Sunday, May 18, 2008

Epic Mt St Helens Adventure


This climb has been planned and organized since February by an
experienced Oregon local mountaineer (leader). However, the situation
this year is not clear from the very beginning due to the snow
condition and bad weathers. Originally we had 8 in the group. Due to
excessive snow this season, the National Forest Service has not been
able to keep the road to Marble Mountain Snow Park open. This would add
another 10 miles (round trip) to the climb. Now, one day hike became
a 2-day climb. Three people in the group dropped due to this reason.
The weather forecast has been very nasty for May 3rd and 4th weekend.
We were not optimistic at all and detail backup plans have been made
in case of the bad weather.

By Thursday night, the forecast is getting better with slight chance
of flurries on Saturday and sunny on Sunday. Low in upper 20's
Saturday night and high in lower 50's Sunday. So the plan is on. We
are now a little concerned about avalanches.

I flew from SLC to Portland Friday afternoon and luckily Southwest
left my luggage behind (all my climbing gears are in that checked-in
bag). When the time was after 7:00pm and I became desperate and had
to decide whether to rent all the gears, I got the phone call from
Southwest that my bag is ready to be picked up at airport.

Saturday morning, the climbing leader and I left home at 6:00AM.
Around 7:00AM, we met the other half of the climbing party from
Seattle at a McDonalds. After a brief breakfast, we arrived at the
trailhead (elevation 2100ft) around 9:30AM after picking up climbing
permits. To our surprise, the road was ploughed another 2 miles
further than the situation last weekend which was checked by our
climbing leader (which means 4 miles less with 30lb + pack). We
regrouped the gears and packs and hit the trailhead on snowshoes
around 10:00AM. The skies are covered with a thick layer of
clouds.(figure 01) We arrived at Marble Mountain Sno Park (2700ft)
where the usual winter climbing route begins at around 12:00AM and had
a brief lunch in the shelter (figure 02). We hit the trail again in 20
minutes and followed the winter climbing Worm Flows route.

Around 2:30PM, we arrived almost at the top of the timberline and
picked a spot for our camp. The elevation now is around 3500ft. The
clouds begin to clear up now, but the top of the mountain can still
not be seen. After setting up the tents and digging our kitchen
(figure 03), we walked up a slope next to our camp and the leader and
other two experienced mountaineer started to taught two newbie (for
sure including me) some basic snow travel skills and self arrest.



With the clouds clearing up, avalanches become our primary concern.
Looking at the topo map, there are a few spots where the slope is
within the avy angle (30-45 degrees). We must pass these spots when
the snow is still stable and try to stay on the ridge and close to the
rocks. We decided to get up around 4:30AM and take off before 5:30AM.
In reality, we took off around 6:00AM and traveled on snowshoes for a
little and found the snow is too hard to benefit. Then we took them
off. The view is breath taking (figure 04). Another group apparently
had already taken off before us and left perfect steps for us. That
saved us a lot of energy in our following climbing. We ascended to
about 6000 feet and decided to put on crampons. It wasn't that
necessary to have crampons at that point but it wouldn't make it more
difficult anyway. We were at a steady pace of 1000 vertical feet per
hour (figure 05). The sun is rising quickly heating up the snow.
Fortunately, there is a big cloud hovering above the summit. Mt Adams
can be partially seen. Mt Hood was hardly visible all the time. We met
that climbing group about 400 feet under the summit and thanked them
for kicking steps for us.

Around 11:10AM, we come close to the crater rim. We can not go too far
on the rim due to the cornices. The clouds are now all gone on the
north side. We had a clear view of Mt Rainier. We could also see
smoke coming out of the crater dome, which is at least one thousand
feet down from where we were standing.(figure 06).

Glissading is fun and save quite a lot energy going downhill. By
2:50PM, we are back at camp site and 7:30PM returned to trailhead.
Now the 30lb pack is kind of too heavy for me and can not keep up with
the group speed. Anyway, I survived. Hooray!!!

All in all, it is a wonderful experience for me: My first backpacking
trip, first snow camping and first snow climbing trip in one. From my
heart, I owe many thanks to our team leader and other team members for
their guidance, encouragement and help.



Post submitted by ONB Adventure Guy- Yi

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