Home > Trip Reports > April 5, 2009, Mt. Cashmere N.E. Face

April 5, 2009, Mt. Cashmere N.E. Face

4/5/09
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by jwplotz on 4/5/09 10:56am
Today just felt epic.  The avy danger was high, but living east of the crest, I'm usually pretty aware of how much snow we get.  The N.E. Face of Mt. Cashmere is like a siren's song to any b/c skier as he/she is headed down Sunnyslope hill outside Wenatchee.  It begs you to ski it, and I've been itching to do it for a few years.  Given the forecast, I wasn't even planning on skiing it today.  However, it felt much colder than predicted.  The skinning offered up perfect bites without the need for crampons.  And the north side of Mt. Cashmere had pillowed powder  that was stable and consistently steep skiing over cliffs.  It's one of the best days I've had and I finally scratched the itch!

I clicked in just below the summit, and skied straight down skier's right for a couple hundred feet, then skied the center of the face, veering skier's right just above the lower cliffs.

After reaching the N. basin below the face, I skinned back up to a col just west of the Black Pyramid and reversed my uptrack, skiiing a few thousand feet of amazing south facing corn back to Pioneer Creek and 8 Mile Road.  I started at 7am and got back to the car at a very reasonable 4.30pm.  There were no slides, nor any sign of instability the entire day despite the warm temps. 

And, I got to drive 60mph driving East back to Wenatchee while the I-90 closure caused gridlock from Leavenworth to as far as I could see up the Blewitt pass hiway.  Sorry if this sounds smug  ;D

I'll post a few photos soon...
Very nice work!  I'm embarrassed to say, but I've tried to ski that chute in your pic three times now and haven't been successful.  First time we screwed up, second time we got caught in a storm, and the third time I had the bright idea of going in from the north....I don't recommend that, it involves a lot of skinning, side-hilling, and skinning some more - it is much easier to go in the way you did.  Anyway, we got to the base of the chute and it was way too late in the day (Feb.) to climb the thing and ski it.  I'm sort of obsessed with that side of the mountain.  It's short, but steep and very Alaska feeling.

I don't think I would have felt comfortable about the conditions to try it yesterday (especially solo?), but then again I didn't go take a look.  Nice work.  I have a similar photo btw.  Did you take that from a hike on the Fourth of July Creek trail by chance?

That chute I skie last year, accessing it from the south as well.  It's a great ski, but I just kept going down to Icicle Road down that N. basin.

Yeah, I've had this photo in my archive for something like 4 years.  I didn't take it.  Someone e-mailed me the photo by accident on CC.Com.  Definitely taken from Icicle Ridge.  It's probably yours!

A few photos to add, that I took with a P.O.S. disposable camera.  But hey, if you're nostalgic for semi-blurry, low quality photos, then you'll love 'em!

The Range of Stuart.


8 Mile Mtn. and Mt. Rainier


Looking east towards Wenatchee.


Looking down the face to the North basin.


Looking back up the N.E. Face.


Last look at Cashmere.

Looks like an awesome day of skiing. 
Your a better skier than I to tackle that step terrain - way to get er done!

An amazing trip on an amazing day!!  Great to see you finally got to ski what you've been dreaming about!!

Beautiful line, thanks for the report.

Not many people have skied that line. I can only think of a handful.

Nice job.

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april-5-2009-mt-cashmere-n-e-face
jwplotz
2009-04-05 17:56:53