Skiing Denali: Turns in the Messner

Jeb, Matt and Tucker skin toward the Orient Express and Messner Couloir.

After a much needed day of rest, our team set our sights on some loftier goals.  The Messner Couloir was high on the list of objectives, but the snow had looked downright dangerous during our stay at 14 camp.  With a good weather forecast, rose early (a relative term in the Alaska Range) and set out to climb the Upper Rib and ski the Orient Express.

Tucker explores a crevassed section of the lower Messner.

When we got closer to the base of the Orient, we couldn't help but notice that the snow in the Messner was looking rather enticing.  Tucker and I decided that we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  We roped up for the lower crevassed portion, crossed a few snow bridges and were into the meat of the Messner shortly after.  

Climbing the Messner was amazing.  The exposure and continuous steepness was intense.  

Tucker climbing through the choke of the Messner at around 17k feet.

When we reached the choke of the couloir, a cloud socked in around us.  We deliberated about climbing higher and decided to ski while we could still see.  Descending the Messner in a white-out was not on my list of fun things to do on Denali.  We chopped out a platform to click into our skis on and made haste.

The descent - we couldn't have asked for better snow!

Tucker laying down a turn near the base of the Messner.

After the first few icy turns, the snow got really, really good.  It was boot buckle deep powder, soft windboard and only a couple of punchy wind-affected turns.  And of course, when we were about halfway down, the clouds cleared and the day went back to blue-bird!

Blue sky appears as we descended through the choke of the couloir.

We waited for Matt and Jeb to return from the Orient and skied back to camp.  On our descent, we passed a skier named Ricardo who we had skied off the summit with two days prior (he the first Mexican to ski from the summit of Denali).  He was headed for the Messner as well.  As we prepared dinner we watched him ski the couloir.  

Everyone in camp watched in horror as he was caught in a serious avalanche just below the choke of the Messner.  He survived the ride and was able to capture it with a Go-Pro video:

This avalanche goes to show how conservative you need to be in a new range.  This was a scary experience for all of us and we were glad to have learned the lesson the easy way.  

That night we were pretty tired and ready for rest, but the weather forecast had changed for the worst.   We needed to make it off the mountain.

Mount Adams: Cascade Massive

Matt watches clouds clear on Mount Adams.

We knew this was going to be a big day.  We knew it was going to be literally longer than a marathon.  That it was going to be more vertical gain than Mount Rainier from Paradise or Mount Shasta from Bunny Flat.  But we didn't expect this 9,300' vertical, 35 mile round-trip journey to take us nearly 3 and a half hours longer than our 15 hour estimate.

It snowed on us as we started.

Taking the improving forecast into account, we started started our day relatively late: 3:00am.  Starting at the 3,000' Orr Creek Sno Park, we walked dirt road for the first mile.  When the snow became consistent we transitioned to skinning and picked up the pace a bit.  We skinned in nearly nine miles to the Killen Creek Trail junction.

Matt skins past lichen draped trees toward Killen Creek.

I expected to be relieved because we'd finally begin chipping away at the 9,281 we needed to get to the top.  I didn't think we'd be able to see any trail markers due to high snows, but I figured we'd be able to follow a rough outline of where the trail went.  This was not the case.  Instead all we found was thick woods and a maze of winding creeks.

The navigation was a nightmare. Every turn ended in a thick stand of trees, a steep bank of snow, or a creek.  We wandered our way through and by 10:00 we were at treeline around 6,000'.  Significantly farther from the top than we had hoped to be.

Matt skins toward the North Ridge.  Adams remains veiled in cloud.

Adams reveals itself...but it's still far away.

Seeing the mountain gave us new hope and we were able to pick up the pace.  It had taken us seven hours to gain the first 3,000'...a pathetic pace by climbing standards.  Even though our vertical rate was slow we were moving fast the whole time.  Now that we'd covered the approach we were ready to start getting some vert in.

The North Ridge of Mount Adams.  We skinned up the wind-drifted snow on the left, scrambled the scree and climbed the ridge.

On the way up the scree leg of the ridge, we encountered another climber.  We kept our distance from the big white goat, having heard of their sometimes nasty tempers.  It was amazing to see the huge beast scramble up the rocks and disappear behind the ridge, but we were a little unnerved when he and his tracks disappeared in the scree and we couldn't tell where he'd gone.  I kept expecting him to charge suddenly around a corner and gore us.








Past the goat, we gained the ridge.  The climbing was all over the place.  It went from hard, wind-scoured alpine ice to knee-deep powder.  The variety and aesthetics of the line were amazing and made for an interesting climb.

Climbing one of the firm sections on the lower half of the ridge.

On top of the ridge the climbing quality took a dive.  Here the snow was heavily rimed and each step was like walking on a fragile coral reef.  Not fun.  The climbing continued this way for a long stretch to the false summit on top of the North Ridge and the extra third of a mile to the true summit.

Matt walking the rime reef.

After slogging to the summit, we skied down the chicken head packed slope to the col between the summit and The Pinnacle, the top of the Northwest Ridge.  From there we had to transition again from skis back to crampons and we made the uphill traverse to reach The Pinnacle.

Matt traverses The Pinnacle.

Down climbing before it got good.

All the effort payed off.   After a short down climb and a few nasty rimed kick turns we got into the goods of the North Face of the Northwest Ridge.  The skiing here was some of the best turns of the trip.  The powder was settled and stable, although we skied our first few turns with caution after seeing a large debris pile that had plowed out of the Adams Glacier just to our east.

Matt gets the goods on the North Face of the NW Ridge.

The skiing was perfect powder.  Huge relief, nearly 3,000' of great snow and somewhere around 40 degree turns.  It was amazing!

The author slashing one.

As good as the skiing was, we were relieved when we were off the glacier and back onto terra-firma.  We'd made it past the technical and dangerous parts of the tour and just had to crank out the remaining 12 miles between us and our car.

Success! Our ski line is on the far right of the picture, mostly out of view.

Mount Saint Helens: in the PNW get above the clouds ~ ~ ~

The Mount Saint Helens White Room.

We were treating this as a training trip.  The weather was supposed to be miserable.  And it started out just as it was supposed to: gray, gloomy and moist.

Matt Paul avoiding a large hole in the Worm Flow moraines.

But, as it happens in the Pacific Northwest, if you don't like the weather you have to change your altitude.  As we got higher on the mountain we out-climbed the clouds and broke though the cloud ceiling that was thick everywhere below 5,000'.

Perseverance paid off and the clouds cleared just above 5,000'.

Above the cloud the unfiltered sun bore down on us.  It's been two days since we did this climb and my thighs are still burning from opening my ski pant vents and not sun-screening my legs.  We climbed fast and made the most of the good weather.

Matt churning up the Monitor Ridge towards the crater rim of Mount Saint Helens.

Matt taking a breather at 8,000'.

Me standing on the Crater Rim.  The true summit is the far peak in the background with the HUGE cornice.  Photo: Matt Paul.

Matt at the crater's edge.

Me on the rim of the smoking caldera.  This is a must see!  Even if the skiing is awful, the views make the trip well worthwhile.  Photo: Matt Paul.

Me peering into the center of St Helen's Crater Rim.  Photo: Matt Paul.

Me standing on the true summit of Mount Saint Helens.  HUGE cornice.  Photo: Matt Paul.

The snow was much stickier than expected, but there were a few good turns to be had above 6,000'. Below that and it was survival skiing.  The transitioning snow varied between velcro and glue and it was a struggle not to have a leg ripped off.  But heh, skiing's always better than walking right?

Matt descends a rib of Monitor Ridge with Mount Adams jutting above the clouds.

What goes up must come down.  So we set off into the clouds back to the trail head.  The only way to keep glide was to ski on skin tracks and  the snowshoes packed trail.  We kept a few snow-shoers on their toes on the way down.

The skiing below 6,000' wasn't amazing, but Matt made it look alright.

Descending below the cloud deck on volcanic moraines.