Helens rim from June Lake via Shoestring

[Chip Down]

I've wondered if the deep Shoestring Glacier notch in the crater rim might afford a relatively quick easy crater view. Plan was to hike from June Lake to the Ape Canyon junction to size up approach options, and just to enjoy the scenery. Maybe did that hike once long ago, not sure. It was tempting to leave the trail when I reached the Worm Flows, but the trail was going up and in my intended direction, so patiently stuck with it.

At Shoestring Canyon, I was enticed by easy scenic ridges and a broad grassy slope leading towards overlooks to falls further up in Shoestring canyon, and the far side across the canyon didn't look nearly as fun, so without exploring towards the Ape junction, up I went. I had many options to consider, but stayed close to the edge of the canyon, figuring eventually I'd drop in. I could see travel would be easy in the canyon above the falls, but if I dropped into the canyon below the falls, getting above the falls might be slightly tricky. So, although it was risky, I decided to keep climbing up on the edge of the canyon, hoping for an easier place to drop in. That never happened. I weighed my options: suffer a great deal of elevation loss dropping to Shoestring Glacier above the falls, where I'd face a boring ugly trudge through avalanche debris and rockfall and possible crevasses, or change my goal to a high point on the rim straight ahead. I knew there was a possibility of a little crumbly headwall at the top of Shoestring, and I couldn't bear the possibility that I'd hit a dead end and then have to back down and climb out of the canyon again. So I climbed on, staying low off of easy ridgecrests, maintaining views to my right into the canyon. It got steep and exposed, and snow conditions got tricky (sometimes thin, and I wondered how stable the underlying rocks were). However, routefinding got easier, and only the final approach to the rim forced me to develop a plan.

At the top, I was surprised at how jumbled and twisty the crater rim is at this point, not remotely resembling an arc. I had hoped to get a view down to the Shoestring notch, but nope, way too rugged in that direction, and I soon abandoned that plan. Explored a bit, carefully, staying back from overhanging sections that appeared poised to plunge into the crater.

On the way down, stayed far from my Shoestring ascent, plunging through deep snow in basins (Swift Glacier?), visiting a monitoring station (not on Monitor Ridge, but close), and looking for interesting scenery. Although the terrain was slightly confusing, I never really had to worry about getting hopelessly lost. There were a few spots where I had to really think about what my strategy should be, but with Worm Flows (to the right) and the obvious Shoestring Canyon (to the left) as landmarks, and with the huge grassy slope between them, I always had a pretty good idea what direction to head.

At the bottom of the grassy slope, where it plunged steeply down to parkland where the trail should be, I was unable to spot the trail. That made me a little nervous, but I knew it had to be down there, so I picked a direction almost at random and continued down. Soon realized why I wasn't able to see the trail from my overlook: It was higher than I imagined, too close to be seen (on the steepish slopes just below me, not on the flatlands far below). It came as a surprise/relief when I encountered the trail sooner than expected. It took only a couple hours to descend from rim to trail, and that included some side trips and a couple snack breaks.

This hike reinforced three things I learned a few months ago on my Ape Glacier ascent:
- This is a beautiful fascinating mountain, not at all the dry boring rubble heap I expected.
- Climbing to the crater rim on a non-monitor route is tough. With no guidebook or trip reports to work from, just finding your own way, it's harder than the elevation gain would lead you to believe. Especially when sunrise and sunset are only ten hours apart.
- There be goats up there! Saw over a dozen goats, in three encounters: large group far away towards Ape, second group in same direction but closer, and a solo goat on my descent route. Previously, had only seen one, on my Ape Glacier day. I'd heard of goats returning, so I wasn't shocked, but I didn't expect to see so many.

Weather: Very warm for late October, at the high end of comfort. Windy at rim and a few other spots, but mostly dead calm. No clouds to speak of.

Other parties: tent at June Lake, but no people seen all day.

edit: Forgot to mention, my first pic below (overview of route) was taken July 15 from Ape Canyon trail.

[Chip Down]

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[kepPNW]

Nice!!! What day?

I think the ridge IDs on the route diagram are off a bit. Here are the two standard climbing routes from about the same perspective...

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  GPS tracks in Google Earth: Green=Worm Flows, Red=Monitor Ridge

And rotated a bit...

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  GPS tracks in Google Earth: Green=Worm Flows, Red=Monitor Ridge

Bet those funky 3-way things are to guide helicopters in? Last time I tripped along that segment of Loowit (9/25), they were buzzing me all day, apparently out maintaining the monitoring stations.

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  At junction of Ape Canyon and Loowit, 9/25/17.

[Chip Down]

Nice!!! What day?

Oct 28

I think the ridge IDs on the route diagram are off a bit.

Very charitable of you to call that "a bit". Yeah, from your perspective, which shows where my "monitor ridge" ends up down low, it's obviously not even close. I guess that explains why Monitor Ridge wasn't crowded. And it means there's some fun terrain to explore between the route I completed and the popular routes. My to-do list just grew.

Bet those funky 3-way things are to guide helicopters in?

Presumably. Of course, they're only visible after snow has melted out. And it sure looks like a violent wind could take them away. I wonder about the first one I found, below the trail, not associated with any instruments.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Don Nelsen]

Nice report and pictures - I'm a bit envious you had an opportunity to do this hike as it's been on my radar for awhile. My plan was to start at the end of the 99 road and climb up to the Dog's Head and come back via the old glacier notch. That plan changed when Dog's Head went sliding into the abyss and the new plan was to do the new HP not too far to the NE of the Shoestring Glacier notch. You got pretty close and about the closest I've seen any reports on.


Speaking of odd objects found in the wild, what do you think about this? Kelly Wagner found this on the north edge of Kirk Rock and he and I went back later to examine it more closely. There are bits of rusted wire still attached and holes that indicate it was once a steep pyramid when put together. It was bent and smashed when found but we bent it back into shape, more or less: (We put the rocks on it so the winter winds wouldn't blow it off the mountain - it's aluminum, hand peened, maybe 1/16" thick or so


dn

[kepPNW]

Nice!!! What day?

Oct 28

Oh sweet! I was wandering between JRO and Tomroy that day. As good as conditions get!
(Was on the rim 10/30, which was pretty damn nice, as well.)

I think the ridge IDs on the route diagram are off a bit.

Very charitable of you to call that "a bit". Yeah, from your perspective, which shows where my "monitor ridge" ends up down low, it's obviously not even close. I guess that explains why Monitor Ridge wasn't crowded. And it means there's some fun terrain to explore between the route I completed and the popular routes. My to-do list just grew.

I've seen folks going up that mis-ID'd ridge before, while I was on the Worm Flows route.
Definitely one to take a run at, but possibly not as solitudinous as where you were.