An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

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Guy
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An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by Guy » April 1st, 2013, 4:10 pm

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Opening pic

Easter Sunday there was a convergence of good fortune, fantastic weather & the last "free day" of the Season for climbing Mt. St. Helens without having to deal with the awful online "pay in advance & hope it's doesn't rain" registration system.

We met up and car pooled from the Mall 205 McMenamins at 5:00am (thinking this would be a great place to end the day too!) & headed North stopping in Cougar & the Lone Pine resort at about 6:30 to pick up a permit at the self service station. Well we would have picked up a permit had there had there been any! Judging from the "No Permit" comments in the log book there hadn't been any for most of the weekend! At this point I had visions of a 7:00am start but that was before I took a wrong turn & went for a scenic drive along the banks of the Swift Reservoir before I realized I was going in the wrong direction. :x We finally pulled into the Marble Mountain Snow park at 7:20 with my hopes of 7:00am start dashed!

There were lots of folks still pulling in & getting ready for the climb up, most were skiers or boarders. We set off with our snow shoes strapped to our packs & made short work of the easy first 2 miles.

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The snow was pretty soft & slushy by this point so we had put our snow shoes on.

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Along for the day was our friend Ian on his first ever snow shoe! We had invited him on several other trips but he was never able to make it so we figured that now it was almost the end of snow shoeing season he would need to get the whole course in one lesson! And since the other beginners had handled it so well back in February we didn't think it would be a problem ;) ..

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The slow drudge to the top continued. We past lots of folks lugging their heavy snow boards to the top but we knew they would have the last laugh & be back at the trailhead long before us!

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At about the 6000' mark we were treated to this areal display as a guy set off from the summit on this!
Slowly meandering his way down the South side of the mountain.

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We continued our trudge to the top!

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I'd like to say we gave Ian extensive advise & snow shoe lessons, about left & right snow shoes, how not to walk in circles, how to avoid trees etc. but actually we just left him to his own devices :) ..

We certainly didn't break any speed records but we did all make it to the top on an absolutely fantastic day!

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The steaming dome!

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Easter Celebrations :)

We tried to do one our group jump shots on the summit but after the 5200' climb there wasn't a lot of spring left in our step :)

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Conditions were perfect on the summit but eventually we had to think about packing up & heading for home. Three of our group opted for a safe & sensible plunge step descent the other 3 of us opted for the butt freezing glissade option...

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We arrived back at Marble Mountain dog tired & slightly sun burnt, small prices to pay for a great day on the mountain!
Oh & we gave Ian a passing grade at snow shoeing ;) ...

Just a touch under 10 miles up & down with 5260' of EG.
A few more as yet unsorted photos of the day here.

Just a reminder for Oregon residents, the reciprocal snow park agreement with Washington is still in effect so if you need a day permit & drive a car with Oregon plates get your pass before you leave. $3.00 to $5.00 dollars in Oregon versus $20.00 in WA. :o
Last edited by Guy on April 1st, 2013, 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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jgreisel
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by jgreisel » April 1st, 2013, 4:32 pm

Amazing photos.
I love that the Easter Bunny left you guys some eggs :)

What were you sliding down on?
See more pics on my blog: http://cjsjaunts.blogspot.com/

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kepPNW
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by kepPNW » April 1st, 2013, 4:45 pm

Beautiful! And you guys got much closer to the rim than we did. Just had no idea what sort of cornice we might've been crawling out on there. Love the shots right into the crater. :)

What better place could there be, to learn how to snowshoe?
Karl
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Roy
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by Roy » April 1st, 2013, 5:50 pm

Nice trip thanks for tr and great photos funny I thought it was free till June when hundreds would swarm the mt on mothers day with a lot of males in dresses I skied it one time on that day refused to were a dress but wore pajamas it used to be funny up there on mothers day may be they put the kabosh to that tradition?

Nice the smiles tell your story.
The downhill of the mind is harder than the uphill of the body. - Yuichiro Miura

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Splintercat
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by Splintercat » April 1st, 2013, 6:50 pm

Beautiful, Guy! And it tells me that if I should ever attempt that myself, I'll need to do it on Easter... as I'm pretty sure I'd need divine intervention in rising from the dead, afterward... :lol:

Thanks for posting!

Tom :)

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cincodemayo
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by cincodemayo » April 1st, 2013, 8:08 pm

stunning! glad you decided to do your "crazy idea"!
there were a few incident at mt. hood. i am so glad to see you guys are enjoying spectacular nature but being safe.

i love the picture people were making lines and coming up behind you.

the flying guy was really enjoying the fabulous moments, wasn't he?

glad to see you guys got easter egg. it's even better because of chocolate ones!

i'm looking forward to joining you for your next crazy idea :D

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roadtripmom
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by roadtripmom » April 2nd, 2013, 8:06 am

Beautiful day for a summit ! Thank you for sharing. I was working and gazing longingly out the window at my favorite mountain. She is a beauty ! So glad there were many folks enjoying the weather :D
Filling my bucket, one hike at a time.
Amanda

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Guy
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by Guy » April 2nd, 2013, 6:13 pm

Thanks folks it was a great trip!

@ jgreisel, Regarding the glissade, one of us had a inflatable thermarest seat cushion the other 2 of us just sat down in the snow & got a very cold back side :) ...

Actually it cured my cramping legs, as I started to climb down both my legs started to cramp up quite badly. After the first cold glissade I had no more cramping problems & my trousers were dry by the time I got back to Marble Mountain.
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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Peder
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Re: An Easter Sunday Snow Shoe to the top of Mt. St. Helens.

Post by Peder » April 2nd, 2013, 8:07 pm

Great TR Guy! Thanks. :D
Some people are really fit at eighty; thankfully I still have many years to get into shape…

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