TR Replies

Telemetry from the Swift Creek SNOTEL site shows that the south side of Mt Saint Helens has received close to 2 ft of new snow the past couple of days (above 3700 ft, with more rain & less snow below that). That is by far the most of any location in the Cascades during the current storm system, while the Oregon Cascades from Mt Hood all the way south to Crater Lake have also gotten close to 1 ft of new snow.

4/15/04 8:02pm

ron j

April 10-11, 2004, Snow King Mountain

Great Pics, Jerry.
Hope you can do as well this Sunday at Crystal!!
http://www.turns-all-year.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=ha3;action=display;num=1081524254

4/15/04 6:58pm

wickstad

I think your last picture is the one that is suppose to accompany the route description by Burgdorfer. The picture in my edition was taken from Ruth Mountain.

4/15/04 4:52pm

April 11, 2004, South Peak, Sierra Nevada

I burned my feet down there Ron, told you it was a bad idea :D My photos finally @

4/15/04 10:02am

markharf

You're in fine form on this report, Zap. Between you and Amar, I'm weeping softly over my keyboard.

Come home safe,

Mark

4/15/04 8:36am

Zap

April 12, 2004, Mount McLoughlin, SE Face

Amar,

Thanks for theTR. Jill and I skied at Bachelor on the 7th and I passed the TH for McLoughlin that afternoon. I was tempted to tour there on the 8th but decided to try after our trip in the Eastern Sierras. Also plan to return to Lassen and ski the NW side this time. Jill has never skied Shasta so if the weather looks good we'll probably stop by there. The touring in the Tahoe and Eastern Sierras has been great. In 2005, you need to go a bit furthe...

4/15/04 4:04am

Paul_Russell

Thanks for the report Monika. A few additional comments:

This guy was really lucky. He had only minor facial abrasions and a badly cut lip, otherwise he was fine although in a bit of shock. I can't imagine riding into a creavasse, and how he managed to land safely on a ledge.

We were descending at about 2:00pm when we saw a crowd of snowmobilers hanging out below. They called over for help, asking if we had a rope. I realized at this point what had hap...

4/15/04 1:39am

snoslut

Um....this is why snowmobilers top the list in bc accidents during the winter. I am glad to hear that he lost his sled and not his life. Others are not so fortunate. Maybe that person will think twice next time and stay off glaciers jackass. On another note that's too bad that the USFS doens't enforce this. Nothing against snowmobilers (the ones with common sense anyway). I saw snowmobilers at Crystal last year and it just pissed me off! Loud, annoying, and tearing up the sub-alpine. Mad...

4/14/04 11:21pm

Monika

April 12, 2004, Mount McLoughlin, SE Face

Paul Russell did report the incident to the Mt. Baker Ranger Station. Here is a link to a discussion of the incident including environmental considerations (or lack there of).

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/332925/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

4/14/04 10:58pm

Jeff Huber

Wow! Kudos on the great trips, Amar! It's unfortunate about the weather.

One question: You allude to getting weather forecasts while you are traveling. If you don't mind me asking, what is your source for accurate forecasts while you are on the road?

Thanks!

4/14/04 9:25pm

wolfs

April 11, 2004, Earl Peak, Teanaway

Interesting report. I hope those in authority will note some of the specifics of your snowmobile incident and I hope that the cost of extricating / environmental damage of not extricating snow machines from wilderness volcanos will become a discussion point at higher levels of policy making. I've always believed that snow machines should be generally banned from anything above 6000 feet (*just to pick a number) in Washington state, but especially from being on crevassed glaciers. The other bad s...

4/14/04 7:14pm

John Morrow

Good question! Yeah, I mean from 29 Pines. This still puts us 1.5 miles shy of the Beverly Creek road (#112 spur) junction. Spur 112 is a little over a mile long to the summer trailhead parking lot.
The slopes below 5000 are definitely quite melted out. I think they look like about a month early from normal snow melt seasons. Snow pack above does appear like it will hold on for a while. Most major runs off the Teanaway peaks should hold up, I hope, 'till at least...

4/13/04 11:13pm

Paul Belitz

April 2-4, 2004, Nooksack Traverse

After spending half an hour reading Sky's TR twice, I gotta chime in. Looks like you guys had a blast! I'm jealous. >:(

4/13/04 10:57pm

kam

April 11, 2004, Hawkins Mnt.

Scratch 'em in the backcountry!

4/13/04 6:38pm

Randito

April 11, 2004, Hawkins Mnt.

I guess that's why those skis are called "Scratch" BC's

4/13/04 12:03pm

sag

April 11-12, 2004, Pyramid attempt, MRNP

yeah, it's still doable but hurry. a great time even without the grand prize. The bowl between iron and copper looked like a blast, we'll leave enough time for that next time. pics of the trip are at
http://community.webshots.com/album/134176120idsrng

4/13/04 7:44am

Robie

April 11-12, 2004, Pyramid attempt, MRNP

Jerry ,
When we made our try of it we went in through Tahoma creek over suspension bridge and then south into indian henry's. About the same thing happend to us, it got slushy. Still doable this year right ? We also skied on Ararat,Copper and and flirted with the Pyramid glacier.
Got a killer place to camp up there.

4/13/04 1:05am

urbanwanker

April 10-11, 2004, Snow King Mountain

Here're some pics from our trip, first one is skiing off the summit of Snowking with Mutchler in background and second is view looking back from approach, Mutchler on left, Snowking on right.

4/12/04 11:45pm

Charles

April 10, 2004, Red Lake Peak,Carson Pass,CA

Brent, thanks for everything you have done for bc skiing in this area. Your trip reports from the eastern Alpine Lakes opened my eyes to the many possibilities in that region. And, as many people are probably aware, the existence of this TRs board is due to your years of running the TRs pages for the Mountaineers. It took me a while to catch on to how useful first-hand reports can be for planning a ski trip, but now I would feel lost without this kind of information (and probably would have much...

4/12/04 11:08pm

chris_fast

And it brings back memories of some of my earliest tours on my old wooden skis with my parents. Grover's only had a single pool back in the 70s, and it was gravel bottomed!

4/12/04 10:34pm

zenom

April 11, 2004, Cutthroat Peak

The snow pack on these sun exposed southerly slopes leading up to Cutthroat Peak seems a bit low. While skining up the steep slopes near 5700' I could see the ground at tree wells, so the depth was only a couple feet in these places. The weather the past month hasn't done much for the snow's staying power. It seems like we're in Summer already.

4/12/04 10:27pm

curmudgeon

April 11, 2004, Cutthroat Peak

Zenom -- If I have identified the trees in the pic, we were skiing the headwall just to the West of you on Saturday morning. By noon it was getting sloppy, but the W. side of the same ridge softened sufficiently to restart the yoyo machine. Good stuff.

Big Snow -- the snow pack is about 5' at the road. South facing slopes tend to be rubbled severely on higher angle slopes, and north facing slopes have a bit of a crust problem. But you can work the aspects, ski E. facing slopes in th...

4/12/04 10:11pm

ron j

April 10, 2004, Red Lake Peak,Carson Pass,CA

Jer - Speaking of pictures, I can't wait to see your pics from when we lowered you down into the cone ;) I would hate to think that I hauled that rope up there for nothing!! ???

4/12/04 10:02pm

Jeff Huber

Your TR brings back the memories of my pre-Californicating Oreghan existence. Carson Pass is a beautiful area. Kudos on a great tour!

Gaper Jeffeyyyyyyyy

4/12/04 7:46pm

Alan Brunelle

April 11, 2004, Cutthroat Peak

Sounds like you hit it nicely!

Do you have any feeling for the snowpack in the area, say compared to last year or at least for its staying power?

4/12/04 5:51pm

April 9, 2004, Prolateriat Bowl, N. Lake Tahoe

Good trip you guy's! My pic's in a few days, been kinda busy. 8)

4/12/04 5:36pm

ron j

Sounds like a great trip, Zap.
Looking forward to the next report.

4/12/04 9:47am

Kenji

You can at least check in here to see who is skiing ;D

Maybe see you at Battle Abbey!! Happy skiing ;)

4/12/04 8:19am

Zap

Brent,

A few days ago Jill and I were driving past Mt. Shasta on our way to the eastern Sierras and it brought back memories of our ski descent of Shasta a few years ago.

I used to be an old eastern ski bum so I know you'll find plenty of places to make turns.

Keep turning them buddy - the alternatives are bleak.

Zap

4/12/04 7:40am

Robie

April 11, 2004, Hawkins Mnt.

Brent ,Although I've only known you peripherily you have had a big influnence on my activities and on the advancement of backcountry skiing in this locale.
this is not a obituary just a hearty thanks.
At some point back east you will run into DANA Dorsett

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Be sure a take a run with him.

4/12/04 5:12am

chris_fast

Don't ask to borrow my skis!

4/12/04 4:43am

daryl

April 11, 2004, White Salmon/Upper Curtis Glacier

Brent,

You will be missed around here.
Who will lead the annual pilgrimage to Adams?

Daryl

4/12/04 2:48am

David_Coleman

hmmm, that's interesting. It could be their tracks (by the way, they were VERY nice tracks & it looked like maybe there was 3 of them), but for going through a few days of sunbaking, they sure looked fresh compared to the skin track of 1 week ago. I could be wrong...that's good to know about the N. Face because we were debating it. Based on what we had on White Salmon, I doubt it would have been any better.

4/12/04 2:33am

ron j

April 11, 2004, White Salmon/Upper Curtis Glacier

Yep, couldn't have hit it any better, weather and snow coverage wise, even if we had known what we were doing 8)

Here's a shot of Jerry showing us how it's done:

The rest of the pics I got are at:
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/pictures

4/12/04 1:57am

wolfs

I don't know if they were the tracks you saw, but I know my brother had descended White Salmon not this last weekend but on Apr. 4. I wasn't along, but the second hand report I got from him was that it was nice corn not far removed from powder, and that they actually turned around on a planned ascent/descent of N face due to scary perched windslab pack powder above 7K on that route and gone over to White Salmon as the secondary objective.

4/12/04 1:36am

Michael

April 11, 2004, Ingraham Direct

Good to see that you had a good trip up the Ingraham as well. Yeah, the skiing is definetely quite sketchyt in some of the sections.
The route that goes up on the left of the headwall and joins the Gib ledges route is not the "normal Ingraham route though, it is much steeper. Last week we saw tracks go up on the right side of the wall as you look towards the summit, which is not as steep acording to Mike Gauthier's book - don;t know how good it is for skiing though.

4/12/04 12:41am

ron j

April 10, 2004, Mt. Baker via Coleman-Deming.

Great climb, Phil.
And Welcome!!

4/12/04 12:37am

Charles

April 11, 2004, Earl Peak, Teanaway

John, thanks for this info. When you say "2.5 miles up the North Fork Teanaway road", from what point are you measuring - 29 Pines? Also, how far does that put the snow blockage from the intersection of the N.Fk. road with the Bean/Beverly spur?

Do you get the impression that lower sun exposed slopes (say below ~5500-6000') in the area are unusually melted out? It sounds like the lower part of your run on Earl was pretty bare, and that was the case for the bottom 500vf on Navaho...

4/11/04 11:05pm

ski_photomatt

April 7, 2004, Decker Mtn, Whistler

Ron - the ski areas offer "backcountry tickets" good for one ride from base to the top of the mountain. You need to go inside to customer service and show them your beacon, shovel, probe and skins (at least we were asked to show these), and fill out a form about your plans. The tickets are approx 30 CDN.

The Baldwin map is the nicest ski map I've seen outside Europe (the Swiss make some ski maps that are beautiful). It has route descriptions on the back. ...

4/11/04 10:37pm

Paul Belitz

April 11, 2004, White Salmon/Upper Curtis Glacier

Dave was kind enough not to mention that my 'skiing' consisted of at most five turns on the glacier proper, plus a LOT of traversing, kick-turns, and sideslipping. It sucked. >:(

Nice mountain, though.

4/11/04 9:55pm

ron j

Thanks for the report, Brent.
Come back and ski with us regularly, eh?

4/11/04 9:45pm

John Morrow