St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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Tony1
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St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by Tony1 »

Hey all, has anyone been up to St. Mary's recently? I need to get out and practice self arrest this weekend. Always heard about St. Mary's being excellent for that, but I've never been over there before and am not sure how the conditions for practicing self arrest are. Any reports of recent conditions are appreciated, as well as suggestions for other areas to go with good conditions. Thanks! :)
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by glacierPaul »

Here is a shot of the glacier from Yankee Hill last night at 6pm, as the storm was rolling in.
101_3525_edited-4.jpg
101_3525_edited-4.jpg (336.33 KiB) Viewed 1700 times
There are a couple posts in 13er Information/Conditions for James Peak too. 3/4 mile hike to the glacier, from the $5 pay parking lots. We are forecast for chances of snow into next week, and it is snowing now, albeit very little. Expect windy conditions.
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by Tony1 »

Thank you very much for the update!
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by wtrimble »

I was up on the glacier last Sunday teaching a friend of mine how to self-arrest. It's a decent place to practice. Last Sunday the snow quickly deteriorated due to the super warm temperature. We started out practicing self-arrest around 8:30am and after that we tried to climb up one of the steeper chutes roped up for more practice, but we bailed out about three quarters of the way up because the snow was getting too unstable. We headed down and as we were leaving (noonish) we saw a skier trigger a small soft slab avi. I'm guessing with the lower temps and the current conditions I think you would be fine this weekend.
Attachments
The skier cut the slope which started the fracture on the right side of the image.
The skier cut the slope which started the fracture on the right side of the image.
soft-slab-slide.jpg (53.33 KiB) Viewed 1579 times
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by Deadshot »

Heading up in two weeks. Thanks for the update as well.
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by COBuckeye »

Deadshot wrote:Heading up in two weeks. Thanks for the update as well.
DS - the picture that wtrimble posted is from April 27, 2012. I doubt that the picture represents current conditions. I unfortunately do not have any current updates, but from past experience and current snowfall (or lack thereof), I would anticipate little if any snow.
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by mtnfiend »

Indeed. Time stamp is crucial.

Check these 2 out. It's not much but better than nothing:
http://www.backcountrycoalition.com/for ... hread/427/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.backcountrycoalition.com/for ... hread/442/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Didn't I ever tell you.....Bumble's bounce!!!

http://exploringtherockies.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.berthoudpass.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
@snow_nerd
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by Deadshot »

COBuckeye wrote:
Deadshot wrote:Heading up in two weeks. Thanks for the update as well.
DS - the picture that wtrimble posted is from April 27, 2012. I doubt that the picture represents current conditions. I unfortunately do not have any current updates, but from past experience and current snowfall (or lack thereof), I would anticipate little if any snow.
Yeah, I think we are going to hold off a bit longer. Thanks for the heads up. Much appreciated.
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by ETA »

I just saw this post, here's a picture from 10/14/12. It's pretty sad to say the least. It's snowing now, but don't expect much area to play for a while.

Image[/img]
3 or 4 miles, can't be much further than that.
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by scramble »

Hello,
Has anybody been there in the past few weeks? Possibly enough snow to practice self-arresting on?
Thanks for any info!
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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by bergsteigen »

scramble wrote:Hello,
Has anybody been there in the past few weeks? Possibly enough snow to practice self-arresting on?
Thanks for any info!
It doesn't matter what has happened in the last few weeks. The ice is virtually gone. And I mean gone! I was last there in early Sept, and there was no ice on the front headwall, an the flatter section had dangerous ice bridges that could collapse at any point. St Mary's will not be viable until much much later in the year, if not next March-spring.

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Re: St. Mary's Glacier Conditions

Post by TCUTED »

We just hiked up the glacier this past weekend on my way to James Peak, the glacier is in pretty sad shape, especially considering the shape it was in last year, but its not as terrible as the previous post mentioned, and after looking at the pictures in that link, I can say that it has improved a lot, especially towards the top. We saw one skier that day, and we managed to get in a few short runs for glissade and self arrest practice. The best practice was the snow in rock outcrops on the left edge of the bottom of the glacier, the whole right side is still all melted out. A little bit of practice higher up, above the ice mountains. That being said, it's not anywhere near the condition it was at this time last winter, there are lots of large ice blocks, and a couple of deep holes that you wouldn't want to fall into. Pretty sad near the bottom, I included an image with a comparison to last year.
Near the Top
Near the Top
small1.jpg (151.57 KiB) Viewed 858 times
Right = Last November, Left = This Weekend
Right = Last November, Left = This Weekend
compare.jpg (95.8 KiB) Viewed 858 times
I hope these help, not in great shape, but you could squeeze out a little practice if you look hard enough!
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