This past weekend I got the opportunity to explore the Cascade Mountains in Northern Oregon and Southern Washington on a Cessna 182. Thanks to Erin and Josh Murray, we got to scope out the recent snow levels on Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens at sunset. With the snow coverage still pretty decent on the high mountains, it was really encouraging since we’ve such a low snow year.
Aviation by:
Josh Murray – josh.murray@gmail.com
It’s sad to read the extended forecast for the PNW, but either you can hang up your boots or get out and enjoy the spring conditions. Kelly & Jeff Steele and I chose the latter and headed up the worm flow route on Mt. St. Helens this past weekend. Finding consistent snow around 5,500 feet, we rode around 3,000 feet of corn down from the summit. The conditions are basically spring freeze thaw, so expect hard snow until it bakes in the sun for awhile and ice in the shadows.
Riding By:
Jeff Steele
Kelly Steele
Jesse Hambley
Filmed By:
Jesse Hambley
With the PNW having an off season and the weather feeling a bit more like spring, Jeff Snyder and I headed out to explore the East side of Mt. St. Helens. 10 miles by bike, 12 miles by foot, we set out to do some research on the current snow levels and the possibilities for future trips. From ranging elk to daring mountain goats, this region is just breathtaking and not explored much by human power in the winter.
Riding By:
Jeff Snyder
Filmed By:
Jesse Hambley
Jeff Snyder
After getting some beta that there was still pow stashes left in Bennett’s Pass, Jeff and Jenny Snyder and myself took a short skin in to check things out on 1/1. What we found was snow depth still too thin for good tree runs but 2 to 3 feet of fresh powder in the clearings a little farther in.
Hoping to find some protected stashes of snow in the Salmon River Canyon, on 1/3 we skinned up to around 6,900 and worked our way down to the White River Canyon snow park around 4,250′ . From the recent strong wings, mostly everything has turned to a hard snow and ice pack mixed with 6″ to 2′ sastrugi. Even tho most of the trip was type 2 fun, we still had a blast finding what pockets of good snow we did and taking in the beautiful views.
We went up last night to steal some first turns from the dawn patrol! Perfect 4-6″ pow conditions on Mt. Hood above Magic Mile. Still pretty boney below Palmer, but still super fun to ride down through.
Music By:
“Bottomed Out Bill” by Waylon Thornton and the Heavy Hands (theheavyhands.bandcamp.com)
Riding By:
Sean O’Connor
Filmed By:
Jesse Hambley
Sean O’Connor
30 Minute Edit about our recent overnight splitboard trip on Mt. Hood’s North Side. As the temperatures keep rising in the PNW, we are forced to go longer, harder and higher to find winter. The trip took place this past weekend, December 6th – 7th, 2014 on the Cooper Spur. Created for Mountain Hardwear’s #findingwinter program.
Featuring:
Danny Cegla, Jesse Hambley, and Jack Wallis
Filmed by:
Jesse Hambley and Danny Cegla
After the recent storm that tackled the lower Cascades, we headed up Mt. Hood to check out conditions and pursue the much coveted POW. Here is a 30 minute edit of the trip, of course I spent a little bit over 30 minutes editing but these are meant to be super quick edits. As predicted, much of the snow has blown into the gullies below Palmer Glacier, leave a lot of exposed rock still. Above Palmer and into the West Crater Rim is a mix of wind blown hard pack and pockets of powder ranging from 18″ to 3′.
Production Notes:
First time filming with my upgrade to the Panasonic GH4. Great to finally see it’s 4k capabilities and how much I can scale in post. Still lots to learn on the camera. I gave the auto focus on the Panasonic 100-300mm a try because it was around -8 degrees with 30mph winds. So getting blasted in the face with drifting snow, made it extremely hard to do a fine focus on it. Over all great trip of exploring and geeking out on my gear.
Credits:
Filmed and edited by Jesse Hambley
Head cam photos by Cameron Brown
Music:
“Every Damn Day People” by BrokeMC (brokemc.com)
With views like this, the challenge of getting your August turns is completely worth it. Gazing at the sunset from Spray Park on Mount Rainier’s north side with @hefe_steele and @kellymsteele. After putting in roughly 6000 feet gain for the day, carrying a 60 pound pack, navigating down suncups and being swarmed by mosquitos, I have no complaints. Still left in awe by the PNW’s beauty.
This was our playground for the weekend. The approach starts at Mowich Lake and takes you southwest about 3 miles with a 2.5k foot gain. To overnight camp in any of the Mount Rainier wilderness areas, you’ll need to obtain an overnight permit for your group. These permits can be reserved in advance and I highly suggest you do.
After dropping off overnight gear, we headed up the ridge to Observation Rock on Mount Rainier’s northwest side.
@hefe_steele trekking up the upper ridge to Observation Rock. From here you gain the overwhelming view of Rainier’s North Face. From the top of Observation Rock, you have a playground to pick from. You can drop in the Flett Glacier headwall, or descend the various moderate to steep slopes to the west.
Photos rarely capture just how steep and massive lines really are. @hefe_steele about to drop into his second 50 degree line of hardened sun cups and ice off of Ptarmigan Ridge.
Production Note: I’m getting much better at keeping my production gear light! Currently my entire kit is around 6 to 10lbs, depending on lenses. I’m currently running a Panasonic GH3 with a GorillaPod & Magnus Lightweight prosumer pan/tilt head. For lenses I usually carry a small 7.5mm Rokinon Fisheye lens, a 17mm Olympus pancake lens, and an old adapted Tamron plastic based FD 35-105mm or a Canon FD 100-300mm. I’ve learned to leave the production tripod at home and get creative with a GorillaPod, I’ve also adapted one of my trekking poles to have a camera mount at the top. Cutting the pounds of a full DSLR and production gear really makes a difference after spending 8 to 12 hours climbing.
The black specks in the background are @hefe_steele and @kellymsteele coming down the Flett Glacier Headwall on Mount Rainier. This headwall will be best in early spring right after the road has opened or a long approach from the closed gate.
After hitting a few lines, we descended back down to camp. @hefe_steele scoping out the next line down to our camp site amongst the scattered remains of Mt. Rainier’s August snowfields.
@hefe_steele getting his last few turns as the sun sets on Spray Park on Mount Rainier. The golden mist around him was water evaporating off the warming August snow.
Sometimes you just have to roll with it when you’re snowboard mountaineering. We originally planned to camp in an alpine zone near the Flett Glacier on Mount Rainier. Which would have provided easy access to the areas we wanted to ride. Instead, those zone permits got filled up days before we got there and we ended up staying in a mosquito infested zone right between a marsh and creek. We’re talking 100s of mosquitoes landing on you at a time, but without staying there, we would have never crossed the marsh as the sun was gleaming down on it’s beautiful evaporating mist. With torment comes much beauty to the right set of eyes. With @hefe_steele and@kellymsteele on August 2 2014.