5/29/2021 Route: Superstar couloir Posted On: 5/30/2021, By: PeakSixTD Info: Snow conditions on superstar were fantastic, until you reach the cornice that is. From the bottom it looked like it may be blunted enough to surmount. That was not the case. I initially planned shooting star because of a prior CR. Shooting star looks worse! A massive cornice blocks gaining the summit from the crux. I also saw a large cornice break later in the day so climbing it even with pro is a bad call right now. Hopefully in a couple of weeks they will both be climbable. I did the full length of superstar and even traversed far right below the cliffs to a mixed line to try and summit that way. 10 feet from the ridge crest required me to traverse back onto snow. It was so slushy and wet with MAJOR exposure that I actually felt more comfortable down climbing the whole thing. I ended above where the cornice was on the other side but did not summit James. |
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5/28/2021 Route: Southeast slopes from Saint Mary's Glacier Posted On: 5/28/2021, By: mijoflynn Info: Conditions pretty similar to report from 5/22. Started at 6:00. Still some snow on the trail up to the glacier; the glacier itself was pretty churned up, but nice and firm in the morning. The first half of the meadow above the glacier is mostly tundra, with a crust of ice on the trail. The second half of the meadow to the summit is continuous snow. Microspikes and poles with powder baskets were enough to get there. Glissaded off the top -- my first time! (I don't usually get out to CO until later in the summer, after the snow's gone). Felt like a little kid at an amusement park -- "can I do it again!?!" The snow was dramatically softer by 9:30 on the way down. Postholing started on the lower slopes and continued back into the meadow, but it's only a couple of inches, so I didn't put on my snowshoes and just dealt with wet boots. The trail was mostly running water on the way back. |
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5/22/2021 Route: Shooting Star Couloir to unknown face and Mammoth Posted On: 5/24/2021, By: slawrence2011 Info: Started hiking up the Glacier around 4:30 AM. In order to access the couloirs from the Glacier approach, you have to do a long traverse right and lose some elevation. We hit this traverse around 6:30, and we were already sinking to ankles at times because it was E facing. We considered turning around as it was avy terrain, but proceeded as it was short, and the couloir itself would be better protected, NE. The apron was laborious as it was E facing, but managed to walk on wet slab debris to the base of the couloir (should that have told me something!). The couloir was much better snow, and I ascended easily with crampons and a single alpine axe. My partner used crampons and two axes. The top was extremely blowover windy, so turned around after 1 second at the summit, didn't even look at the full view. I took one turn in the couloir and sunk 6 inches in skis, so elected not to ski that way because I knew the Apron would be way worse. I took a similar aspect line a little ways down the ridge where I only sunk three inches. It never crossed my mind that I would have to hike back up to the "flats" to get back via the glacier, so I went out via Mammoth Gulch which heads to the Tollins road 5 miles west of Rollinsville. I did not intend to go this way, but was following a stream downstream and figured I would hit a road eventually. I didn't figure it would take 6 hours of bushwhacking, switching from skis to not every 5 minutes. All this to say, if you ski down a couloir, please make sure to climb back up and go out via the glacier, you will thank yourself later! I am not sure what other skiers do or if anyone else did this, as I saw tracks going down where I went, and didn't notice any tracks climbing up the 200 foot steep headwall. |
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5/22/2021 Route: St Mary's glacier Posted On: 5/22/2021, By: joemcglinchy Info: Started at roughly 645am, snow was patchy above the glacier but continuous after crossing the meadow. Snow was getting soft around 9am, and being on snowshoes, was punchy. Definitely envious of the skiers today! Looked great out there. Pretty solid coverage the entire way up to the summit. It was getting throughly mushy on the way down. Saw at least 1 person topping out of north star couloir (I think?), looked rad. |
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5/22/2021 Route: Shooting Star Posted On: 5/27/2021, By: Jonathan Deffenbaugh Info: Shooting Star is in. Great kickstepping conditions once passed the apron. The traverse over to the apron though had some postholing but was able to push through to where the descent into the basin had more consolidated snow conditions. Recommend two ice tools, for comfort level, angle was probably around 55 to 60 degrees starting from where the Shooting Star branches off. Had to bring snowshoes for the descent, but overall descending the standard route was in good condition for snow travel despite hitting some weather on the way down. |
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5/8/2021 Route: St Mary’s Glacier Posted On: 5/10/2021, By: HPIvelocity97 Info: Arrived in upper parking lot around 6am, only about 5-10 cars between both lots. Skinned starting about 300yds from trailhead. From there until summit, only had to remove skis by lake/bridge until base of glacier. Decent freeze the night prior, but skins had no issues keeping traction. Decent coverage overall but with some patchy and rapidly thinning spots in the flats above the glacier. Received my free “base grind” crossing these few bald spots (2-3' long). Low cloud ceiling and consistent headwinds really slowed progress. This was also our first trial run on some used AT setups we both purchased this season. Summit around 1030ish. Great views of fog in every direction. Cloud ceiling finally lifted somewhat for a glorious decent in great corn to bottom of glacier. Parking lot was full on arrival (people actively waiting for others to leave). |
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5/2/2021 Route: Ridge Posted On: 5/4/2021, By: jbealer Info: We got a 4am start on Sun in hopes of getting one of the star couliors, by the time we made it to the turn off to drop into the basin we were not feeling great about the snow freezing the night before, we had be postholing on the way up to that point (wore crampons, no Snowshoes), the idea of crossing that snow section and having to cross it again later if the coulior in fact was not great was not worth our chances. There also appeared to be cornices at the top of them. we headed up the ridge from that point, we has sections of snow and rock crossings. If you stuck to more of the summer path you would have snow the whole way. Skiers came up behind us as we were leaving the summit. we were then engulfed by a white out and used GPS to get us back down as we could not see anything a head of us. the trail from the parking lot to the base of the glacier was a mix of soft snow and dirt trail to the sides. |
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4/18/2021 Route: From St Mary's glacier Posted On: 4/18/2021, By: cougar Info: Lots of powder up there per previous report. Despite the people up there, there isn't really a solid trench from the flats to the summit, more like a bunch of sloppy parallel snowshoe tracks chewing up a wide swath, like there was a race. Flotation highly recommended. Powder was consistent throughout the day. Some wet slides around and on st Mary's today. |
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4/18/2021 Route: From St. Mary's Glacier Posted On: 4/18/2021, By: weakenedwarrior Info: Continuous snow from trailhead to summit. Bluebird day to the flats but the summit was caught in clouds / whiteout conditions by the time I got there. Continuous ski descent from summit back to the car, although the flats weren't fun. Dropped around 11 am, snow was great to the flats, a bit sticky from the flats back to the base of the glacier. Some sharks near the very top. |
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4/11/2021 Route: St. Mary's Glacier Posted On: 4/12/2021, By: mvandergrift Info: Morning snow is still very hard and easy to traverse. Around noon it starts to soften and quickly becomes messy at lower elevations. We did not need snowshoes regardless, but would have preferred to start earlier than 9am. Even still, quick and enjoyable trip. Lots of social trails. Hard to follow summer trench after the glacier. We constantly found ourselves to the NE of the trail until we reconnected around 12,600'. Much easier on the way down when we followed the GPS and stayed west (more rock allowed us to avoid the warming snow). Only a couple of other people on the mountain enjoying the perfect weather. |
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4/10/2021 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 4/11/2021, By: amderr22 Info: The freeze-thaw cycle left the snow hard as ice in the morning - crampons and ice axe recommended if you plan on taking steeper slopes. Microspikes and poles would be fine if you stick to the formal summer trail. Everything was turning to slush by 2pm or so - start early. No need for snowshoes. |
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4/6/2021 Route: Via St. Mary's Glacier Posted On: 4/6/2021, By: Ericsheffey Info: Nearly continuous snow from trailhead to summit. Flat middle section is starting to get dry but you can find a line if you try hard enough. Everything was a sheet of ice early in the day. Traction needed. We had a nearly continuous ski/snowboard descent from peak back to TH (although my skiier counterpart had a much easier time than I did on a snowboard lol). Above 12k' skiied super icy, mid section a little softer with bits of ice here and there, glacier was straight up corn. Overall a great day. Conditions are changing rapidly though. |
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3/20/2021 Route: South east slope from St marys Posted On: 3/20/2021, By: VeraUndertow Info: Great day on James, super clear day and was able to skin up to the summit no problem. Chilled on the summit with two other skiers for about 15 minutes since it was clear and not to windy before I skiied down. Was able to get some great turns on chalky snow on the summit pitch and work my way across the sastrugi to the lower bowl for some more great chalky turns down to the flats. I was able to carefully route find across the flat areas without hitting any sharks but it might be easier to walk of you really care about the base of your skis. From the top of the glacier gulley the snow was nice and solid, mostly sastrugi up top but some chalk and corn turns down to the lake. A super nice day and hopefully will be even nicer with some of the fresh snow coming this week. Overall about 4 hours and 7.5 miles round trip. |
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12/5/2020 Route: Via St. Mary's Glacier Posted On: 12/5/2020, By: MidsizeAl Info: Beautiful day. We lucked out and had almost no wind (except for about 30 minutes near 12,500'). Trail to St. Mary's Lake was predictably packed down. Glacier itself was packed toward the North side, and wind crusted in spots. Above the glacier in the area between Kingston and James, there were some boot packed areas, but post-holing still occurred in places. Between ~11,800' and the summit, the snow is not very well packed. There are wind scoured spots, but we frequently encountered areas with at least 2' of snow. We wore snowshoes briefly, but took them off around this point on the ascent (probably a mistake, but we were too lazy to put them back on). Flotation certainly not necessary, but it is helpful right now. |
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11/16/2020 Route: From Saint Mary's Glacier Posted On: 11/17/2020, By: Clint the climber Info: I was able to skin all the way from the parking lot to within about a 1/4 mile of the summit. Rock hoped from the end of the snow to the summit. A pretty mellow day with some wind. |