Skiing Around Crater Lake - Seeking Info

I have wanted to try this for some time. Obviously it all depends on conditions, but with hard snow I think this would be a real classic. Proposed trip is to just follow the road going counter clockwise.<br><br>Have you done it? How long did it take you? The loop road is almost exactly 50K. I ran around it a few summers ago in a leisurely six hours. I am wondering how long it would take on skis (probably some sort of nordic setup). There are some big hills with several multi-mile ups and downs. You could scream on the downs!<br><br>Also - when would be the best time for this enterprise?<br><br>Thanks for any advice.

I don't have any first hand experience on this but I do know from talking to the rangers about getting back to Mt Scott in late spring last year that you have to watch out for a situation that's kinda similar to what would happen if you wanted to ski up from Early Winters to Washington Pass in the spring, or up to Sunrise: the road might be closed, BUT at some point along it they might already be plowing and are waiting to open the road til the whole thing is done, thus you'd have to struggle along the edges of some of the road in plowgunk rather than on a nice smooth road, if you went too late in the year.

I can't offer a complete answer either, but I've been up there in mid-to-late June in an above-average snow year and found the road two-thirds open, with plowing proceding slowly on the last third.  No need to ski along the edge of the highway, though; in all the areas I can remember there's plenty of adjacent terrain.  <br><br>I drove as far as the road was open at the time, then skied the last several miles to Mt. Scott, where I played around in the meadows and descended a couple of different lines from the summit.  I'd guess the ideal time would be early May or maybe late April for long days and reasonable weather, with minimal plowing complete (therefore minimal crowds).  It is also possible to access the Mt Scott area via the logging roads just outside the park boundary, and I assume this is equally possible from other directions.  <br><br>Amar's ever-expanding site has further information ( www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/Cascad....php?name=CraterLake .<br><br>Hope that helps.<br><br>Mark

Thank you very much for the info. This sounds like a great trip!

You might want to contact Amar directly, as he did this trip a few years ago in March and raved about it. You could send him a pm here or get his email from his website.

<br>We did the loop last year at the beginning of March. It couldn't have been better.<br><br>In a nutshell, it's pretty straightforward. There are a couple of places where the routefinding is tricky, namely the SE corner past Mt. Scott. You will also want to watch some of the exposures along the north shore - a fall would take you all the way to the water. Believe the beta on the avalanche areas too. There were fresh slides in there when we passed through the runout.<br><br>All this advice is "use at your own risk"- we were there in blue sky conditions. Pm me if you like and I can give you more.<br><br>

Oregon Field Guide on OPB is doing a little deal about Crater Lake in the Winter.<br><br>Thursday night 8:30 on channel 10 Portland

Thank you for the info. We are planning to give it a shot this Saturday, April 30 if anyone wants to join.<br><br>Conditions look good right now. A few solid freezes at night this week would help a lot. No refreeze last night.<br><br>Cam at parking lot:<br><br>www.craterlakelodges.com/pages/cratercam.htm

Hourly readings:

www.nwac.us/~nwac/products/OSOCRA

Medford weather:

www.wrh.noaa.gov/total_forecast/index.ph...&map.x=185&map.y=100

Hi Wingnut, I'm not sure how I missed replying to this thread a few months ago. Anyway, I'm interested to know what the conditions are like on Rim Drive now, I look forward to a trip report.<br><br>When I skied it in 2002 (March 31-April 2), there had just been a week of near-record heat in southern OR and CA (90 F in CA Central Valley) which had completely consolidated the snowpack. The days I was there were completely clear, no winds (mirror-flat lake), with the snow surface frozen only briefly each morning. I used AT gear, I don't own any nordic gear. I used skins for the first 4.5 miles uphill from Rim Village to the pass at Hillman Peak, then skied the remaining 85% without skins, the snow was sticky enough for easy uphill travel. I went almost exactly 48 hours without seeing another person, from Discovery Point all the way around to Park HQ. A fantastic trip, I really should write a full trip report on my website (TAY didn't have a postable forum back then). It was my first backcountry ski trip that year due to a huge work overload and I was very out of shape, so I didn't have the extra energy to ski Hillman Peak or Mount Scott or anything else. Here's one panoramic photo I took, with Mount Bailey, Bald Crater, Diamond Peak, and Mount Thielsen visible at left, and Llao Rock, the mirror-like lake, Mount Scott, and Wizard Island at right. See larger versions, 2800 or 4200 pixels wide.<br><br> <br><br>However, one caveat this year is that plowing has already begun, the road is open to Discovery Point and probably plowed beyond there. Also, in late March 2002 there were already a couple of melted out sections of road after Cleetwood Cove ( here and here ). The NE rim of Crater Lake gets much less snowfall than the SW side due to rain shadowing, and it faces the hot sun all day, resulting in very early melt-out in fair weather. Snowdepth at Park HQ on April 1, 2002, was 116", versus only 74" today, so I suspect that several portions of the NE part of the road will be bare pavement, and detours may be necessary to keep your skis on (I gingerly skied across the pavement then). However, the late snowfall this year might mean that things have not melted out yet, and in any case there should be continuous snow in the woods farther away from the NE rim.<br><br>

Conditions look good right now. A few solid freezes at night this week would help a lot. No refreeze last night.

<br><br>I suspect that it did refreeze solidly last night. According to the data below, temps dropped below freezing at Park HQ, as cold air flowed downhill and pooled in the large bowl there. On the rim, temps reached 36 F, which is more than cold enough for a solid freeze on a calm clear night. Radiational cooling can easily cool the snow surface by 5-10 F below ambient temps in open areas (much less effectively under dense trees).<br><br>

[fixed]4-26-2005<br>Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center<br>Crater Lake National Park. Oregon<br>Rim data (7050') courtesy Oregon State University<br><br>Wind sensors unheated and may rime<br><br> MM/DD Hour Temp Temp RH Wind Wind Wind Hour Total Total Total<br> . PST F F % Avg Max Dir Prec. Prec. Snow Snow<br> . . 7050' 6370' 6370' 7050' 7050' 7050' 6370' 6370' 7050' 6370'<br>

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<br> 4 25 1000 36 46 66 3 6 41 0 0 111 77<br> 4 25 1100 36 49 57 4 6 36 0 0 110 77<br> 4 25 1200 38 51 53 3 7 27 0 0 110 77<br> 4 25 1300 38 48 53 3 6 32 0 0 111 76<br> 4 25 1400 39 46 67 2 5 28 0 0 110 76<br> 4 25 1500 39 48 61 3 4 36 0 0 110 76<br> 4 25 1600 41 48 57 2 7 58 0 0 110 76<br> 4 25 1700 42 47 53 2 7 84 0 0 110 75<br> 4 25 1800 42 45 57 3 7 175 0 0 110 75<br> 4 25 1900 41 39 80 2 6 161 0 0 110 75<br> 4 25 2000 39 34 92 2 3 125 0 0 111 75<br> 4 25 2100 39 33 99 3 6 84 0 0 111 74<br> 4 25 2200 39 33 99 2 7 123 0 0 111 74<br> 4 25 2300 38 32 100 3 6 177 0 0 111 74<br> 4 26 0 38 31 100 2 5 154 0 0 111 74<br> 4 26 100 38 31 100 1 4 107 0 0 111 73<br> 4 26 200 38 30 100 2 4 90 0 0 111 73<br> 4 26 300 37 30 100 3 6 45 0 0 111 303<br> 4 26 400 36 30 100 4 5 39 0 0 111 303<br> 4 26 500 36 30 100 4 6 43 0 0 111 303<br> 4 26 600 37 30 100 4 6 47 0 0 111 303<br> 4 26 700 39 37 93 3 6 26 0 0 110 74<br> 4 26 800 40 51 51 4 7 21 0 0 110 74<br> 4 26 900 40 56 42 5 7 26 0 0 110 73<br><br>[/fixed]

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Hello,<br><br>Wow, pictures like that keep me awake at night. I also love this one on your site:<br><br>www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/Crater...erLakeSunriseFog.jpg

You have me a little worried about coverage though. I thought the shot of snow they got in the last few weeks would salvage things. Now I wonder. I am going to call tomorrow and see if I can get any detail. When I called in February I got a guy who was a skier and knew all the info. That's too bad about the plowing but I guess it can't be helped.

I am planning to do it on light waxless skis. We are also going to go clockwise as you did. I have dreamed about the long, long downhill section from Phantom Ship Overlook all the way down to HQ. How great it would be to catch that first thing in the morning, on a rock hard surface! You would fly down...