St Helens: west crater rim
Posted: July 8th, 2018, 9:03 pm
I've been poking around the S/W parts of MSH the last couple trips. No axe or crampons. Fighting the urge to go higher. I wanted to get to know the mountain before my first attempt at the west rim, partly for safety, and partly to pick a good satisfying route. I'm not generally so circumspect. I've always been the type to shoot for the highest point I can attain, often to my detriment (I've never summitted Jeff, and my attempts, while exciting and fun, have been reckless and frustrating). I determined there are really only two sensible approaches:
Option A: Back to the top of Crescent Ridge via Sheep Canyon, then pick a route to the top and explore a bit. Mostly known terrain. More solitude. If I fail (unlikely), it will be a bit of a wasted day.
Option B: Red Rock pass up to the Butte Camp/Loowit junction, then stay left of the Butte Camp climbing route (what a stupid name), picking the best route through the labyrinth of snowfields. In sight of the Monitor Ridge route, at least higher up. Less solitude. If clouds roll in, descent routefinding could get a little tricky. If I fail (unlikely), will probably be a more rewarding day than a failure on the Crescent Ridge route.
Well, from the Butte Camp/Loowit junction, it was hard to tell where good snow lines were. I was just too close to the mountain to really assess my options. Okay, so plan C: go far clockwise from the Butte Camp route, where I could see a looong slender snowfield (almost a couloir) leading virtually to the rim. Getting to the base of that line looked like it might be tricky, but it worked out fine. Main challenge was rockfall risk. I had to determine where rock was most likely to peel off the mountain, and what line to take up my route.
Snow on my ascent was fantastic. A little dirty, but very firm, without ever being icy. Consistent, every step was the same. I had a little toy axe (ultra light), but never even used it, because my crampons felt rock-solid reiable.
As my snowfield rolled over into a convex slope, I couldn't see down my route anymore, and the grade eased off. I got out of the gully, was in the sun, scenery improved, things were really looking promising. Then I noticed, down below, to my right as I was facing out (i.e. clockwise), Crescent Ridge! Wow. So happy I didn't go that way. I probably would have ended up in this same place, via a longer and less-interesting route. When I saw Crescent down there (which I knew topped out at 7k') I knew I had to be close to the rim. That surprised me. I hadn't been watching my altitude. When you look at my pics below, you'll wonder how I didn't know my snowfield would end at the rim, but I started in the dark, so I never had that full overview perspective on the mountain from a distance.
Oh, and speaking of my timing, it was perfect. I arrived at Loowit trail as it was just getting light enough to start evaluating route options. Stars were gone, but I could still see Portland twinkling far below.
I gained the rim at 9:30, which is the earliest I've ever done that. Poked around a bit, did some exploring, started down about 11:30ish, back at car around 6pm. So yeah, super slow descent. I did a loop, through unknown terrain, and that caused some problems. And below the snow zone it was hot, and I was unusually tired. Great glissading though, good snow condition, safe runouts, not too steep, easy to link snowfields together.
I have a couple more MSH trips left on the to-do list, but they're really just playing around and exploring. Today's trip pretty much wrapped up the serious goals.
Wildlife encounters: Twice in a row, no goat encounters! Saw a few, but very far away.
Around dawn I heard what almost sounded like a bear growl/roar, but with a little bit of elk bugle mixed in. Got closer, closer, very close. I never saw what it was. Very spooky.
More mundane: had to watch for toads on the trail. Too well camouflaged, I nearly stepped on a couple.
Skeeters were very light today. I can't imagine why. Conditions were perfect, they should have been out in force.
Option A: Back to the top of Crescent Ridge via Sheep Canyon, then pick a route to the top and explore a bit. Mostly known terrain. More solitude. If I fail (unlikely), it will be a bit of a wasted day.
Option B: Red Rock pass up to the Butte Camp/Loowit junction, then stay left of the Butte Camp climbing route (what a stupid name), picking the best route through the labyrinth of snowfields. In sight of the Monitor Ridge route, at least higher up. Less solitude. If clouds roll in, descent routefinding could get a little tricky. If I fail (unlikely), will probably be a more rewarding day than a failure on the Crescent Ridge route.
Well, from the Butte Camp/Loowit junction, it was hard to tell where good snow lines were. I was just too close to the mountain to really assess my options. Okay, so plan C: go far clockwise from the Butte Camp route, where I could see a looong slender snowfield (almost a couloir) leading virtually to the rim. Getting to the base of that line looked like it might be tricky, but it worked out fine. Main challenge was rockfall risk. I had to determine where rock was most likely to peel off the mountain, and what line to take up my route.
Snow on my ascent was fantastic. A little dirty, but very firm, without ever being icy. Consistent, every step was the same. I had a little toy axe (ultra light), but never even used it, because my crampons felt rock-solid reiable.
As my snowfield rolled over into a convex slope, I couldn't see down my route anymore, and the grade eased off. I got out of the gully, was in the sun, scenery improved, things were really looking promising. Then I noticed, down below, to my right as I was facing out (i.e. clockwise), Crescent Ridge! Wow. So happy I didn't go that way. I probably would have ended up in this same place, via a longer and less-interesting route. When I saw Crescent down there (which I knew topped out at 7k') I knew I had to be close to the rim. That surprised me. I hadn't been watching my altitude. When you look at my pics below, you'll wonder how I didn't know my snowfield would end at the rim, but I started in the dark, so I never had that full overview perspective on the mountain from a distance.
Oh, and speaking of my timing, it was perfect. I arrived at Loowit trail as it was just getting light enough to start evaluating route options. Stars were gone, but I could still see Portland twinkling far below.
I gained the rim at 9:30, which is the earliest I've ever done that. Poked around a bit, did some exploring, started down about 11:30ish, back at car around 6pm. So yeah, super slow descent. I did a loop, through unknown terrain, and that caused some problems. And below the snow zone it was hot, and I was unusually tired. Great glissading though, good snow condition, safe runouts, not too steep, easy to link snowfields together.
I have a couple more MSH trips left on the to-do list, but they're really just playing around and exploring. Today's trip pretty much wrapped up the serious goals.
Wildlife encounters: Twice in a row, no goat encounters! Saw a few, but very far away.
Around dawn I heard what almost sounded like a bear growl/roar, but with a little bit of elk bugle mixed in. Got closer, closer, very close. I never saw what it was. Very spooky.
More mundane: had to watch for toads on the trail. Too well camouflaged, I nearly stepped on a couple.
Skeeters were very light today. I can't imagine why. Conditions were perfect, they should have been out in force.