The route to the base as seen from the hiking trail turnoff
I had joined a mountaineers trip two weeks ago set up
quickly to get some students enough climbs for graduation, but being rainy and
generally miserable I hadn’t written it up or taken any pictures. This time
around Nicole was in town and thinking that her cold might be on the way out we
decided to try and get her up the climb during a break in the weather, or so we
thought.
The weather was looking decent as we headed up from the
trail but a light rain started as the views started to open higher up. As the
weather began to clear we started along the traverse off the summer trail and
over towards the climb up into Scott's Bowl. The snow bridge we had walked
across without much thought two weeks prior looked a bit precarious, forcing us
to walk below instead. Nicole’s lungs were really holding her back – turned out
that cold was a flu, but she was a trooper and pushed on, knowing the climbing
and descent would be the easy part.
Snowbridge... not so walkable anymore...
Crossing under the snow bridge and hugging the cliffs we
started to climb up towards Scott’s Bowl, reaching it under mostly cloudy skies
where we got passed by a quick group of two – I realized later it was Tyler
Farrar - weird! The sun opened up shortly, but clouds were still thickening off
to the West.
Nicole working her way up Scott's Bowl. More fun in the snow :)
The climbing was fairly straightforward and we arrived at
the top fairly quickly, despite encountering a few other groups on the way up.
We sat on the summit for a few minutes taking in the cloudy views that wouldn’t
relent to show the nearby or faraway peaks.
Cloudy view from the summit
The descent was easy and we happily avoided the stuck ropes
that had threatened to make the last climb longer. We were trying out our
double ropes (which we used as twins because the route goes straight up anyway)
and used them to do double rappels on the way down. Two rappels and luckily no
stuck ropes and we were on our way down – hiking out in the afternoon light
under a few fleeting raindrops.
Working our way down the small remaining snowfield...
Cascade Pass peaks- picture taken from along the Sahale Arm
The streak of North Cascades weekends kept on going strong- Nicole and I are now quite familiar with the twists and turns of Rt 20, where to find good food (Good Food is a good start) and where to stop and get some fresh local ice cream, and most importantly which bathrooms are fully stocked.
Planning for this weekend was nicely tucked into the tail end of friends Becky and Dave's Pickett's trip during the week before. Because they were in the backcountry the whole week they were able to secure Sahale Glacier Camp permits about a week ahead of time- you usually can't get them until the night before!
Stars above Johannesburg from the trailhead
We all crashed at Johannesburg camp on Friday night where we fell asleep to the sounds of massive chunks of ice falling and crashing off Johannesburg across the valley- quite the noise in the still of a night!
Morning came quickly and we were off before the swarm of tourists could descend upon the trailhead. We strolled up the very gently graded Cascade Pass trail, making the pass in a little over an hour. We marveled at the views, discussed the peaks before us that we had previously only read about in trip reports, and then continued up the Sahale Arm.
Middle left to right: Triples, Cascade Peak and Johannesburg
The Sahale Arm is just beautiful- you quickly gain elevation after leaving the pass, and when you swing around and gain the ridge proper it's amazing. Rugged peaks off to the North are visible- Torment, Forbidden, Baker... and later Rainier and Glacier, and even the Olympic mountains from the glacier! Excellent views.
Dave leading the way up the Arm. With Johannesburg, Cascade and Triplets off to the left
We topped out at our campsite around 1pm where we quickly made camp and got our glacier gear set out and continued up the Sahale glacier directly above our camp. Before starting we could see some minor crevasses on some rollovers well below our route, and as we climbed we saw more small openings, and curiously enough the established bootpack went directly between the two largest of these openings. It is clearly a snow bridge, a strong one, but... it was also about a 5 minute walk around. We were surprised to see both a Mazamas and Mountaineers group walk the bridge. Beyond the crevasses we continued on a small horizontal finger of snow and then up through some rocks on the east side of the south slope, finally reaching the east side of the summit pyramid via the steep snow along the east margin of the slope.
Dave and Becky and our climbing route from camp
Steep snow slope leading up eastern margin of South face to summit pyramid
There was a group of 11 rappelling down, so we waited a few minutes and then eventually moved up from our small hangout to a slightly higher gear anchor that I hoped our 30m rope would be able to climb and rap back down to. Dave took the sharp end from here and led his first gear pitch in which he placed one hex, and then confidently moved up and onto the summit. We all followed and enjoyed the summit views of Boston, Forbidden, Torment and beyond.
Rainier and ... through the haze ... Tahoma.
Glacier and views off to the South
Baker and Shuksan in the background, Torment in the foreground center and Eldorado in the middle ground (skyline)
Boston (prominent red rock to right) and Forbidden Peak (end of ridge at left) and Sharkfin Tower in middle (looks like a shark fin)
Our descent shenanigans would now have to start... I knew that we had used more than half the rope to get to the summit, so rapping was not possible. My first idea was to have everyone downclimb on belay, with the 3rd person placing gear, and then I would reverse lead the pitch back down. This seemed doable, but Becky had the thought of just seeing how close the rappel would get me- turned out to be about 20' above our gear anchor below. All the difficult climbing was above that 20', however, so I opted for the rappel after everyone had climbed down. In retrospect the reverse lead would have kept me in the system the whole time, but would have been more difficult climbing. Those last 20' were not bad especially when my body weight stretched it down to only about 10', so I was comfortable with either way. Lesson learned, though- two 30m ropes would have been the ideal rope kit for this climb.
We eventually got back down to the glacier where Becky, Nicole and I roped up for good measure and Dave roamed free with his mad glissading skills. The evening light was already giving a beautiful hue to the colors- I was anxious to get back to camp and get some dinner down before the real light show began.
Dave glissading down Sahale glacier. Becky begins to explain how Dave likes to flex some part of his body in order to control his speed. Let's leave that to your imagination.
Dave leading us down the glacier under some slowly warming evening light
Sunset light from camp
Final rays of light off to the west and Johannesburg featuring hanging glaciers
The fading sunlight only offered up different photographic opportunities with the stars quickly coming out and populating the sky fully. Luckily there was a new moon, so the dark skies were studded with amazing stars, and the Milky Way was thick and beautiful all night long.
Star trails above Sahale Mountain. The downside of the Milky Way- it tens to lighten the sky in trails!
Milky Way and light pollution looking South.
Our original trip featured a climb of Sharkfin Tower on Sunday, but we opted for the relaxing in camp and driving back to Seattle in time to recover in time for the week version instead. Which I wasn't complaining about exactly. A wonderful sunrise was had, then back to bed for another hour or so! Epic.
Double double rainbow under a beautiful sunrise
peaks off to the South and Doubtful Lake in the morning
Sahale Mountain and colorful morning skies
Best bathroom ever.
After our leisurely morning in camp we walked on down into increasingly warm weather and decreasingly prepared hikers. It is pretty cool that Cascade Pass trail, being so easily graded, allows such a great range of folks the chance to gaze out at these remote and rugged peaks. We saw a number of older folks- one mentioned that she had climbed Sahale in 1974....wish I could have seen the glaciers then!
I recently began writing in a journal when out in the mountains. I was drawn to how clear my mind can be when a single goal has been laid out, and once at the summit, achieved. Many trips I would have excellent thoughts circulating around as I ground my way up towards the top of the world. Once I began carrying a journal I began to recount the events of the trip in much better detail than I could reproduce back at home with the distractions of email, laundry, life, etc. I haven't, at this time, recorded that unaltered stream of consciousness that occurs sometimes while climbing. I think that ought to stay where it is.
It occurred to me, however, that it would be great to have a searchable and shareable collection of stories from climbing not only to jog my memory, but also to encourage others to seek out the mountains- be it the ones I'm privileged to live near and explore, or similar ones around the world.
After climbing Mt Adams we visited Hood River and then spent a day and a half at Smith Rock doing some casual cragging- what a beautiful area. The next climbing objective was South Sister down in Oregon. We drove out of Bend and up into the mountains, passing Bachelor (ski resort) and finally arriving at the trailhead- greeted by countless blood thirsty mosquitos.
We got a quick start due to the bugs and crossed the road (yes I'm sure that's the way) and up a trail next to THE creek (yes I'm sure this is the creek). Two stream crossings and twenty minutes later we realize this is certainly not the right creek. Be careful after crossing the road... you need to cross and walk down along the road for a few minutes and go up the next creek crossing. Fortuitously my GPS didn't have topo maps for this area, so it was difficult to know our mistake right away.
South Sister
After our delay we hurried up the slowly rising slopes towards the climb- worrying that we might not have enough time to summit. I realized on this trip that there are several different types of "turn around times". We had imposed a "social" turn around time in order to arrive at our B&B with time to relax. "Social" turn around times are rubbish and are easily discarded... unless its raining. We reached the open flat slopes after breaking out of the gulley in the dense woods and got our first views of the route. A clear path was present up the clear red ridge extending towards us... it seemed fairly far away, but we were determined to see how far up we could get.
Our climbing route was visible after breaking out from the trees
We proceeded up snowslopes and finally climbing behind the obvious triangular gray peak, which we were able to basically climb around the back of. From there it was a little scrambly up to the bottom of the red ridge, which we gained near the snout of the Lewis Glacier, which spills into a beautiful green colored small lake. I ditched the skis at this point- not wanting to mess around with skiing over the open crevasses that crossed much of the skiing that laid above. On foot, however, we stayed off the glacier and climbed directly up the Red Ridge (cleaver between Clark and Lewis Glaciers).
Our climbing route on the upper mountain (can you see Nicole?)
There she is.
Getting close to the rim
Near the top we were presented with the most challenging portion of the climb, as the angle steepened about 200' below the crater and there was only one thin snow free line. We opted to kick steps, but this was a little difficult in places as the snowcover was a bit thin and sometimes icy underneath. We proceeded carefully up and made the crater rim without issue.
Nicole topping out on the crater rim- hope we don't get lost down below in that maze...
The top of South Sister is actually almost directly across the crater, so we set off directly across. What a beautiful world on top of volcanoes. A flat reprieve from the climbing allowed a quick walk over to the base of the final scramble- a fairly simple climb up to the top.
Nicole strolling across the crater
View North from the summit
Nicole descending from the summit
We had long ago blown through our "social" turnaround time, but still had plenty of time to get out before dark. We downclimbed to the ditched skis where Nicole began her glissading, and I quickly caught up on skis. Traveling quickly down to the large flat lava outcroppings, we were pleased to have pushed through and gotten the summit. We navigated our tracks back through the woods and down to the car- only 3 hour descent! We even had time to pick up some pizza on the way through Bend before getting to our B&B in time to share a beer with the owner. Best. Vacation. Ever.
Beautiful view of the crater and clouds below us from the summit
The end of July featured a weeklong trek of Southern Washington and Oregon that Nicole and I pulled off right after she graduated school and I started a new job. It was a beautiful thing because we both had been dreading the summer of no vacation, and then all of a sudden a week of free time landed in our laps, and we took full advantage.
First up was Mt Adams- we drove down and camped at the trailhead on the 23rd- I can see why access is so difficult for this climb- the road is rough (for a Civic) and I could easily imagine how a bit of snow would push the opening of it back weeks upon weeks.
At the crack of 9:30 we were off.... like we were on vacation. Which we were. It was relaxing to start a climb so late in the morning.
Heading up the trail- one night easily fitting in a 38L pack
We took our time and managed to get turned around a bit... a decent bootpack went West around the Crescent Glacier but we kept wanting the east route to go as it was more direct... we did finally find a way through, and a smaller bootpack going that way as well- turns out it is the "winter" route.
Mt St Helens was in view much of the day
I began skinning not far from where the trail had left the treeline only a mile or so in, but had to portage over small rockmelt numerous times. Despite that the skinning was all very easy and the climb was enjoyable. I stayed relatively close to Nicole in the bootpack and we made steady progress, after getting unlost. We got up to camp around 3pm and spend a wonderful afternoon lounging around and drying out clothes.
Nicole heading on up the final slopes to camp
The views were spectacular- with Hood and Jefferson clearly visible to the South and St Helens looking so close just off to the west.
Mt Hood
Mt St Helens
Climbers and Mt Hood
Mt St Helens in the fading light
Hood from lunch Counter
Sunset light was excellent on these surrounding peaks. The southerly aspect of our camp kept any real alpenglow forming on any nearby slopes, but with the colorful skies around and the hazy skies adding a mystery to some of the far away ridgelines, it was a beautiful sunset. Off to bed at 9PM!
Piker's Peak under the stars
I snapped some photos of the clear night sky, but otherwise got a good nights rest looking forward to the climb the next day. We woke at 5AM, ate a quick breakfast and joined the hordes ascending on Piker's Peak. I tried my hand at skinning what I could of Piker's- probably made it up about halfway, but then gave in to the ease of bootpacking. If only I hadn't left those skipons in the car. The transition on hard steep snow was good practice and soon enough I was joining the congo line on the staircase.
heading up Piker's in the AM
Looking back down towards camp- Nicole climbing up
Crampons and axe... essential tools of the day
I joined back up with Nicole just below the summit of Piker's and we took a quick break before pushing over the top. At over 10,000' we were feeling it a bit, but had plenty of time left to summit and get back down to camp.
After topping out on Piker's we made the traverse across the plateau and were set to do the last 600' up to the summit. A low cloud deck hung out just a few hundred feet above us making for interesting lighting.
ants climbing
Summit of Adams (not really, but we went there after this picture)
Rainier... peaking out just a bit
Beautiful weather window
We snapped a few summit photos and then started our descent. I gave Nicole a bit of a head start, relaxing on the summit for a few minutes, then clicked into bindings and tried to keep enough speed to get back up to Piker's..not quite. Had to do a little shuffle, but didn't have to boot or skin at least.
Nicole descending from the summit
The sun hadn't quite come out as was forecast and I was afraid Piker's might be a bit too firm for good turns. As it turned out about 1-2" of decent heavy snow was laid out on a pool table, so the skiing wasn't bad at all. I picked out the steepest line I could on skier's right and let it rip down the first third of the slope. Nearing the bottom the snow got heavier, but always easily carvable- more than a few hollers were in order.
Piker's Peak
Arriving back at camp we quickly packed up and began our descent. There was much to be skiied / glissaded below so we made excellent time. 5.5 hours up and 2 hours down! We threw our stuff in the car and drove off to the next leg of our vacation, a B&B in Hood River.
