May 4, 2011, Mt St Helens
5/4/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3092
3
Skied St Helens on Wednesday, May 4. Road driveable to Marble Mountain Snow Park with 2-wheel drive even though sign says "not plowed". 4+ feet of snow on ground at snow park. Lots of snow up there.
Good snow first 3k feet of descent, then slowly got sticky and tricky. Wouldn't have wanted to start the descent any later than we did (1PM) given the temps and sun. An hour earlier would have been perfect. Saw 5-6 other skiers and a few more hikers. Snow mobilers all over the climbing route once we got down to about 4k. talked to them and they said they didn't know.....
Good times. Sure beats my other/first trip up to St Helens 5 years ago with breakable crust and white out!!
Dirtbag camped at first turn off to Ape Cave (on left at gated/abandoned road just after getting on Forest Road 83) to avoid bivy on snow. Pretty good, quiet spot.
It felt like a first descent to us ;-)
Good snow first 3k feet of descent, then slowly got sticky and tricky. Wouldn't have wanted to start the descent any later than we did (1PM) given the temps and sun. An hour earlier would have been perfect. Saw 5-6 other skiers and a few more hikers. Snow mobilers all over the climbing route once we got down to about 4k. talked to them and they said they didn't know.....
Good times. Sure beats my other/first trip up to St Helens 5 years ago with breakable crust and white out!!
Dirtbag camped at first turn off to Ape Cave (on left at gated/abandoned road just after getting on Forest Road 83) to avoid bivy on snow. Pretty good, quiet spot.
It felt like a first descent to us ;-)
Nice report looks like ya got a good dose of sun. Nice crisp photos too.
I'm heading down there this weekend and trying to decide if I should just get up wicked early or stay overnight. How long did it take you to get to the summit?
Three of us went up May 1 in very similar conditions (from what the pictures show). We were all on splitboards and were able to skin the entire route. We left the Marble Mt. parking lot just before 8am and were at the summit just after 1:30. The snow softened quicker than we expected so we could have been a bit faster had we left a little earlier. We left the summit at about 2:15 and had the best ride of the year all the way to the car (except for a flat section of maybe 20 yards). The decent took maybe an hour but that could have been faster too if needed. Great time to be up there if the weather cooperates.
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