This trip has been planned for a long time by Cabbage. There had been some complications. Originally we had 8 in the group. However, due to excessive snow this season, the National Forest has not been able to keep the road to Marble Mountain Sno Park open. This would add another 10 miles to the climb, which now becomes a 2-day climb. Three people in the group dropped due to this reason. We are also having a cold spring in Pacific Northwest this year. It even snowed a little in April in Seattle. The forecast has been very nasty for May 3rd and 4th weekend. We were not very optimistic at all. Backup plans have been made. However, the forecast began looking promising on Tuesday. We decided to make a final call Thursday night. By Thursday night, the forecast is slight chance of flurries on Saturday and sunny on Sunday. Low in upper 20’s Saturday night and high in lower 50’s Sunday. So the plan is on. We are now a little concerned about avalanches. Saturday morning, we took off at 4:30am. Around 7:00, we met Cabbage and YF at a McDonalds’ at exit 21 of I5. After a brief breakfast we took off on WA503. We arrived at the trailhead around 9:30 after picking up climbing permits. To our surprise, the road was ploughed 2 miles further than last weekend when Cabbage checked. There were a bunch of snowmobiles making deafening noises and suffocating fumes (cheaters!). We started off on showshoes at around 10 and walked along the unploughed road.
The skies are covered with a thick layer of clouds. The clouds are high and whitish. We arrived at Marble Mountain Sno Park where the usual winter climbing route begins at around 11:40 and had a brief lunch in the shelter. We hit the trail again at around 12:30 and followed the Worm Flows route. The route is marked by blue tags on trees for climbers and skiers. Around 2:30, we arrived at an open area where trees become somehow sparse. The elevation is around 3500ft. This is almost at the top of the timberline. We looked around and picked a spot for our camp. The clouds begin to clear up now. The top of the mountain, however, can still not be seen.
After setting up the tents and digging our kitchen, we walked up a slope next to our camp and taught some basic snow travel skills and self arrest. A group from Mazamas passed us when we were setting up tents.
After dinner, Cabbage and I took off to take a look at the route. With the clouds clearing up, avalanches become our primary concern. Looking at the topo map, there are a few spots where the slope is within the avy angle (30-45 degrees). We must pass these spots when the snow is still stable and try to stay on the ridge and close to the rocks. We decided to get up around 4:30 and take off before 5:30. I had a sound sleep in the tent. However, our alarm somehow failed to set off and we got up a bit late. After getting up, I felt a sour throat and a headache. This is probably due to the 3-season tent and a thin sleeping bag (30F) both of which should not be used under this situation. Also, I left too much space under the rainfly of the tent. I knew I could still make it and I was hoping it will not get worse (however, it eventually did). We took off around 6:00 and traveled on snowshoes for a little and found the snow too hard to benefit. Then we took them off. The Mazamas group apparently have already taken off and left perfect steps for us. That saved us a lot of energy kicking. I felt like we were cheating, but summiting is what counts, isn’t it? J.
We ascended to about 6000 feet and decided to put on crampons. It wasn’t that necessary to have crampons at that point but it wouldn’t make it more difficult anyway. We were at a steady pace of 1000 vertical feet per hour. The sun is rising quickly heating up the snow. Fortunately, there is a big cloud hovering above the summit. There was also a circle of haze around the skyline. Mt Adams can be partially seen. Mt Hood was hardly visible all the time. We met that Mazamas group about 400 feet under the summit and thanked them for kicking steps for us. Around 12:10, we come close to the crater rim. With all the snow, it was impossible to tell the real summit point. We can either go too far on the rim, fearing cornices. The clouds are now all gone on the north side. We had a clear view of Mt Rainier. We could also see smoke coming out of the crater dome, which is at least one thousand feet down from where we were standing.
While we were nibbling lunch and taking pictures, a pair on splitboard and AT skies skinned up and took a group picture for us. I so envy them! We took off from the summit at around 1pm, plunging our steps down and glissading. The snow had become very soft now. We tried to stay on the ridge and close to the rocks. On one glissade, I notice some loose slabs of snow but too thin to cause any harm. I also saw an avalanche track cause by glissading, which was also of a small scale. We returned to our camp at around 2:50 and broke camp. We took off again at around 4:20 and sprinted our way out and arrived at where we parked at 6:45.
