Mt St Helens - Monitor Ridge

 Nobody knows what to do in October. There isn’t enough snow falling to form a base, but it’s often too wet to go climbing. The biking can be good, but too often it is cold and wet. With the ski season stoke upon us, we chose to check out Mt St. Helens. This time of the year we wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of getting a permit, and hopefully there’d be at least some ski-able snow. We drove out on a Saturday evening and arrived at the trailhead around Dark. Keenan was using his moms Hyundai, which soon became problematic. While trying to sleep in it, alarms would go off once all the doors were closed. We couldn’t figure it out and eventually ended up propping a door open for the cold night. For those facing the same issue, google “rear occupant alert Hyundai”.

After a cozy night, we were heading out at 03:00 on Sunday. We skinned but in retrospect, should’ve walked due to the low snow coverage. We made it out of the trees and into the permit zone at 05:00 and worked our way up. Sadly for us there was a massive wind-crust. Even with ski crampons, it was extremely difficult to make upward progress. To slow us down even more, there were tons of exposed rocks to navigate around. We spent tons of time traversing towards skinnable slopes. In retrospect, we should have just booted up the whole Monitor Ridge.

Sharkies

Sloggin

We reached the summit crater at 10:30 and walked over to the true summit, reaching it at 11:00. 

With no clouds in the sky, it was a beautiful day. Looking into the crater was surreal, realizing that only half a century ago, this mountain was completely different. We walked back over to our boards and talked to some mountaineers, who asked if we were redbull or something. No, we were just two inexperienced, overstoked backcountry skiers with not much better to do for the weekend. While putting my binding on, I realized my rear didn’t fit. I didn’t have the screw for it and ended up ski-strapping my boot to the board. It was terrible but I had no alternative. We worked our way down the 1000’ of decent skiing before reaching shark infested territory. From here, I chose to give up snowboarding and bootpacking down. It was pretty demoralizing. Keenan kept skiing for 1000’ more before giving up from sharks.

Adams and Crater

Summit!

Summit selfie

We reached the car at 16:00, where we finally laid down our packs and started the drive home. While the skiing wasn’t amazing and the climb was terrible, I’m still glad we got it done. I probably wasn’t gonna do anything better with my weekend, and skiing is still skiing. I hope to pursue more October turns in the future. 

Mount Adams - Southwest Chutes

 Everyone has a first climb, for me that was Mount Adams. 2023 was when I decided I wanted to do more splitboarding. I recruited Keenan and we did a few afterschool touring laps, along with some mellow tours in the Snoqualmie backcountry and up to Camp Muir. As the snow started to melt and spring arrived, I decided skiing the SW chutes of Mt Adams would be a great objective for Keenan and I. Since we didn’t have the overnight gear or experience, we would have to do it in a day. On the last weekend of May, a solid weather window came where we were free. On Saturday, we threw our gear in the car and started the long drive.

Mount Adams is nestled away in Southern Washington along the Cascade Crest. The drive is 6 hours, requiring one to pass through Portland . We got the car 2 miles from cold springs TH where a mound of snow signified our camp for the night. After scarfing down dinner, we sorted out the gear and made the best of the uneven trunk. We figured we could keep that same 1000’/hour pace and planned to leave at 03:00, summit around 10:00, and be back at the car in the early afternoon. Alarms were set and we settled into the back of the CRV.

Novice Car Campers

3am came quickly and we were soon walking. A full moon illuminated the mountain, towering above as we slogged up the road towards it. We reached skinnable snow within an hour and stashed our boots. Two naive young ski mountaineers(and I won't deny I'm still naive) on their first big objective. We reached a steep portion on route and threw on our ski crampons. Working our way up, Keenan split from the route and had to front point steep snow. I’d been reading too much Freedom of the Hills and yelled at him to use French technique since I thought it was safer. Quickly, we leveled out and could see the lunch counter and the climb up to Pikers Peak ahead.

Keenan skinning towards lunch counter with Mount Hood Staring out from behind

Once we got to the base of the Pikers Peak headwall, the true slog began. Thousands of feet of bootpack. We threw on crampons, pulled out ice-axes, and started up. Being a perfect spring weekend, we were joined by the masses. We were the masses and it was quite demoralizing to be the slowest ones on the mountain. We had considered ourselves fit before, but mountain athletes have a different level of sustained cardio. 

A humbled keenan. Shit is tough.

Once we reached Pikers, there was a nice crowd waiting for the chutes to corn up. Keenan took a break while I darted towards the summit. He called towards me on my way down, but I didn’t hear. I got back to Pikers and took a break, watching as parties started making their way down. I radioed to Keenan but to no response. I got worried and kept radioing, but never received a response. Finally Keenan poked out, and I skied over at him, annoyed he hadn't responded. It wasn’t his fault however, as the preset channels had somehow switched on one of our units.

Standing on the Summit, my first volcano

From here, we started down thousands of feet of corn. The 35 degree slab of snow that seemed to extend forever. There were a few bumpy sections and random bits of harder snow but for the most part, it was extremely consistent. As we quickly lost altitude, we took breaks to de-layer. The conditions were primo, and we only dealt with slush for the last 500’.

Skiing down the Chutes, a placeholder from a video

Once we arrived at the bottom we had a long way out. I blasted through a field of sun cupped rocks, and we started the traverse t. By now it was about 14:30. We were a good deal behind schedule but still with lots of time to go till dark. We joined another group of skiers on the traverse, suffering through sticky skins and scorching heat. Neither me nor keenan had sunscreen, and we’d feel the effects after.

Another Party following the traverse with Helens looming in the background

Our Path to Pizza

At 17:00, we emerged from our cars victorious. We dashed down the crappy forest road and arrived at trout lake for a solid Pizza. It was our first true climb and while we were delirious, we were also destroyed from a 14 hour day. We enjoyed the cheesy taste of victory and slumped onto the tables. Another group that had sumitted sat nearby, tired but with energy. At the time, I couldn’t comprehend how you could do that and still have energy for laughs and drinks. We arrived home around midnight sunday. As I suffered through the first hours of monday morning at school, I couldn’t help but be grateful for the weekend well spent, and an incredible first mountaineering experience.