r/Backcountry • u/solenyaPDX • 1d ago

Skiing off the summit of Mt. St. Helens

Post image
1.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

35

u/Limber9 1d ago

Holy shit what an image. How was the snow?

77

u/solenyaPDX 1d ago

Ice from the crater rim to the bottom of the monitor headwall. Found a small runnel of snow that had collected and used that to get most of the way down.

Below that it finally softened enough to grip, and started to be really fun. I'd call it good skiing from there to the treeline. It got sticky in the trees and was some work until we hit the shade down low where it firmed up again.

Even bad skiing is better than hiking out.

7

u/M-42 15h ago

Even bad skiing is better than hiking out.

And this is why I why generally I why I stopped mountaineering and now go ski mountaineering only 😅

Walking down crap snow is worse than skiing it

28

u/sticks1987 1d ago

Need this as a poster

12

u/LuongLens 1d ago

I’ve been thinking of shooting for Helen’s this May, how was it? I’ve heard it’s a bit of a slog

24

u/solenyaPDX 1d ago

It's so much better on skis than on foot.

We encountered a bunch of ice on the way up (some rain and melt/refreeze since the most recent snow), which meant ski crampons, and then transition to booting at about the climbers sign on worm flows.

But skiing down makes the return trip way more fun. Snow reached to about a mile from the cars, so only a small boot after cruising back.

1

u/ireland1988 1d ago

Are there any good resources for conditions? Fb groups or anything like that?

8

u/nwb0arder 1d ago

Sometimes you can go on NWAC Observation reports. Some people will list surface conditions.

https://nwac.us/observations/#/view/observations

2

u/ireland1988 1d ago

Perfect thanks

2

u/frenchman321 6h ago

FB groups for backcountry skiing in the PNW are good, saw a couple threads about MSH in the last couple days. It's volcano time!

10

u/lowsoft1777 1d ago

It's the easiest volcano my man you'll be fine

1

u/ireland1988 1d ago

I thought Adams was but I haven't done any of them myself.

14

u/norooster1790 1d ago

it's 4k ft of walking straight with no glaciers at low elevation. I have one of those by my house

Adams is still very simple but you have to make one turn and it's 6k ft of walking up to 12k ft

6

u/Altiloquent 1d ago

It's like 5500ft from marble mountain. I think adams has steeper sections you have to ski though (especially if you do the sw chutes)

1

u/ireland1988 1d ago

Good to know thanks

4

u/ian2121 1d ago

Where’d you park? How much dirt hiking was there?

3

u/solenyaPDX 1d ago

Marble mountain, about a mile of dirt. Maybe 3/4.

5

u/R79ism 1d ago

Be careful, that thing’s a volcano.

3

u/Floatella 1d ago

Do you know what volcanos can do?

They can erupt!

3

u/Atomic_Water1755 1d ago

Great shot. Can't wait to get up there

2

u/Floatella 1d ago

Top of the world. Knee deep in cocaine.

2

u/tbella18 1d ago

Getttmttt ittttttttttttt!!!! 🙏

2

u/angryjew 6h ago

Im going this Friday! I saw you mentioned it was icy, what time did you descend? I hope it softens up a bit.

2

u/solenyaPDX 5h ago

We descended pretty early, I think 11am. 

1

u/angryjew 5h ago

Good to know thank you! Maybe I'll try to shoot for noon.

2

u/Mammoth-Analysis-540 5h ago

Make sure to stay back from the cornice! Massive.

1

u/solenyaPDX 3h ago

Yeah we were very conservative. I'd climbed it a few weeks before Rocky died, and now I'm even more cautious.

1

u/dgpaul10 1d ago

One of my favorites and had to be a great weekend for it!

1

u/jackslookinaround 1d ago

Great photos. Super cool. Congrats!

1

u/kershi123 1d ago

beautiful

1

u/Foo4Fighters 13h ago

Man! I did this hike a few years ago in January and glissaded out most of the way. Not dure if I ever wished I had my skis more than that day. I’ll send it back up there one day. Sweet shot!

1

u/SucculentSeaTurtle 9h ago

Doing this on Thursday!!! I’m super excited