Home > Trip Reports > january 16, Mt. St helens corn

january 16, Mt. St helens corn

1/16/13
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
17422
13
Posted by christoph benells on 1/17/13 4:26am
CONDITIONS ALERT

full on june-uary conditions with great edge-able corn snow.

skinning in a t- shirt with no wind and that nice smell in the air...

it was great!
The audacity to post this conditions report as I sit in my cubicle under a dense, grey inversion!

...how long till someone gripes about the weekend hordes that are now going to crowd st.helens?  ;)


(ps- thanks for the update...was hoping that south aspects on the volcanoes would be corny by the weekend)

Ahhhhh...  good report.  Was hoping to go tomorrow but have nobody to travel with, so dunno.  Plus, loose-wet risk is going up up up.  Did you see any activity?

author=r1de link=topic=27063.msg114000#msg114000 date=1358464006]
Ahhhhh...  good report.  Was hoping to go tomorrow but have nobody to travel with, so dunno.  Plus, loose-wet risk is going up up up.  Did you see any activity?


only on the steepest, sunniest aspects, no worries with good route finding
author=Pete A link=topic=27063.msg113994#msg113994 date=1358459109]
...how long till someone gripes about the weekend hordes that are now going to crowd st.helens?   ;)


(ps- thanks for the update...was hoping that south aspects on the volcanoes would be corny by the weekend)


haha yeah right! im blowin it! st. helens is MY PERSONAL secret stash!
author=jwplotz link=topic=27063.msg113991#msg113991 date=1358457964]
The audacity to post this conditions report as I sit in my cubicle under a dense, grey inversion!


driving back into the fog was quite wierd. Back to real life.

It was pretty sweet up there today.  Very warm, but no slide activity.  Here's a pic from the summit rim....


How far could you drive in?

Pretty icy conditions today, Friday 1/18. Essentially booted from the beggining of the flows to the summit.  Sat on the sumit for over an hour and the ice was edgeable  before 1.  Corn once we crossed over the ridge. 

Perhaps I saw you up there?  Solo, splitboard with crampons, descended around 1pm.

Dang, I was up there on Sunday 1/13 and it was straight water ice on most of the south face. I was able to find some firm wind blown stuff in the bottom of the gulleys though. Also, I accidently rode off a very large cornice, dang thing came out of nowhere haha, landing was solid ice but I rode it out!  I'm glad someone was able to get some decent turns in on the beast :)

Oh and in reference to:
author=myikat link=topic=27063.msg114045#msg114045 date=1358488337]
How far could you drive in?


You can drive all the way to Marble Mountain Sno-park, plowed by icy when I was there.

I'll add to the beta pile:
Climbed today, icy conditions due to wind, ski crampons and you were golden though, our timing was  little early so we hung out for a  couple hrs below the top and waited.  Corn after 1 from the top. Sweet turns to the runout.  Crazy warm for January.

The climb did leave me with one question, why do snowshoers snowshoe in the skin track?

author=Patarero link=topic=27063.msg114128#msg114128 date=1358658193]
why do snowshoers snowshoe in the skin track?


Because it's there.  George Leigh Mallory

On our way out of the parking lot today, we found a pair of  AT boots that appeared to be left behind. We brought them to the Lone Fir Resort Cafe in Cougar (where you register for permits) and the woman working there said they would be brought to the Forest Service office in Amboy (360-247-3900).


hmm. I wish there was an inconspicuous way to make a first post to figure out how the image-upload thing works.
We did the worm on the 15th (sorry for the late post). We thought there might be a crowd, but there was only one other party, who turned around half way because it was "nuking"- it must've been 50 degrees with just a little breeze. It was that feeling where every sense tells you that it's summer except your eyes. We booted it all the way to the top. There's a serious ice layer under some nice wind-transport - hopefully it won't take too long to bond with the new stuff.

Also, I should say thanks to the TAY community, where I've lurked for years but regretfully never contributed. We got some great pictures (thanks Lee and Brian), which might be a good epitaph for our glorious January inversion. Also, let's see if I can figure out how to do this:


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christoph benells
2013-01-17 12:26:10