5 and 6 Table Mountain and Helliotrope Ridge
7/15/08
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
4847
10
It's 11:30 am and I am booting up a 45 degree rollover on the north face of Table mountain, it's raining hard and I'm soaked to the skin, and it's all my fathers fault !!!
It all started when my dad saw those beautiful pictures of Baker and Table mountain posted by Jim Oker and got as giddy as a school girl. So telemack, my dad and I all got up at 5.00am and set off to Mt. Baker. When we arrived the weather was horrible. It was raining hard, but we decided to go for a ski anyways since we had driven all the way here.
We drove up to the ski area and under the protection of the back of the car put on full Gor-tex pants and jackets and started skinning up to Table mountain. We skinned up to the top of one of the chutes and decided that we were tired of being soaked to the skin so we took off the skins and got a 1000 ft ski back to the valley. We camped that night in the pouring rain trying to dry off our clothes.
We awoke the next morning fully rested, with the skies still cloudy but not raining. We hopped in the car and drove up to the Helliotrope ridge trail, strapped our skis and boots on our back and hiked up to the snow line. We skinned up approx 1000 ft to the start of the flat section of the Coleman glacier and had a beautiful ski down, managing to get a 2000 ft descent by choosing the correct gulley leading down beside the hogsback ridge.
We had a great weekend! Thanks Telemack for the company and the good times. Also i have forgiven my father since the trip turned out to be great fun.
It all started when my dad saw those beautiful pictures of Baker and Table mountain posted by Jim Oker and got as giddy as a school girl. So telemack, my dad and I all got up at 5.00am and set off to Mt. Baker. When we arrived the weather was horrible. It was raining hard, but we decided to go for a ski anyways since we had driven all the way here.
We drove up to the ski area and under the protection of the back of the car put on full Gor-tex pants and jackets and started skinning up to Table mountain. We skinned up to the top of one of the chutes and decided that we were tired of being soaked to the skin so we took off the skins and got a 1000 ft ski back to the valley. We camped that night in the pouring rain trying to dry off our clothes.
We awoke the next morning fully rested, with the skies still cloudy but not raining. We hopped in the car and drove up to the Helliotrope ridge trail, strapped our skis and boots on our back and hiked up to the snow line. We skinned up approx 1000 ft to the start of the flat section of the Coleman glacier and had a beautiful ski down, managing to get a 2000 ft descent by choosing the correct gulley leading down beside the hogsback ridge.
We had a great weekend! Thanks Telemack for the company and the good times. Also i have forgiven my father since the trip turned out to be great fun.
Thank you my son for a great weekend! Now can you get all my gear dry, skis waxed and ready for next weekend while I'm at work! ;D
I heard you might be at Table Mountain today, and I had my eyeballs peeled for ya. If I knew you were heading to Helliotrope, I might have gone out there instead. Sounds like you found better snow than us, too.
Like Jeff said, follow the masters...
Like Jeff said, follow the masters...
Sorry we missed you. As Stewie says, Table mountain on Saturday was pretty wet and slopes where surprisingly hard but steeper stuff was not too suncupped although you had to be careful as if you fell you where going for a ride. We skinned/booted up on of the central colouirs on the main Table mountain face ( past the Blueberry chutes). We got above one rock band and decided to proceed no further as it was pretty firm.
Helliotrope Ridge and lower Coleman Glacier was really nice. Hazy sunshine and mist rolling in and out when we got there and the mist even cleared for a few minutes giving us a nice view of the whole upper mountain basking in sunshine. Snow was" 1-3" of soft on a firm base with hardly any suncups. Trail has a lot of fallen timber and bridge is out right at the start requiring you to ford the river or traverse the "log of death".
Helliotrope Ridge and lower Coleman Glacier was really nice. Hazy sunshine and mist rolling in and out when we got there and the mist even cleared for a few minutes giving us a nice view of the whole upper mountain basking in sunshine. Snow was" 1-3" of soft on a firm base with hardly any suncups. Trail has a lot of fallen timber and bridge is out right at the start requiring you to ford the river or traverse the "log of death".
Sorry about that Stewie ;). At a little after 6 on Saturday, our party connected by phone and agreed that the National Weather Service's newly depressing forecast warranted a change of plans, and so instead of heading up to the Baker ski area, we headed east for a hike (yes, no skis :-[ :'(), which turned out to be really nice and full of flowers and all, but I kept wondering what the day was like up your way. Thanks for letting me know.
Stewie here, accidently posted in my dads account.
In future, when posting beautiful pictures of snowy mountains on blue bird days, Put a Mature rating so that I know to check them first before i let my father see them and get any ideas.
By the way nice flowers! :D
In future, when posting beautiful pictures of snowy mountains on blue bird days, Put a Mature rating so that I know to check them first before i let my father see them and get any ideas.
By the way nice flowers! :D
Nice trip! It was a soggy weekend all 'round, that's for sure. It made for some nice corn-surfing though...
The trail to Heliotrope Ridge was shorter than I had thought, although there were several messy blowdowns. We saw 2 skiers on the trail and were on their tracks, too. Who were you?
The snow was silky on Heliotrope & Coleman. We climbed to 6850' just above the first crevasses, did turns down to our sneakers at the first campsites, and cut skiers's left to run the longes line that linked to the central creek. The only cups were below treeline---but that snow might disappear with a bit of hot weather.
Fun 2-day trip! I composed this limerick in my head to entertain my buddies on the ride home:
The Willises went for a ski;
Chris drank coffee and soon had to pee.
By the time he was done,
He was having no fun,
He cried, "Stewart my son---wait for me!" :)
The snow was silky on Heliotrope & Coleman. We climbed to 6850' just above the first crevasses, did turns down to our sneakers at the first campsites, and cut skiers's left to run the longes line that linked to the central creek. The only cups were below treeline---but that snow might disappear with a bit of hot weather.
Fun 2-day trip! I composed this limerick in my head to entertain my buddies on the ride home:
The Willises went for a ski;
Chris drank coffee and soon had to pee.
By the time he was done,
He was having no fun,
He cried, "Stewart my son---wait for me!" :)
Stewie, nice TR. Good call on moving to Baker on Sunday. As we were on I-5 returning from Table Mtn, I said to Jill - "we should have checked out ..."
Nice punishment for missing all those powder days last winter, Mac. But a day in the mountains is always better than a day underwater.
author=ovrthhills link=topic=10585.msg42975#msg42975 date=1215467167]
Nice punishment for missing all those powder days last winter, Mac. But a day in the mountains is always better than a day underwater.
What did I do wrong? ::)
Snowbell and I skied the Elk Mountain chutes yesterday from Deer park---look for his TR. Not much snow left there---more penance for me? ;)
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