4/2/16, Mt. St. Helens
4/2/16
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2880
2
Alpine-ish start at 6:15 got us to the crater rim by 10:50 and snow was still crusty for the first 1k' or so then it got heavy and sticky down low and we started kicking off small loose wet slides and creating big to massive roller balls but did not see anything big go other than where a couple cornices ripped off.
Skies were around 50% cloudy all day and there was a decent wind most of the way, which helped keep the fry factor low.
Lots of people out - most skiers went skiers left, we went right and had the place to ourselves except for one other set of tracks.
Skied to within 50' of the parking lot albeit with a few sections of tenuously stepping across short dirt patches.
The trail was 95% skiable overall but is getting thin in a few stretches and will probably require booting to the first clearing where the trail jogs right (not the small clearing by the rock pit where the trail jogs left) by this weekend.
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Skies were around 50% cloudy all day and there was a decent wind most of the way, which helped keep the fry factor low.
Lots of people out - most skiers went skiers left, we went right and had the place to ourselves except for one other set of tracks.
Skied to within 50' of the parking lot albeit with a few sections of tenuously stepping across short dirt patches.
The trail was 95% skiable overall but is getting thin in a few stretches and will probably require booting to the first clearing where the trail jogs right (not the small clearing by the rock pit where the trail jogs left) by this weekend.
Were an ice axe and crampons or ski crampons required for the ascent?
author=truth link=topic=36216.msg147767#msg147767 date=1459901505]
Were an ice axe and crampons or ski crampons required for the ascent?
We were able to skin the whole thing and did use ski crampons.
If you ended up needing to switch to booting you would probably be ok without crampons due to the hiker/slowshoer superhighway running up the whole thing.
That said I had boot crampons in my pack. Probably won't carry them in the future unless I'm going at a really off time.
Carried a whippet and didn't use it, didn't carry an ice axe.
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