July 4, 2009, Adams SW Chutes
7/4/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3081
9
The Cold Springs trailhead was much quieter than we expected it to be when we rolled in on Friday evening. We got a nice set of campsites only about 100 yards from the bathrooms.
We headed up the trail at 5:15, packing boots and skis in favor of light hikers. The first significant snow starts near the RTM trail, but it's patchy until you get above the Crescent Glacier bowl, so we kept the skis and boots on our back all the way to Piker's Peak. The entire south climb is pretty heavily suncupped -- I was feeling sorry for the folks who'd planned to ski it, because it really didn't look like that much fun.
After a brief, windy rest at Piker's, we pushed on to the top and arrived to a "St. Helens Mother's Day" atmosphere at just after noon. It was calm and comfortable, but we knew the sun was starting to pound the chutes and we wanted to get them at corn o-clock, so we started down in fairly short order.
The summit "blob" above Piker's shared the same nasty suncups as the south climb, so we scooted out to skier's left in hopes of finding a smoother line -- not to happen. A skier-scoured slalom course made for reasonable (if prescribed) turns to get down to the bottom and we were soon dropping into the Chutes to find fairly smooth snow and excellent corn, with only a hint of ice and suncups in spots.
Bliss, to the bottom, where it gets choked off and exits onto the lower angled, heavily suncupped apron below, studded with bombardments from the crumbling Suksdorf ridge. Pete had a near miss exiting the Chutes, as a refrigerator size pinwheeler had been set loose by the sun. Turns out that a party about 30 minutes behind us had a member take a rock in the ribs and arm -- not a big one, thankfully, but enough to slow their descent and get them to the trailhead close to midnight.
We skied straight down, with two short carries, to about 6600 feet, where we racked the skis and boots for the quick hike to the RTM and the long, dusty circle back to Cold Springs. An excellent day, with great company and beautiful weather.
I'd say the Chutes are *close* to done. Had they not received so much ski traffic in the last few weeks, the suncups would be pretty unpleasant -- as it is, the skiing above and below them is a little rough, though it improves somewhat in the heat of the day.
We headed up the trail at 5:15, packing boots and skis in favor of light hikers. The first significant snow starts near the RTM trail, but it's patchy until you get above the Crescent Glacier bowl, so we kept the skis and boots on our back all the way to Piker's Peak. The entire south climb is pretty heavily suncupped -- I was feeling sorry for the folks who'd planned to ski it, because it really didn't look like that much fun.
After a brief, windy rest at Piker's, we pushed on to the top and arrived to a "St. Helens Mother's Day" atmosphere at just after noon. It was calm and comfortable, but we knew the sun was starting to pound the chutes and we wanted to get them at corn o-clock, so we started down in fairly short order.
The summit "blob" above Piker's shared the same nasty suncups as the south climb, so we scooted out to skier's left in hopes of finding a smoother line -- not to happen. A skier-scoured slalom course made for reasonable (if prescribed) turns to get down to the bottom and we were soon dropping into the Chutes to find fairly smooth snow and excellent corn, with only a hint of ice and suncups in spots.
Bliss, to the bottom, where it gets choked off and exits onto the lower angled, heavily suncupped apron below, studded with bombardments from the crumbling Suksdorf ridge. Pete had a near miss exiting the Chutes, as a refrigerator size pinwheeler had been set loose by the sun. Turns out that a party about 30 minutes behind us had a member take a rock in the ribs and arm -- not a big one, thankfully, but enough to slow their descent and get them to the trailhead close to midnight.
We skied straight down, with two short carries, to about 6600 feet, where we racked the skis and boots for the quick hike to the RTM and the long, dusty circle back to Cold Springs. An excellent day, with great company and beautiful weather.
I'd say the Chutes are *close* to done. Had they not received so much ski traffic in the last few weeks, the suncups would be pretty unpleasant -- as it is, the skiing above and below them is a little rough, though it improves somewhat in the heat of the day.
...i thought the rock looked more like a flying television than a pinwheeling refrigerator :)
although the top and the bottom of the mountain were definitely marginal skiing it was nice to finally ski the chutes when they were consistent corn from top to bottom without ever getting mashed potatoey...but yeah, i think that route is just about done for the year.
although the top and the bottom of the mountain were definitely marginal skiing it was nice to finally ski the chutes when they were consistent corn from top to bottom without ever getting mashed potatoey...but yeah, i think that route is just about done for the year.
Its nice to hear that the SW chutes are smooth
Hmm...
What time did you guys hit the chutes on the 4th? I was there with a group and we hit them at about 1:30pm and they were crap in my opinion. We also saw a good sized boulder go hauling down the mountain along with a bunch of small ones. Luckily it didn't hit anyone.
What time did you guys hit the chutes on the 4th? I was there with a group and we hit them at about 1:30pm and they were crap in my opinion. We also saw a good sized boulder go hauling down the mountain along with a bunch of small ones. Luckily it didn't hit anyone.
Interesting how differently folks can assess the same conditions.
We loved the chutes in late afternoon on the 3rd (verging on 4PM) - fairly smooth, and the corn was wonderful especially if you avoided turning where prior skiers had scraped down to a bit of ice/frozen granular. But we heard later from ascending climbers that some of the folks ahead of us deemed them nearly unskiable. I'm betting this was more than just differences due to time of day, as it didn't sound as if we were that far apart from each other. Perhaps the other skiers were reacting to the crap at the bottom (especially if they were among the first parties down, and thus creating the forced slalom rather than benefiting from it...), or perhaps what I think of as decent corn is someone else's nightmare?
One report from last weekend deemed the chutes likely done for the year, yet we managed to squeeze another weekend out. It will be interesting to see if yet another is squeezed out next week...
While in the chutes, I kept my buddy moving and we each kept an eye upwards during brief oxygen-gathering rests on the way down and hoped for the best while turning, as it was clear from the rocks here and there that we were in a risk zone most of the time. Our legs were burning by the time we finally felt it was OK to take a decent rest break. Glad to hear that the big one you saw steered clear of flesh.
We loved the chutes in late afternoon on the 3rd (verging on 4PM) - fairly smooth, and the corn was wonderful especially if you avoided turning where prior skiers had scraped down to a bit of ice/frozen granular. But we heard later from ascending climbers that some of the folks ahead of us deemed them nearly unskiable. I'm betting this was more than just differences due to time of day, as it didn't sound as if we were that far apart from each other. Perhaps the other skiers were reacting to the crap at the bottom (especially if they were among the first parties down, and thus creating the forced slalom rather than benefiting from it...), or perhaps what I think of as decent corn is someone else's nightmare?
One report from last weekend deemed the chutes likely done for the year, yet we managed to squeeze another weekend out. It will be interesting to see if yet another is squeezed out next week...
While in the chutes, I kept my buddy moving and we each kept an eye upwards during brief oxygen-gathering rests on the way down and hoped for the best while turning, as it was clear from the rocks here and there that we were in a risk zone most of the time. Our legs were burning by the time we finally felt it was OK to take a decent rest break. Glad to hear that the big one you saw steered clear of flesh.
Interesting, jcocci -- we dropped in right around 1:30. We were a group of seven, though we skied it more spread out, to keep things moving. There were spots that were a little scraped off and spots out to the sides that were a little bumpy, but all in all I thought it was excellent skiing. We were just getting out when the first big one came down, though another big one came down about 45 minutes later -- that's the one that hit one of the other skiers.
Jim, I read your report last night and thought the same thing -- the suncupped areas skied much more easily when they'd been well cooked, but they were still pretty rough, at least for me. Of course, I don't have a lot of ski time on the legs in the last month and a half, so I was getting quite the burn going by the time we got to the bottom. Like I said though, I thought the chutes themselves were pretty damn fun.
** Oh, and yeah -- I'm sure they'll get skied next weekend. The Chutes will probably still be good, it's just going to be a matter of diminishing returns/increased shenanigans. The exit at the bottom is getting close to melted out, though it'll probably last another week if the hot weather stays away.
Jim, I read your report last night and thought the same thing -- the suncupped areas skied much more easily when they'd been well cooked, but they were still pretty rough, at least for me. Of course, I don't have a lot of ski time on the legs in the last month and a half, so I was getting quite the burn going by the time we got to the bottom. Like I said though, I thought the chutes themselves were pretty damn fun.
** Oh, and yeah -- I'm sure they'll get skied next weekend. The Chutes will probably still be good, it's just going to be a matter of diminishing returns/increased shenanigans. The exit at the bottom is getting close to melted out, though it'll probably last another week if the hot weather stays away.
The leftward traversing exit seems like it would be unpleasant if melted out - I'm assuming it's more of that volcanic talus that we all crossed in our thankfully-short carries this past weekend.
Some of the suncups were insane - I'm sure others here have seen worse but it was the worst I'd seen. Believe me, I stuck to the slalom runs in those areas except for brief moments where I could squeeze a shorter radius turn in thanks to a rare smaller bump/divot. If we'd had the falling rocks you guys were seeing, I don't think we'd have been willing to start our left traverse as high as we did, but in any case that led us to that rock-strewn region where I found the turning in the untracked to be surprisingly nice, given how nasty the stuff at the bottom of the chutes was.
Some of the suncups were insane - I'm sure others here have seen worse but it was the worst I'd seen. Believe me, I stuck to the slalom runs in those areas except for brief moments where I could squeeze a shorter radius turn in thanks to a rare smaller bump/divot. If we'd had the falling rocks you guys were seeing, I don't think we'd have been willing to start our left traverse as high as we did, but in any case that led us to that rock-strewn region where I found the turning in the untracked to be surprisingly nice, given how nasty the stuff at the bottom of the chutes was.
A nap at Piker's and a shot of the chutes -- the exit to the main chute is melting quick, but may last the week if it doesn't get cooked again.
I must have overlapped with some of you -- I definitely remember seeing a Zzero4 + MBSL setup in that big group at the base where everyone was de-skiing (which turns out to be a mistake).
I pulled into Cold Springs ~8:00 Friday night (after skiing off the summit of Rainier earlier in the day). I got a late start Saturday morning at a bit past 8:00, reached the summit at 2:00, was in the Chutes sometime after that, and back at the campsite by 5:00. Some pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jshefftz/20090704FormerlyTheBestSkiRunInNA
My flight home wasn't until mid-day Monday, and I couldn't think of anything better to do for my eighth day of skiing on this trip and my final day of the season (plus I absolutely had to ski to crack 400,000' earned vert for the season), so I did the same thing again Sunday. T-storms were threatening for the afternoon, so I got an earlier start at 6:03, and was back at the campsite by 1:46. (High winds near the summit hampered my ascent time, although continuing to ski further down was a big plus on the descent.) Some pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jshefftz/20090705FormerlyTheBestSkiRunInNA
I pulled into Cold Springs ~8:00 Friday night (after skiing off the summit of Rainier earlier in the day). I got a late start Saturday morning at a bit past 8:00, reached the summit at 2:00, was in the Chutes sometime after that, and back at the campsite by 5:00. Some pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jshefftz/20090704FormerlyTheBestSkiRunInNA
My flight home wasn't until mid-day Monday, and I couldn't think of anything better to do for my eighth day of skiing on this trip and my final day of the season (plus I absolutely had to ski to crack 400,000' earned vert for the season), so I did the same thing again Sunday. T-storms were threatening for the afternoon, so I got an earlier start at 6:03, and was back at the campsite by 1:46. (High winds near the summit hampered my ascent time, although continuing to ski further down was a big plus on the descent.) Some pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jshefftz/20090705FormerlyTheBestSkiRunInNA
Ha! Small world -- I think we were in the chutes at the same time. We took a leisurely lunch at the meltwater tarn near the bottom. Glad you had such a great trip out here.
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