June 17-18, 2006, Goat Rocks, Wa
6/17/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2951
1
Hey TAYer, a lurker for the past season Ive finally gotten my act together to post my first TR.
Saturday morning Ncho and I set off for Goat Rocks just a tad late due to imbibing just a wee bit too much the night before. We swung by JPauleys place to grab our third for the weekend only to find him half naked and not packed! Turns out he had imbibed way too much. Soon enough though we were off.
Many clouds and a bit of drizzle dampened out spirits a bit but the weather on the drive did not portend the beautiful clear skies we would encounter. We drove to the snowgrass flats trailhead and began the pleasant rolling five mile hike in to the flats. Continuous snow did not start till about 4 miles in. We set up our base camp with great views of Mt. Adams and Mt St. Helens. With our late start and the sun quickly making its way towards the pacific, we rushed up to the top of the Ives Old Snowy ridge to get a run in before sacking up for the night. Sadly we did not make it up early enough and by the time we headed down the snow was already firming up. Snow on the top of the west and east sides of the ridge are quite bare though its much better lower down. The night quickly became surprisingly cold and we all rapidly retreated into our sleeping bags to warm up and make a falafel dinner.
The next morning we woke to clear blue skies. Looking around we could see a blanket of clouds covering all but us and the volcanoes. We skinned north following the basic direction of the PCT and were greeted with our first view of Mt Rainier. Slopes on the north face of Old Snowy looked great but higher clouds on that side of the ridge kept us from dropping in. We instead skied down the valley towards Goat Lake. The terrain was great with good coverage and we traversed skiers right towards the outlet of Goat Lake. Looking back up from the bottom of the valley we could see many greats runs to be had, much better than the terrain above Snowgrass flats, and we began ascending back up the valley wall. The second run of the day yielded perfect corn. We hiked up for a third run and things just got better. Finally we hiked past camp to the top of the Old Snowy-Ives ridge again, this time enjoying a great descent. With that run, we bid Goat Rocks farewell for now and wore our raccoon tans back into Seattle as our badge of a great weekend.
Saturday morning Ncho and I set off for Goat Rocks just a tad late due to imbibing just a wee bit too much the night before. We swung by JPauleys place to grab our third for the weekend only to find him half naked and not packed! Turns out he had imbibed way too much. Soon enough though we were off.
Many clouds and a bit of drizzle dampened out spirits a bit but the weather on the drive did not portend the beautiful clear skies we would encounter. We drove to the snowgrass flats trailhead and began the pleasant rolling five mile hike in to the flats. Continuous snow did not start till about 4 miles in. We set up our base camp with great views of Mt. Adams and Mt St. Helens. With our late start and the sun quickly making its way towards the pacific, we rushed up to the top of the Ives Old Snowy ridge to get a run in before sacking up for the night. Sadly we did not make it up early enough and by the time we headed down the snow was already firming up. Snow on the top of the west and east sides of the ridge are quite bare though its much better lower down. The night quickly became surprisingly cold and we all rapidly retreated into our sleeping bags to warm up and make a falafel dinner.
The next morning we woke to clear blue skies. Looking around we could see a blanket of clouds covering all but us and the volcanoes. We skinned north following the basic direction of the PCT and were greeted with our first view of Mt Rainier. Slopes on the north face of Old Snowy looked great but higher clouds on that side of the ridge kept us from dropping in. We instead skied down the valley towards Goat Lake. The terrain was great with good coverage and we traversed skiers right towards the outlet of Goat Lake. Looking back up from the bottom of the valley we could see many greats runs to be had, much better than the terrain above Snowgrass flats, and we began ascending back up the valley wall. The second run of the day yielded perfect corn. We hiked up for a third run and things just got better. Finally we hiked past camp to the top of the Old Snowy-Ives ridge again, this time enjoying a great descent. With that run, we bid Goat Rocks farewell for now and wore our raccoon tans back into Seattle as our badge of a great weekend.
Nice report, thanks for providing useful info about Snowgrass Flats conditions.
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