St Helens: June Gully (most direct rim route on MSH?)

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Chip Down
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Re: St Helens: June Gully (most direct rim route on MSH?)

Post by Chip Down » September 20th, 2021, 3:41 pm

wildcat wrote:
September 19th, 2021, 4:39 pm
What/where was that big metal thing you set your beer glass on? Boundary/range marker of some sort?
Pics below should help enlighten. Taken on same day, slightly different place.

I don't know what that tripod thing is. They're all over St Helens, and there's now at least one on Hood.

That other item fell over; they're normally vertical.
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Re: St Helens: June Gully (most direct rim route on MSH?)

Post by wildcat » September 20th, 2021, 7:11 pm

I believe that's teleseismometer station "HSR" or "P690". I don't know if there's any specific logic to their call lettering scheme or if they're just random alphanumeric strings that uniquely identify those stations. The gray dome-shaped thing on the tripod is the station's GPS unit. The rack behind it with the solar panels is mounted to an equipment case containing the seismometer, its analogue and digital electronics, transmitter and batteries. The little dish antenna mounted on the rack's upper right sends a microwave (probably L-band) telemetry feed to a remote observation site, probably the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory facility on SE 15th Street off SE 164th. As you observed and noted they're all over St. Helens; these are an array collecting data for both scientific analysis and the USGS' early warning system.

Check this out:

https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/casc ... -volcanoes

I think the yellow panel on the tripod in the beer picture is a marker so crews can visually locate it from a helicopter. There may have been an instrument or station there at one time that was removed for whatever reason, and replaced with that marker so they can easily find the site if they need to use it later.

The thing laying down.... uh, not really sure, probably a snow depth gauge that's fallen over? Just a guess since I've never seen one of those, but it seems like that's what it must be, with each yellow horizontal panel a foot or a foot-and-a-half apart (I noticed the two wider ones are spaced at 5-panel intervals, so definitely a measurement device of some type).
Last edited by wildcat on April 12th, 2022, 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: St Helens: June Gully (most direct rim route on MSH?)

Post by wildcat » September 21st, 2021, 4:00 pm

One thing I just thought of: the main June Lake trail below the creek has a few logging trail spurs coming off it, which might warrant further investigation/exploration...
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Re: St Helens: June Gully (most direct rim route on MSH?)

Post by Chip Down » October 2nd, 2021, 6:59 pm

Mystery solved: They're bike racks! :D
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Re: St Helens: June Gully (most direct rim route on MSH?)

Post by BigBear » October 3rd, 2021, 1:37 pm

The rockfall thinks gullies are the most direct path, too. Avalanche chutes are another favorite place of where NOT to climb. Ridgelines are the preferred location because ridgeline routes increase the chances of not being hit by gravitationally-motivated objects.

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Re: St Helens: June Gully (most direct rim route on MSH?)

Post by Chip Down » October 3rd, 2021, 8:29 pm

BigBear wrote:
October 3rd, 2021, 1:37 pm
The rockfall thinks gullies are the most direct path, too. Avalanche chutes are another favorite place of where NOT to climb. Ridgelines are the preferred location because ridgeline routes increase the chances of not being hit by gravitationally-motivated objects.
Yep, yep. In my mountaineering days, I started with ridge routes, for safety and for the views. Eventually I learned to love chutes/gullies/couloirs. Finally came to my senses and stopped doing crazy stupid stuff. :D

Of course, the June gully described above is relatively safe, but caution is advised. In the above-the-falls portion (described in a separate TR) rockfall risk drove me out of the gully a couple times.

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