Home > Trip Reports > June 16- 17, Mt. Baker, 19 St. Helens ,20 Mt. Hood

June 16- 17, Mt. Baker, 19 St. Helens ,20 Mt. Hood

6/15/08
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3465
6
Posted by kylemanger on 6/22/08 10:40am
Samthaman and I had a great week in the mountains. We skied up the Grouse Creek drainage on Monday afternoon. We camped at 6500 ft. under beautiful skies. The weather moved in tues morning and did not look promising.. "Lets just see how far we can get." were Sam's words that motivated me along with some strong folgers.. We skied in and out of clouds to 10500 ft. Being my first time on Baker, I left my skis at the saddle below the Roman Wall, not looking forward to navigating down the ridge in flat light.. Sam being the badass that he is.. strapped his skis to his back and up we went.. seemingly into the heavens among a mix of snow and cloud. Maybe 200 ft before the summit we were in the sunshine, 20 minutes later we were on the summit looking out at the ocean of clouds.. We were stoked, I had been wanting this one pretty bad for a while. I hiked and Sam skied down to the saddle where I grabbed my skis and we slowly made our way down the glacier, very slowly, usually not being able to see much past the tips of our skis.. Not the safest descent but the route is well traveled to say the least.. We only skied past our camp once and before long we were packed up and making the last of our 7000 ft ski run back to the car... good times
The next morning we were checking weather and reports trying to figure out where to go next... Mt. St. Helens Thurs and Hood on Fri.. sounds good lets go.
We arrived at the climbers bivy turnoff.. 4 miles short of the trailhead late that evening.. Little did we know we should have driven down the road a few miles to the propper sno park parking lot and started there. But we didn't. Walked and skied the 4 miles to the climbers bivy the next morning. After wandering around the woods and barely making it onto the true slopes by 10:30 am, we bagged it. Too little too late.. Kind of funny to think that  I had considered St. Helens a gimme being at 8500 ft.. nothing technical, it was in the bag.. She showed me.. kicked my ass and sent me packing..  By the way Im looking for a St Helens partner in the near future if anyone is interested, the skiing looked great.
Sam and I wiped the day off the books and headed south for Mt. Hood. Another 4am wake up under perfect skies sent us skinning for the summit. At a thousand ft. per hour we were moving along nicely. At 9300 ft or so I threw up my noodles from the night before and had pretty much hit my wall. Sam, very determined as we had just been shut down the day before,  threw his skis on his back and headed for the hogsback.. I sat there for a while licking my wounds.. Then I got bored, threw my skis on my pack, put on my crampons and thought Id hike at least until I saw Sam ski by me. Not long after I reached the top the hogsback, Sam came scooting the chute of the summit. I was glad to be where I was and looking forward to my turns off the side of the hogsback..  I skied down to our rendevouz and we were back at the car by 11:30am. A long drive back to Seattle and I sent Sam on his way for a few more days of adventure before he flies home on Monday.
Great guy, super motivated, awesome skier.. wouldn't have had the week I had or met Sam without this website.. thanks

Sam is now at the airport.  He said that he enjoyed his outings, and that you were a good guy with whom to tour.  Sam was somewhat beat up from so much vert in so few days, so we topped off his PNW visit with a couple of mellow ski tours this weekend.  I don't think we've seen the last of Sam in the PNW.

author=Big Steve link=topic=10424.msg42175#msg42175 date=1214247171]
Sam was somewhat beat up from so much vert in so few days, so we topped off his PNW visit with a couple of mellow ski tours this weekend.  I don't think we've seen the last of Sam in the PNW.



I'm glad to learn that he got his fill.  That young buck seemed insatiable early on in his visit.

It was good of everyone to show him around.  I'm sure that we made a good impression on him and were good ambassadors of the PNW.  Now weather or not that is a god idea may be debateable.  We'll wait and see how many of his friends show up next season.  ;)

... and welcome to the board Mangerk.  Thanks for the TR.
How far up Helens did you get?

author=Snow Bell link=topic=10424.msg42183#msg42183 date=1214250960]
... and welcome to the board Mangerk.  Thanks for the TR.
How far up Helens did you get?


not far really, a mile or so past the climbers bivy.. we went the wrong way from the trailhead and ended up in a gulley... by the time we got back on the ridge, we were pretty late.. we did make some nice turns back down the ridge and through the trees.. im itching to get back there, the skiing looked really fun up higher..

i think that you guys were the two that Becky and I pulled up next to in the Timberline parking lot Friday morning....I've got some viddy of Sam on the slope above the hogsback....he certainly looked like an east coast skier making fast comfortable gs turns from the top a good hour or more before the snow had softened!  Becky and I took our time topping out and the snow was nice corn just below the old chute by around 1pm.



author=Pete A link=topic=10424.msg42208#msg42208 date=1214262962]
I've got some viddy of Sam on the slope above the hogsback....he certainly looked like an east coast skier making fast comfortable gs turns from the top a good hour or more before the snow had softened!


Fast comfy GS turns?  Yup, that sounds like Sam.

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june-16-17-mt-baker-19-st-helens-20-mt-hood
kylemanger
2008-06-22 17:40:18