experience 3 years ago on this line. We bailed due to instability. It's especially tricky in that the windows for it are narrow most years.
FB TAY seems to be a problem. I would guess these forums see 1/10th or less of the traffic the FB group does.
I would encourage anyone to think twice about posting TRs of committing lines that are infrequently skied on the FB group. Having to do old school research often separates the prepared from the unprepared....
Over 10K in a day is a lot no matter who you are! Good job!
Haven't found any crampons that fit a size 13 snowboard boot, even the widest grivels with extender bar "made for snowboard boots." Alas.
I wouldnât bet on trees or pow any more this season; my money is on sun-kissed open slopes and AM steeps from this point.
Do you think north facing aspects (kendall, snoqualmie, etc) will survive today's warm up? Hard to tell when the freezing levels go to 7k...
How's it holding up, and how was the descent condition? Also, what was the road/parking/approach like? I'm trying to get out there soon.
Ha ha looks like fun. Perfect ski dog (with short legs). Beautifully composed photos.
Cool poochotographs : )
Mossy is da boss!
Damn - well done! Both the trip and the video. Thanks for the inspiro, guys!
Thanks! Of course, videos take too long to make haha - I should be better about posting TRs regularly without needing the multimedia experience. But, here we go!
Wow! Now thats a classic, but modern, TAY Trip Report. Nicely climber and skied, and beautifully presented! Well done!
Well I showed up after the storm today, and things were interesting. The snow was still cold in the afternoon, and skied good.3-4â at the lower elevations. Of course ridges were windblown but very turnable. I went in at the middle entrance and nobody was there or at the Tronson Road entrance. Just snowmobiles parked in the snowpark.
@Bigeo, hopefully when youre cremated they can use the skis as a nice little box for the ashes, it would be a nice touch!
Yeah I find that snow gets packed in seemingly every part of these bindings, and then, assuming its below freezing out, it freezes everything solid. Spring touring has treated me really well in them because you can THRASH but so far winter and SkiMo has rendered them frozen and dangerous. Is it worth bringing a thermos of hot water for them? probably not?&...
I want the sticker - "Mossy Would Go"
Strong work and beautiful pics. I have done that tour 3 times and never summited. Next time . . . I know what you mean about the climb out of the White Salmon drainage to the ski area. If it weren't for cold beer waiting at the car, my body would be somewhere on that slope. I have used just about every iteration of the Fritschis starting with the Titanals. I have never had an issue with them "freezing up" other than wet snow getting packed into that stupid red plate under the heel...
Thanks @David-Koelle! Definitely some cornices on the east side of the ridge, you can see them in the background on my first photo. Tried to navigate our best above/below them and balance wet loose concerns to get to the backside. We weren't comfortable following the ridge in a section because it narrowed and you had to travel on top of those eastfacing overhung cornices in the center right of my photo, so we dropped into the bowl and gained the ridge again at a higher section where the snow...
Great! Cornice concerns at the ridge? Talk to me about the ski down the west side of the Annette outlet creek to the Iron Horse trail! Thanks
Not really, there are several snowboard boots on the market with the crampon heel cup. Such as Deeluxe, Thirty-two, and Nitro. Your alternative is to purchase the universal strap. (back piece) for your crampon.
Great work! I'm curious if you needed / used boot crampons to climb up the couloir. I'm a splitboarder and wondering if I'd need to go with my mtnrg boots, since I can't use crampons on my snowboard boots. Thanks!
OK, I'll add to the comment fest : ) Chatting with Mike about this and many other things in the past, I'm going to go on a limb to say he posed it as more of a rhetorical juxtaposition than a true question to be answered. Many of us struggle with this topic, and, let's be honest, it will never get a resolution as life goes on, and things evolve with or without us.
The value of the TAY site is the longevity of the content, and, I hope, the quality, too, compared to other online options...
Well, looks like your trip is off to a great start. Looking forward to some other reports. Best of luck, stay safe.
awesome ski and great photos! Thanks for the report!
@Jim bummer to hear that. I guess the sun while we were out worsened the crust. The skinning was pretty rough I agree.
This has been a discussion for as long as I have followed tay. My belief is it doesnât matter what you post or donât post, google earth and aerial photos reveal most lines for those who care to look. Unless you brap, we arenât getting any greater access to the mountains, people have been skiing from the same trailheads for as long as the highway passes have existed. Better to be supportive of a larger community that advocates for greater access (e.g. x-country, brapmobiles, bikers, basically...
We were up there the next day for some type 2 fun. Turned around short of the summit due to sun going down. Shadowy flat light and icy breakable crust up high, then side slipped most of the the way down through the trees. Great views, but crap skiing for us.