TR Replies
author=Nicks Sticks link=topic=11293.msg46732#msg46732 date=1227489304]
It is nice to finally see something other than helio ridge and muir. Thanks for the info.
Amen! Brother. It won't be long now...
It is nice to finally see something other than helio ridge and muir. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for putting up the TR Chris. You seem to have covered it all. Thanks to you I must be well on my way to a solid reputation as a serial cuddler. Who would one rather be held up with in an emergency bivy? An inexperienced, reluctant cuddler? I think not. Be prepared.
author=wolfs link=topic=11257.msg46514#msg46514 date=1227157374]
The problem today was the wind.
It was seriously brutal. I'd estimate peaks of gusts at 60-75mph an...
author=Scottk link=topic=11251.msg46612#msg46612 date=1227242021]
I hiked up there a couple years ago and noted that it could be a great ski in the right conditions. The chute off the back side that you reference above looked particularily interesting for a spring ski. I didn't realize that the Mt. Loop HW was plowed and this is a feasible trip in the winter/early spring (although it would be a lot of vertical in soft snow).
author=savegondor link=topic=11251.msg46473#msg46473 date=1227055594]
What really excited me however was the presence of a small glacier flowing North 600 feet or so below the summit. Starting at about 6400 feet the notch with the glacier in it runs a mile or longer strait as an arrow, and even now the permanent snow field/glacier looks to drop about a thousand vert of skiable. The mini-glacier is a bunch of snow trapped in something called the Strait Creek F...
author=NickD link=topic=11257.msg46604#msg46604 date=1227234830]
"She lifted her skirt a bit as we coaxed our way up her leg
and gave us full on views of her majesty when we arrived at the campsites
along the ridge. "
Minor correction:
According to Nooksack legend, Koma Kulshan had two wives: Shuksan and Tahoma. Tahoma got jealous of the prettier Shuksan and left the harem and moved about 200 miles south.
So I guess...
author=NickD link=topic=11257.msg46604#msg46604 date=1227234830]
"She lifted her skirt a bit as we coaxed our way up her leg
and gave us full on views of her majesty when we arrived at the campsites
along the ridge. "
Minor correction:
According to Nooksack legend, Koma Kulshan had two wives: Shuksan and Tahoma. Tahoma got jealous of the prettier Shuksan and left the harem and moved about 200 miles south.
"She lifted her skirt a bit as we coaxed our way up her leg
and gave us full on views of her majesty when we arrived at the campsites
along the ridge. "
Minor correction:
According to Nooksack legend, Koma Kulshan had two wives: Shuksan and Tahoma. Tahoma got jealous of the prettier Shuksan and left the harem and moved about 200 miles south.
So I guess HE raised his kilt might better fit. ;)
Probably wearing a fresh pair of longjohns today!
<...
and gave us full on views of her majesty when we arrived at the campsites
along the ridge. "
Minor correction:
According to Nooksack legend, Koma Kulshan had two wives: Shuksan and Tahoma. Tahoma got jealous of the prettier Shuksan and left the harem and moved about 200 miles south.
So I guess HE raised his kilt might better fit. ;)
Probably wearing a fresh pair of longjohns today!
<...
Wow, you're lucky. It was rock hard for us, cept on the lower 1500-ft where the snow was nice.
Thanks for the report.
Thanks for the report.
nice debut TR. When you say slush, what would you say the temp was?
oh fiddle futz.. Nice day. Way to scrath it!
I prefer the side by side bivy, it's more like team work. Top guy bottum guy is just too much of a dom thing.
I prefer the side by side bivy, it's more like team work. Top guy bottum guy is just too much of a dom thing.
Nice work guys!I went up the next day with my brother Andy and the gusts of wind were so bad we thought we would be blown back home.As far as the skiing went we skinned a few laps,and a few laps we had to boot crampon back up.We were thinking we should have brought up race gates and set up a world cup race course,because the ice was ridiculus.But getting fun high speed turns was fun anyway.Great weather,but the snow surface just did not get a chance to corn up!
After looking at the pics, many congrats on getting that high up in trail runners.
True grit!
True grit!
Nice pictures. Ptarmigan with their winter coats on - must be going to dump on us soon! ;D
-Dave R
-Dave R
amongst many other great photos, i really like that #42 from the picasa web group. really cool! :)
and the birds, of course. what are they?
and the birds, of course. what are they?
Savegondor - I wondered where you had got to. I always enjoyed your videos! Glad you're still climbing and skiing.
Nice pictures, Chris!
Sorry I didn't make it out with you guys, it looks like the rest of us missed a great trip, except for the fear of snow bell becuddlement, sleeping in a bivvy bag, icy snow, and dangerous headfirst slides...wait a minute, maybe I didn't miss much. ;)
Even with all that, I do wish I'd been able to say yes. Good job getting what was there.
Your fall sounds like the one you saw me take coming down off Pi...
Sorry I didn't make it out with you guys, it looks like the rest of us missed a great trip, except for the fear of snow bell becuddlement, sleeping in a bivvy bag, icy snow, and dangerous headfirst slides...wait a minute, maybe I didn't miss much. ;)
Even with all that, I do wish I'd been able to say yes. Good job getting what was there.
Your fall sounds like the one you saw me take coming down off Pi...
author=wolfs link=topic=11257.msg46514#msg46514 date=1227157374]
An update from 11/19, or shall we say a conditions report/tale of woe.
Despite this it was a beautiful day for a hike. A hike that just happened to include packing a few heavy objects on my back that ended up seeing no use that day.
Wolfs you have my admiration and gratitude. This is the type of self-sacrifice that Urll has been demanding.
Thank you,...
Thanks for all the stoke response!!!! Thanks guys! Now isn't there some snow coming this week?
Scotty- wish you could have joined us. Bring on the pow!
Wolfs- wow! looks like you had one heck of a day up there blowing in the wind. At least it's a beautiful place.
Wolfs- wow! looks like you had one heck of a day up there blowing in the wind. At least it's a beautiful place.
An update from 11/19, or shall we say a conditions report/tale of woe.
I had every intention of getting to the fine conditions reported on Heliotrope in recent reports. Corn, powder, whatever. But either they weren't there, or at least I just plain couldn't get there. The problem today was the wind.
It was seriously brutal. I'd estimate peaks of gusts at 60-75mph and this was just on the climbers trail. I physically could not get up the hill with the skis att...
I had every intention of getting to the fine conditions reported on Heliotrope in recent reports. Corn, powder, whatever. But either they weren't there, or at least I just plain couldn't get there. The problem today was the wind.
It was seriously brutal. I'd estimate peaks of gusts at 60-75mph and this was just on the climbers trail. I physically could not get up the hill with the skis att...
Glad you had a good day boys and very happy to hear you are alright after your slide.
You two are going to be hard to keep up with now that you've both got new sets of dynafiddels..
I'll catch up at the transtions when you are dynafutzing!
Beautiful bluebird day but I am tired of beautiful bluebird days.Please make it snow, and hard!
You two are going to be hard to keep up with now that you've both got new sets of dynafiddels..
I'll catch up at the transtions when you are dynafutzing!
Beautiful bluebird day but I am tired of beautiful bluebird days.Please make it snow, and hard!
Pugh is a beautiful mountain which would surely be a great ski (I have only booted it). In the department of getting to cool places in the winter, this is notable:
>>being so close to Darrington the Mountain Loop Highway is plowed here.
It means that the only addition to the regular approach in winter would be about 700 vf of the spur road up to the summer trailhead (early this summer even that was closed for some habitat reason).
>>being so close to Darrington the Mountain Loop Highway is plowed here.
It means that the only addition to the regular approach in winter would be about 700 vf of the spur road up to the summer trailhead (early this summer even that was closed for some habitat reason).
Nice recon! Darrington terrain is sick! Way to get out and give us some stoke in these difficult times!
Keep in mind a recent post from Gary Brill about the surge in glacier movement, noted specifically on the Coleman glacier. Not sure this affects the Heliotrope, but worth looking at.
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=10942.0
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=10942.0
author=Scotsman link=topic=11238.msg46416#msg46416 date=1226969234]
The Hummel's at the forefront of skiing yet again, "Synchronised ski mountaineering", it will be in the 2018 winter Olympics. I agree ,great photo.
I'd thought they looked more like walruses sunning themselves. Very cute walruses, of course. ;)
The skiing may not have been great, but it looks like the trip was worth it just f...
That is a really cool looking skiing objective. Good work on getting outside the box.
author=bramvs link=topic=11204.msg46463#msg46463 date=1227046217">
Thanks for the TR! I'm just wondering where you saw this crevasse?? And also (sorry if this is a bit of a thread hijack) in general if people generally bother taking a rope when skiing on this part of Heliotrope ridge... I always wear a harness and carry a rope when on a glacier, but perhaps that's a bit too much for this part of Heliotrope Ridge?
I looked on some satellite...
The tracks were much appreciated! There was probably some substantial consolidation between your trip and ours, even though only separated by a day, as we did not experience any sinking. The two small slide paths we saw on the flank of Table Mt. were no more than 6 inches deep and 2-3 feet across.
I've never seen anyone use ropes on Heliotrope unless crossing Coleman proper. We've had discussions here before on whether Heliotrope is truly a glacier or just a snowfield, without much conclusion -- but I think the overall feeling is it's a slow-moving glacier. Still, the crevasses tend to appear in the same places, and as long as you stick to the ridge on the west end, i think everyone agrees you're pretty safe. In July, knock yourself out going all over...
Those tracks you saw were definitely mine. Glad I could at least break trail for you part of the way. Also glad to see my "Goat Throat" name seems to be sticking.
Sounds like the stability was better for you than I. My early turnaround was caused by large numbers of pinwheels and sinking in well past the boot, leading to a fear of wet slides. Yes, the snowpack was pretty shallow overall, but the snow conditions made me think that seeking out deeper sn...
Sounds like the stability was better for you than I. My early turnaround was caused by large numbers of pinwheels and sinking in well past the boot, leading to a fear of wet slides. Yes, the snowpack was pretty shallow overall, but the snow conditions made me think that seeking out deeper sn...
Cool. Sky went in there several times and I joined him on one trip. We skied from partway up the face in your last photo. Would love to get back there and ski it off the top, since we never did. Seems like it would have some nice steep skiing.
Thanks for the TR! I'm just wondering where you saw this crevasse?? And also (sorry if this is a bit of a thread hijack) in general if people generally bother taking a rope when skiing on this part of Heliotrope ridge... I always wear a harness and carry a rope when on a glacier, but perhaps that's a bit too much for this part of Heliotrope Ridge?
I looked on some satellite photos of Heliotrope Ridge on
I looked on some satellite photos of Heliotrope Ridge on
;D :D ;D That was a Very Sweet Day, I too was out there riding the glacier with a brother single stick (boarder). Our first time that far up(7000ft) and was amazed by my surrroundings on the clear day, sights of Rainier, Olympics, Canaidias!, the Islands. . oh ya....I made this face on they the way down---- ;D
I'll never grow tired of looking at your pics. As always, nice job Jas! Sure looks like winter conditions higher up on that thing. Nice to see the Pineapple didn't reveal too much on the way up to the false summit!
Look in my misc folder at the top 26 pics. You'll have to push the links since its the index page.
http://cascadecrusades.org/misc/small/
There are some pics of the route. The chutes looked all right. I'd want more snow to ski over the rocks back to the s route, but you could do it? Hopefully there will be better snow than we had. I know the pics don't show it well, but trust me the skiing wasn't great. I'd want better snow before I'd go back...
http://cascadecrusades.org/misc/small/
There are some pics of the route. The chutes looked all right. I'd want more snow to ski over the rocks back to the s route, but you could do it? Hopefully there will be better snow than we had. I know the pics don't show it well, but trust me the skiing wasn't great. I'd want better snow before I'd go back...
Beautiful pictures! Was there any snow in the SW chutes???
Yep. Now I'm officially jealous and sad I didn't head down.
Lots of photos from the day. Perhaps a few will come back to enjoy the 6 I can put up here.
So sorry to hear of your loss, Larry. We will still hope to see some of your Cle Elum Valley updates. They have been very usefull to me and probably many others as well.
Yeah, it wasn't in the best shape to begin with (it had definitely been splinted a few times). We did try to stock up as much wood as possible before the real snow began and the ax was working well. I'll also ask around, but the two people who were most affected won't be back in town until the end of the week.
author=Snowulf link=topic=11219.msg46398#msg46398 date=1226940523]
BTW, one of the things that happened while we were there was that the handle of the maul shattered beyond repair. What would be the best way to replace it? Money to the VOC or a direct replacement of the handle? The head of the maul is still there and the ax is still in good shape.
Thanks for being honest... not sure exactly what shape the handle was in before it...
author=Pandora link=topic=11238.msg46407#msg46407 date=1226953951">
I adore this photo!
The Hummel's at the forefront of skiing yet again, "Synchronised ski mountaineering", it will be in the 2018 winter Olympics. I agree ,great photo.
It was great meeting you up there Dan. I managed some fantastic photos, too. Thanks for hanging with us, it was fun! BTW, nice photo of us doing what we do best :)