Anyone been up to St. Mary's Glacier lately?

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
    For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
Ramfan24
Posts: 112
Joined: 7/23/2009
14ers: 30  1 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Anyone been up to St. Mary's Glacier lately?

Post by Ramfan24 »

Wondering if flotation is needed for a hike to James Peak this weekend.
User avatar
GregMiller
Posts: 1001
Joined: 6/16/2011
14ers: 37  4  1 
13ers: 30
Trip Reports (5)
 

Re: Anyone been up to St. Mary's Glacier lately?

Post by GregMiller »

Also wondering about the conditions, wondering if there's enough snow to ski up and down.
Still Here
been scared and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has friz me, Sun has baked me,
Looks like between 'em they done Tried to make me
Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'-- But I don't care! I'm still here!
Langston Hughes
User avatar
moneymike
Posts: 224
Joined: 3/24/2011
14ers: 57  57  9 
13ers: 132 123 39
Trip Reports (46)
 

Re: Anyone been up to St. Mary's Glacier lately?

Post by moneymike »

Ramfan24 wrote:Wondering if flotation is needed for a hike to James Peak this weekend.
It's mostly hard wind packed snow and sastrugi above the glacier, and below the glacier the trail is packed. The east side doesn't have nearly as much snow as the west side, but I did it on skis and was able to stay on snow from the trailhead to the summit and back. This was in late December, but I would guess the conditions now are similar.
"Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford

"Slow and steady wins the race (unless you're racing someone who is fast and steady)."
User avatar
TeamDino5280
Posts: 153
Joined: 6/19/2009
13ers: 3
Trip Reports (2)
 
Contact:

Re: Anyone been up to St. Mary's Glacier lately?

Post by TeamDino5280 »

I was up there a week ago and there is consistent hard wind packed snow going all the way to the snow field in the glacier proper you would need traction more than floatation. We skinned up about half way then crossed over PT 11,716 to the south side and came down the gully just south of the steeper lake face. It was about 28 degrees where we came down and the snow was a 3-4 inch reactive wind slab on top of softer snow. There is a large cross loaded slope to hikers right on the glacier that most people are walking right under, I would avoid that. Also, on the roll over at the bottom of the glacier hikers left there is a large wind load I would avoid that too. here are some pictures

Bottom
Image

Crossloaded slope with everyone walking under it
Image

Mid way up
Image

South gully looks way better then it was
Image

Shitty windslab in the trees near anchor gulch
Image
User avatar
powhound
Posts: 230
Joined: 9/28/2012
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Anyone been up to St. Mary's Glacier lately?

Post by powhound »

farcedude wrote:Also wondering about the conditions, wondering if there's enough snow to ski up and down.
It can't be any worse than this. :lol: My son and I were jonesing for some turns and went to St.Mary's last summer on July 31. The grungiest skiing I have ever done...it was a blast!
some people will ski anything.JPG
some people will ski anything.JPG (65.98 KiB) Viewed 403 times
dirtbag skier.jpg
dirtbag skier.jpg (77.04 KiB) Viewed 403 times
Post Reply