June 29, 2008, -- Sahale Arm

Anita, Sally and I walked up the Cascade River Road (closed past the Eldorado TH) for <1-1/2 hours to the Cascade Pass TH.  The road was an obstacle course of avy debris.  What a mess.  The Cascade River, feeding streams and cascades were raging with snowmelt water.  We camped near the TH.

We awoke early (hoping for firm conditions) then bushwhacked to the basin below Cascade Pass.  The snow was firmer than we thought after such a warm night.  The ramp at c. 4800 ft. through the cliff bands W of the pass was firm and continuous, but won't be for long.  I skied the ramp with harscheisen, while Anita and Sally booted.  After the traverse, we encountered easy skinning on firm conditions to the pass and up to the arm, with one short carry.  Once on the arm, the snow was discontinuous.  We stopped for lunch, views and sun at c. 7000 feet on the arm, and, after seeing evidence of a substantial slide on the Sahale Glacier, decided to ski down from our lunch spot.  We descended a few hundred feet on great corn, then skinned up to near Pt. 6263, then descended S on fun firm corn to a few hundred feet below and E of the pass.  We humped up to the pass and then skied nice corn through the trees to and across the Ramp o' Death ;), where we encountered two spooked XC skiers booting across w/ soft boots w/o ice axes (not recommended).  Below the RoD, we dodged rocks and avy debris on semi-firm sun cups to the bushwhack, TH and road.

Lovely mellow trip to one of our favorite places.