"February 6, 2026. Carried skis for the first 1.5 miles. Skinned with a few areas that we had to take off skis over rocks until hitting the ridge. It was easier to just carry skis at that point. Probably could have skinned a little bit more after reaching the seismograph, but our skins were pretty wet at that point. Solid bootpack except for the last 400 meters to the rim. A warm, calm day until we were almost at the rim. It was pretty windy and cold up top. Put on layers, ripped off skins, and skied down. Really nice corn skiing that ended too soon back at the ridge. Booted back out from there. With Ryan. " — runningvegan • Feb 6, 2026

"December 31, 2025. 7th Helens summit, but first time skiing it. An awesome day! Light snow with exposed small rocks for the first half mile of trail, but still skinable. Skinned up to the ridge and carried from there to save time (less transitions with the ridge rocks). Great boot pack and soft snow, did not even need to put on crampons. Skied all the way down, except for the last half mile. Great snow above tree line, hard packed in the shaded trees. No other skiers or boarders. With Ryan. " — runningvegan • Dec 31, 2025

"Peakbagging day in the middle of our annual larch march (aka, Larch Madness). Leaving from Star Lake (an absolute zoo), we started with an AM out-and-back to Star Peak, then began a loop up from Fish Creek Pass to Courtney. Evan decided to peel off shortly thereafter, while Jared and I continued on Buttermilk Ridge to Oval Peak. As noted in Peggy Goldman's Washington Scrambles book, the only somewhat tricky part was navigating around Point 7978 (Buttermilk Ridge North). We descended only a few dozen feet down the east side and then were able to traverse north. Oval Peak had just as much talus as advertised and it was a relief to have soil beneath our feet once more when we dropped into the basin. The old Oval Peak trail is still pretty easy to follow, despite a few down trees. We returned to gather our gear at Star Lake (an even larger zoo on a Saturday evening) and carried on via the cutoff trail towards Gray Peak. The dusky stroll through beautiful whitebark pine woodland was a highlight. We reached the alpine ridgeline SE of Gray Peak just as the moon rose at our backs and sent tired shadows ahead (we never had to turn on our headlamps). We reached West Oval Lake at around 7:30 ..." — TynanRammGranberg • Oct 4, 2025

"Peakbagging day in the middle of our annual larch march (aka, Larch Madness). Leaving from Star Lake (an absolute zoo), we started with an AM out-and-back to Star Peak, then began a loop up from Fish Creek Pass to Courtney. Evan decided to peel off shortly thereafter, while Jared and I continued on Buttermilk Ridge to Oval Peak. As noted in Peggy Goldman's Washington Scrambles book, the only somewhat tricky part was navigating around Point 7978 (Buttermilk Ridge North). We descended only a few dozen feet down the east side and then were able to traverse north. Oval Peak had just as much talus as advertised and it was a relief to have soil beneath our feet once more when we dropped into the basin. The old Oval Peak trail is still pretty easy to follow, despite a few down trees. We returned to gather our gear at Star Lake (an even larger zoo on a Saturday evening) and carried on via the cutoff trail towards Gray Peak. The dusky stroll through beautiful whitebark pine woodland was a highlight. We reached the alpine ridgeline SE of Gray Peak just as the moon rose at our backs and sent tired shadows ahead (we never had to turn on our headlamps). We reached West Oval Lake at around 7:30 ..." — TynanRammGranberg • Oct 4, 2025

"Peakbagging day in the middle of our annual larch march (aka, Larch Madness). Leaving from Star Lake (an absolute zoo), we started with an AM out-and-back to Star Peak, then began a loop up from Fish Creek Pass to Courtney. Evan decided to peel off shortly thereafter, while Jared and I continued on Buttermilk Ridge to Oval Peak. As noted in Peggy Goldman's Washington Scrambles book, the only somewhat tricky part was navigating around Point 7978 (Buttermilk Ridge North). We descended only a few dozen feet down the east side and then were able to traverse north. Oval Peak had just as much talus as advertised and it was a relief to have soil beneath our feet once more when we dropped into the basin. The old Oval Peak trail is still pretty easy to follow, despite a few down trees. We returned to gather our gear at Star Lake (an even larger zoo on a Saturday evening) and carried on via the cutoff trail towards Gray Peak. The dusky stroll through beautiful whitebark pine woodland was a highlight. We reached the alpine ridgeline SE of Gray Peak just as the moon rose at our backs and sent tired shadows ahead (we never had to turn on our headlamps). We reached West Oval Lake at around 7:30 ..." — TynanRammGranberg • Oct 4, 2025