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Vancouver, B.C.
461 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2008 : 7:46 PM
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Lupin and I drove down to Mt. St. Helens on June 26th, picked up our climbing permits at the Lone Fir Resort in Cougar and then drove to the Cougar Campground. We woke up fairly late on Friday and hit the trailhead at the Marble Mountain Sno Park in the heat at around 8am. It took us six hours up and one hour down. We skinned to maybe the half way mark and then switched to walking with skis on pack as that proved to be faster. The skiing down was pretty fun, especially the top portions. We only had to take our skis off three or four times to avoid patches of dirt and rock, otherwise it was continuous skiing from the crater rim to the car.
Total distance was approx. 19km round trip with 5500 feet or so of elevation gain.
All one hundred permits had been sold when I booked online but I guess the snow turned some people off as we only saw maybe 40 other climbers/skiers/snowboarders on the mountain, most being part of a boy scouts group from the Tri Cities area.
The next day we drove to the Windy Ridge Observatory to view the volcano from the north. It was indeed windy as demonstrated by the last photos below. You can see the dust in the air.
All told it was a great trip and one I'm glad to have done on snow and not on the hot dry rocky summer route.
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Edited by - willis on 06/30/2008 5:08 PM
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north vancouver, british columbia
Canada
605 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2008 : 07:35 AM
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| Hey nice report how long is the drive to mount saint helens from vancouver.Would like to go ski it thanks! |
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Vancouver, B.C.
461 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2008 : 09:09 AM
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| It takes about 6 hours, 7 with stops for food etc. There is a faster way than the I5 via Forest Service Roads but due to flooding that is not an option this year. |
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 Grouse Grinding, GPS carrying, lawn chair packing, bike riding North Shore tech addict who stares at Crown Mountain from his office window all day
North Vancouver
Canada
1905 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2008 : 8:28 PM
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| Skiing from crater rim to car, gotta like that! Seems to be the proper way to do that mountain. |
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Surrey, BC
Canada
949 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2008 : 8:34 PM
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| Yeah, this is a pretty cool trip report. |
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 Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13466 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2008 : 8:46 PM
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Love your TR, and many thanks for posting nice shots of the mountain, terrain, and what looks like surviving swathes of forest. This area has always fascinated me since I heard the explosive boom in Vancouver back in 1980 when the volcanoe erupted. This will be on on my distant travel plans.
K |
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north vancouver, british columbia
Canada
605 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2008 : 12:14 PM
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| Thanks for the info willis!Later |
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Ladner, BC
Canada
1176 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2008 : 4:33 PM
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Here are some more pics from the trip. Somehow I managed to gain 5lbs ... could it be the bigger portions in the US? hehe
Yale Lake @Cougar campground. We didn't have reservations but we got in as it was midweek. Lot's of boaters come up there.
We took the worm flow route....Must have been some big worms! 
It's hard to tell but I skied on Mt.Hood and Helens at the same time....if I had really fat skis I could have added Adams.
If you've noticed...Willis has all the "waiting for Lupin" pictures. I have all the Willis butt shots...not by choice. His legs are longer.
  
World's youngest glacier. The new lava dome started forming in 2004 and stopped growing in February 2008. At one point the dome was growing at a rate of one dump truck per second!
  
I waited for the Zamboni to ski by.
  
I was waiting for him to go fakey 180 tail grab...
Instead, he did some old school Step Christy maneuver
We did a brief visit of the ApeCave, world's longest known lava tube. There's a $5 fee per vehicle. With a selfserve system. It's really eerie in there! Next time i'll bring lights and explore more.
We saw some bat's and I took a flash shot hoping I could find one hanging later. Zoom in and see if you can spot them. I counted 7.
     
ok I was kidding about finding 7 bats...they were around but I couldn't find any in my pictures.
Found the bottle rocket near the crater rim... perhaps someone was pretending. We saw lot's of "no-fireworks" signs.
    Before and after!
More fees but well worth it. The movie was good too.
      
Well worth bringing the skis. We wished we had them on Adams.
A nice easy drive and relatively close. I hope to visit Washington State more than the Rockies in the future.
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Edited by - Lupin on 07/05/2008 09:15 AM |
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Popkum, BC
Canada
5887 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2008 : 4:59 PM
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Really nice pic's there lupin , looks like a great time.
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bandana wearin', pole huckin', view lovin', dog herdin', 4x4 navigatin', lake huntin', butt-slidin' bridge crosser, who enjoys postholing with an overnighter pack
Surrey, BC
Canada
4649 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2008 : 7:06 PM
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LOL, great report ! First one I've read of skiing down Mt. St. Helen's -  |
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Maple syrup lovin', tree huggin', face paintin' relocated Québécoise who is VERY serious about having fun
Vancouver
Canada
2637 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2008 : 8:46 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Lupin
We saw some bat's and I took a flash shot hoping I could find one hanging later. Zoom in and see if you can spot them. I counted 7.
For once I was reading the report from beginning to end. And of course what do I do? Try to find the bats on the pictures. You got me! 
Wow, this sounds like a lot of fun... |
Edited by - SnowSeeker on 07/06/2008 8:49 PM |
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TR: Skiing Mt. St. Helens June 27
