Home > Trip Reports > April. 21, Mt Scott Crater Lake

April. 21, Mt Scott Crater Lake

4/21/13
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Posted by Timstirling on 4/24/13 12:38pm


After Mt McLoughlin on Saturday I stayed in Klamath Falls (stayed in the Maverick hotel which was cheap, clean and decently located). Sunday I decided to ski Mt Scott like last year, it is a fun mountain with an outstanding view and a good descent.
Downside early season is access, which seems it start from the desert floor at this time of year. I managed to drive up to about 5000ft, luckily from 5100ft I found mostly continuous snow for skinning along the forest roads. This is about 200ft and 0.5miles closer than last year. My route was nf-062 to the nf-2308. From there up the SE ridge, which start as old growth forest and opens up further at around 7000ft where I saw this worrying trail:



Looked like bear tracks and very fresh to me so I moved hurriedly on. It was a warm and sunny day but not too hot and with a gusty breeze. snow was firm after a hard freeze, softening nicely in the sun.



Towards the top of the SE ridge the slope gets quite steep, I swung around to a slightly more southerly slope in a nice clearing (formed by pumice I believe). I had hoped to meet the summer path but it was hard to find and so I did some precarious skinning around the stunted pines. The snow here was icy and wind affected, with icy nodules. After 15 minutes scrambling around I was on the south summit, deciding to ignore the true north summit because it doesn't add much vertical but 1/4 mile traverse. By this point clouds were drift in from the west which wasnt expected.





Still the view was spectacular. Crater lake is such a stunning surprise after hours of skinning.





I had lunch sheltered from the breeze on the south east side, when does it had clouded over completely so it was time to drop down the avalanch path, which makes for a great descent. I passed the bear tracks again, and then made a traverse back to the south.






A long slow slog back to the car, almost possible to ski e forest roads but mostly lots of poling and shuffling.
[img width=600 height=800]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8386/8677456730_2273dfa780_b.jpg" />

Fabulous images of the lake!!

Great TR, thanks! I hiked up Mt Scott on Labor day this year and couldn't stop thinking about how great of a ski it would be.

Nice report Tim - love the bear tracks!

We found the same thing that you did when ascending Scott last spring - we were angling around the south-side to hit the summit trail, but then the trail just ended up just running into some ice/rime, so we opted to scramble up through the stunted trees and boulders instead to reach the top.  In restrospect, the snow ramp on the inside of the upper SE ridge seemed like it would be more direct.

Last year I followed a skin track up the snow ramp on the upper SE ridge but it wasn't easy because of the steepness and narrowness, drifts caused by the trees and the reasonable drop to the side to be wear off which is why this year I was keep to try the more southern face. As a scramble it would be easy with plenty to hold onto (the trees make perfect-hand holds)  but skinning is a little tricky. I always try to keep skis on for as long as possible but I should really just be willing to get back onto 2 feet more often and boot-back south sections. When skinning you can get yourself to places that would then make the transition to boots quite tricky.

I think cutting across the east face is good if you fully assess the avalanche conditions i just like to keep to ridge and protected faces when alone.


Highly recommended this ski tour. The view alone is worth the trek but the skiing down the avy path is excellent. The approach is long but across forest roads is easy





Nice TR and great pics. Does anyone ever ski DOWN to the lake????? That would be really cool.

Skiing down to the lake is not allowed AFAIK.

You can ski the otherside of mt Scott, which looks steeper. But then ou would ave to climb out, feasible in a long day a little later in the season when you can get closer.

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Timstirling
2013-04-24 19:38:47