Snow in the PNW 20-21: We may have Corona but Corona doesn't have us!

[ptavv]

It's public land. You don't have any more right to be there than anyone else.

I think it's awesome to have more people out there having fun in the outdoors and the long term result of it will be more protection and more access whether due to more activism or simply more funding (more cars at trailheads = more forest pass $).

There's not a finite amount of stoke in the world, the best thing about it is that it costs nothing to share some. Don't like people? Go further.

If you can't find areas where you can literally be alone, or feel alone, then it's you that's the problem.

[jacob_dbu]

What club?

Anyway, there’s no mall anywhere near me.
I thought I was stating my point clearly, that I don’t really mind it that much that it’s getting more crowded and I agree this is the new normal. (Although it is kind of funny how every year it gets more crowded and that becomes the new normal.)
This year it’s taken a big leap, and that’s kinda my point.

Have you been to Rattlesnake Ledge? We're still lucky that it's 15 cars instead of 5 and not 300 cars. Also, I guess I'm one of those intruders you talk about.

[mr. hankey]

some pics from my PNW volcano tour so far. Given the low tide in CA this year, us Californians gotta head north to get the goods. So far, the PNW has delivered!

Mt. Adams from Wed 5/12:
Access/coverage: you can drive to ~4600ft (upper Gotchen Creek TH on map). Mostly dirt walking from there to Morrison Creek CG, with some patches of snow still blocking access to cars. Should be able to drive to Morrison Creek CG sometime in the next 3-7 days I’d guess. But above that it will take a while, with mostly snow on the road (still some on/off, but mostly ski/skinnable). 4-5ft at coldsprings campground, and coverage is pretty good above that.
South climb route had smooth snow below ~9 or 10k, above that there is some texture in some places, from slight to terrible, especially from 10.5-11.5. We had clouds/wind come in, and gave up waiting for it to clear/sun come out ~1pm and assumed the SW chutes wouldn’t soften, but a party that skied it said it was edge-able chalky snow at the top.


St. Helens from Thu 5/13:
For folks doing St. Helens this weekend - conditions are fantastic! As of yesterday(Thur 5/13), could ski to ~1mile from the trailhead. Really good corn at ~10am: SE aspect from 8.2k to 7 was perfect smooth corn. But had to quickly transition to slight westerly aspects below 7k or so (S or E softened really quickly). Below 5k in the open it was really mushy even at 10:20am, but the ski out on the trail was great. Steep Easterly aspects(rollovers) had punchy snow, even on the way up at 8am, and there was a skier triggered wet slide on S aspects that looked to be 1-3 days old, so earlier the better. If you take a hard left when you get to the face and skin up to the true summit vs. the popular route, it’s easier skinning(w/ski crampons), no crowds, and almost no tracks. Regular side had many tracks and resulting textured snow.

side note: not sure why TGR rotates my pics. It's such a great resource for beta, so i feel like i gotta contribute, but man it's more work posting here than other places. If i wasn't sitting in Bend drinking a beer with the sun on my back and relaxing with nothing to do, i would have given up. But still too lazy to fix/rotate the pics

Adams:









St. Helens:

[jorion]

Awesome, thanks!

Assuming you’re going to hit one of the sisters next?

-another Californian planning to invade your volcanoes soon.

[jorion]

Oh, and the rotating is because iPhones take pictures upside down sometimes and just have a metadata tag determining the orientation, but that metadata isn’t compatible with TRG. Easiest workaround is to export a .png from the original file on a laptop.

[river59]

Glad you got a couple of em Hankey. The summit to the SW chutes entrance is almost always windfucked garbage.

Pic rotation always happens to me too. To fix it, I slightly crop the photos on my phone and then the uploader seems to register the proper orientation. Thanks for taking the time to post up.

[mr. hankey]

Oh, and the rotating is because iPhones take pictures upside down sometimes and just have a metadata tag determining the orientation, but that metadata isn’t compatible with TRG. Easiest workaround is to export a .png from the original file on a laptop.

Yeah, I haven't done the .png thing, but I typically do the cropping thing that river59 suggests and that "usually" works. And posting on FB, to make sure pano's stay as a picture and not a 360 rotating thingy, I remove the file attributes of camera maker/camera model and still i sometimes have to slightly crop as well (that overwrites the "program" field. just a pain tho...

The plan is to do S sister tomorrow and then maybe southern Oregon after that. Road looks clear down to the trailhead. I'm not 100% sure of that, but I roller bladed 1-1.5 miles down and it was all plowed (bike hitch is only on the wife's car ) . BTW, https://bendoregonbikerentals.com/ which the physical store is https://www.facebook.com/MWSSPORTS/ rents e-bikes for $40 for 24hrs. Guy is super cool.

Hey Jorion, btw, I thought about reaching out to you since I knew you guys were heading up, but it was a total last minute call to go that almost didn't happen. Got lucky with the perfect work/family/weather window. So glad I came up here.

Thanks to everyone here for the great beta and pics. came in handy for this trip

[Norseman]

[SirVicSmasher]

Blue ribbon quality photos

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[Norseman]

,

[altasnob]

I was wondering where that Oly photo was taken. Looks super close.

[Huskier]

It's public land. You don't have any more right to be there than anyone else.
.

Word.

The gripe is as old as time. Now, doing your homework and making plans for a particular zone only to be turned away because parking full even off peak days, that would definitely detract from one's experience. At the same time, It's unreasonable not to acknowledge that population growth and outdoor use growth have nothing close to a linear relationship and that popularity even just amongst Washingtonians is growing at a brisk pace.

If your low hanging fruit has been had, reach higher? It's the new reality, man. I don't like it either.

I think being secretive about one's exploits is a very, very valid response to the situation.

A) "Where'd you go this weekend?"
B) "Out there, man"

[riff]

Excellent stoke everyone! What an amazing spring we’re having.
Wanted to say that I agree with plugboots closing thoughts on his post; keeping location details to a minimum in public content.


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[plugboots]

Part of the issue here is there is no parking area, and I know since I’ve talked to a few of the WSDOT people, that they are not really into this. Their only concern is safety, and clearing out avalanches.
Anyway, try to carpool, and maybe don’t 2-car the popular tour.

[yeahman]

Love that shot.

[Bronco]

Silver Star is still skiing well. Little bit of shenanigans through the flats but skiable down to 4100’. Maybe 25 skiers and 8 hikers yesterday.

[Power_Sauce]

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[abraham]

Skied with Norse, then went on a planned overnight but bailed on the camping after straining something in my leg. Norseman



Vulgar display of (tectonic) power





got buzzed by some gliders on the way up



The others camped out, solo skiing was an interesting mindset

[Buster Highmen]

++++ (except for the leg strain)

[Norseman]

mega glide cracks on the handsome slabs of West peak:





couloir city on Crystal peak:





Victoria, a hazy memory:

[gnarbro365]

Get it while the gettins good

[plugboots]

37* and raining at road level @ 7:00 PM. Did not look snowy on the peaks. I guess the telemetry coulda told you this, now that it’s fixed.


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[jacob_dbu]

Get it while the gettins good

Looks…sticky

[kamtron]

Holy shit, the West peak of Mt Anderson has an epic NW face!!!
Let's go, Norse?!

[kamtron]

We'll just bump over....