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.
