St Mary's Glacier Report for August

Barmski

Barmski

Active member
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Went up yesterday to catch the sunset for the first time. This is about 2/3's up the glacier.

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Not gonna lie, the snow was greatest (its freakin late august who REALLY cares) but the total length of the run is not bad at all. I pretty skied it at dusk which was kind of cool. There is a small rail setup, and with a little work, you could setup a dec. rail. The sun cups were tough, but I still had fun. Only spotted two small rocks in the middle of the entire run.

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View of the lake at the bottom of the glacier.

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If you keep going past the snow, you will lead to this trail as seen here and then see more of the summits of the mountains above. I didnt venture further cause I was fighting daylight.

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Here is the very top of the snowfield. All in all the snow slid pretty decent, it was only this dirty at very top then as you can see it gets better. The biggest problem was the rippling wavy sun cupped snow surface.

The hike from the road was a joke if you consider yourself any bit of a hiker- 20mins to the base of the snow from the bottom then another 20-30mins to the top of the snow. Skiing down from the top of the snow and then hiking down back to my car took a total of 45minutes. The beginning of the trailhead where you park is only 20minutes from I-70. I could not believe how close it was, it was insane. This would be more convenient for denver locals then summit or eagle county locals for sure. And I will tell you it was pretty fucking beautiful site with the sunset. Check it out, i will DEF be going back for sure to get my september day in!

 
its definitely fun for sure...and there are some cliffs on that lake you can jump off.

also, if you were to explore a little more around the top, if you hiked up the ridge to the left(looking up the mountain, so skiers right i guess) the next gultch is eclipse snow park if you wanted a glimpse of it.
 
sweet, the sun cups suck though don't they, especially with invaders haha, did u by chance happen to pass like a ten foot black pvc double barrel on the way up pretty early on the snow. It was up last sunday, i wanted to know if it was still there
 
^ yup i saw that. looked fun i guess. I dunno know cliff jumping into that water, some kid died last week up there jumping in that water. Makes sense cause its prob cold as fuck.
 
Someone died there last week. Went swimming and couldnt make it acress and drown in the middle of the lake.
 
I lived in west glacier last summer and the west side of the park has and gets more snow then the east side by st.marys. logan pass is the best place to shred in my opinion. lots of places to jump cliffs and jib the natural features.
 
^ at st marys? yes. the part that narrows about halfway up has melted and turned in a stream, but no worries cause its a shorter hike and still plenty of snow on the trail from the creek to the bottom. i guess you could walk up across the rocks, ski the snow up there, then take ur skis, and walk across and then ski the rest....it would def be fun to set up some kind of rail up there if you put the time into it.
 
well i went up to the top of the main, along that stream and then to the mini snowpatch and there was a couple of really short rails and some benches but i didn't have a shovel so i couldn't make any lips so i ended up using a suncup which worked out fine. it was a good time
 
Anyone know what they got up there out of this lil storm? A few inches of actual snow ontop of the suncups could be fun
 
i was there this past saturday, had two super sketchy benches, but the snow wasnt to bad at the top. loveland and a-bay will be open before we know it. FUCK YEAH!
 
3 inches forecasted for weds and 3 inches for thursday, however, wind gust up to 40mph....has everyone been up there when that much wind is forecasted? I wonder if it will hit that specific area because of how it is enclosed. I am trying to head thursday for some pow turns haha cause that would be awesome.
 
I tried to go moonlight skiing one night at Saint Mary's when light winds were forecasted. We ended up turning around at the base of the glacier because the winds were so strong the blowing snow completely obscured the moon and I thought i was going to lose my face. My thoughts are that Saint Mary's exists because it is so windy above it that all the snow on James Peak is blown down into the glacier, so it seems like the glacier itself should be quite protected, but definitely not my experience
 
Wish I could go tomorrow. Definitely planning on shredding this weekend though. I'd love it if you put up another conditions report like before.
 
Went today. The hike ON SNOW was brutal, but short. The winds were gusting around what felt like 60- 70 mph directly into you. Skier's right of the glacier was worth it but blown snow of course. I prob hiked through knee to thigh deep snow in some points- would have used my camera but that was out of the question considering the conditions. There were 2 other people that did the hike other than me believe or not. One other person tried but gave up. I have never hiked through windier conditions personally....i almost got knocked down several times. Overall, was it worth it? Yes b/c it was quick the experience.
 
Sounds like and adventure! Skied Jones Pass yesterday. About 1000 vert. top 300' was sick followed by very sketchy rockyness, it should be sick up there after another storm or two.
 
Some people tried to ski loveland pass off the 6. Looked like it was more dirt, bush and rock than snow. The intermittent tracks looked funny.
 
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