July 4, 2012 - Daniel

Nicole and I celebrated the 4th by skipping out of work at 4 and driving out towards Cle Elum. After driving past the fourth snowmobile rust pile on the side of the road, you keep going on the forest road until you get your third major automobile malfunction, and then you need to cross a large creek, in your car, and drive the last 3 miles to the trailhead.

Upon arriving at the trailhead for Squaw Lake and Mt Daniel, it was a bit cloudy and the rain had just started. Weather was supposed to be clearing, but we didn't feel much like walking up just to camp out in the rain... plus the total trip is only 12 miles, so we decided to just camp in the car.

Nicole setting up camp in the car

Ice and early morning light on Squaw Lake

We strolled up the trailhead after throwing down a quick breakfast and made our way up to Squaw Lake and along the seemingly endless ridge towards Cathedral Rock. We tackled the traverse around Cathedral rock in the morning, but the existing steps allowed us to avoid putting crampons on. From the viewpoints near Peggy's Pond, the rest of the route to E. Daniel along the SE ridge was in clear view.

E. Daniel and Cathedral Rock before the traverse

Nicole with Cathedral rock behind

We slogged up snow for several hours and finally began the rock scramble to gain the saddle just below E. Daniel. We had long ago passed our turn around time to make it back to Seattle for the evening festivities, thanks to the long drive ahead of us on the forest road, but we decided to turn around just short of the East peak to get out in the light.

And good thing we did, as the routefinding proved a bit difficult on the way out... we were a bit lazy in the trees where the snow started to fade out, and the trail was pretty hard to follow. We realized that the trail we were on was leading us too far along the ridge, so we cut a descending traverse across a steep forested slope and then plunge stepped down the forest duff until we hit the main trail again. Given that it was almost evening time, we were both relieved to find the trail, and an easy walk out to the car.

Nicole happy to see Ru again

February 4, 2012 Sasse Ridge

 Sasse Ridge

Camp (blue) and Jolly (orange).

Nicole and I took advantage of the high pressure across much of WA over the weekend and headed out to the eastside to head up Sasse Ridge and hopefully climb Jolly Mtn. We drove out to Cle Elum, aka snowmobile central. Makes you appreciate the wilderness much more.

We pushed off from the end of Salmon La Sac road aiming to follow the road up Sasse Ridge, cut it when possible, and set camp up high on the ridge ready for a climb of Jolly the next day. Each time we stepped off the road to cut the gradual switchbacks someone somewhere was chuckling... we would either run into firm icy crust on top of an inch of ball bearings or would do our best to go in circles instead of cut straight up to the road.

Camp was set up at the top of a bootpack we established up a snowmobile track. The road meandered under a steep exposed slope that was getting drilled with sunlight. We choose to boot the ridge along it instead of traverse under it. Noting that we would get a free windblock and easy access to night skiing, we promptly stopped and set up camp.

Nicole booting up to camp

Shadow and Stuart

Camp

The chiefs

Evening fell as we took pictures, cooked our meal and threw all warm gear into the tent.

Nicole basking in the warm sunlight...

Tahoma sunset

Bears breast mountain

Sunset tracks. I sware this guy stalked camp.

Ripping skins we looked down the now moonlit slope that spread out before us for a good 600' vertical run. 4" of powder on top of a firm base was enough for fun turns, but nothing to float into. Careful selection was needed to keep out of the wind scouring on more east facing slopes, as the winds over this weekend were easterlies.

The moon was very bright and subdued all but the brightest of stars. We shivered ourselves to sleep, working out layers only later in the night and slept a few hours comfortably.

Full moon competed with stars all night long

In an epic fail I decided I'd just get up when the sun started to come up... a technique that I can usually pull off, but having only really fallen asleep at 1am, I slept right through what I imagine was an epic sunrise.

Framed Tahoma

We made our way along the ridgeline towards Jolly, traversing past knobs we didn't need to climb and jumping from saddle to saddle. Navigation was fun but also slowed our progress a bit. By noon we realized that we would turn the exit into a headlamp affair if we pushed on, so we grudgingly decided to ski a sweet slope below us instead. The 1200' of soft snow brought us back down to the road uphill from camp, so we skied down and then shushed our way along the road back to our bootpack and camp.

Nicole ripping it up on the slopes below camp

We threw some soggy items out on top of the tent to dry (thank you east side sun) and took our time striking camp. The way down on the road was mostly downhill, but there was enough poling to keep your upper body working just enough. The frozen snowmobile tracks made the exit a bit spicy and caution was heeded most of the way down.

A beautiful weekend in a beautiful place with a great view into the heart of the Eastern Cascades. I hadn't seen many of those peaks before, and many I'd seen only from different vantages. Time to climb a few.