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isolation traverse may 22-25

5/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2740
4
Posted by Eben on 5/26/09 3:06pm
Linden, Todd and i skied the 'isolation traverse' from pyramid lake TH to cascade pass over the long weekend. 

Friday morning we hiked up the trail from pyramid lakes TH to skinnable snow around 4500' where we discovered the new free-flopping tele-floppers i installed on linden's skis the night before couldn't be screwed down short enough to fit on his small boots.  Fortunately Todd's skis could, a near miss.   We climbed colonial to have a peek down the scary north face rodeo, skied a nice W facing gully and crossed the Neve glacier.  We climbed the northwest face of snowfield in the fading light and skied from a hundred below the summit or so.  we camped that night on a broad shoulder south of snowfield.

Saturday we skied down to the lake just east of Isolation peak and skinned and climbed back around to the summit.  It looks like you could cut a higher traverse on the ridge above this lake (but still below the peak) if snow coverage was good and stable.  We skied down the gentle south arm of isolation peak and skinned up over the E shoulder of newhalem peak.  The gully up to the coccyx/backbone ridge was threatened by some juicy cornices and the northeast faces were vigorously shedding snow so we opted to climb the ridge that formed the east side of this gully which is much better protected but it was still stressful.  We skinned up the backbone, climbed to "lowell's col" just north of Dorado needle and dug out a platform for the mid, sacrificing shelter for views. 

Sunday we skied down to the Mcallister and crossed over to the col northwest of Klawatti. Snow seemed prime so we dumped our gear at the SW corner of Klawatti, climbed and skied the S face (much gentler than the imposing view from eldo suggests, fun!) and headed out to Austera where we ran into Casey and Morgan working on their tans.  Linden's appetite for corn could not be satisfied and after some lounging he rallied us for a run down the Inspiration.  We camped at the Klawatti gear stash.  it was a party on the greater eldorado ice cap this weekend!

Monday morning we traversed around the inspiration to have a go at the appealing NW face of torment.  I thought you could ski onto the bottom of the torment glacier but it looked like a rap longer than our 30m was needed so we gave in to the temptation of good snow in the moderate and spectacular moraine lake chute.  The snow was pretty dirty in the bottom third but we found ok skiing by staying up on the walls.  From the lake we booted back up our ski tracks to torment col.  Our other car was at sibley creek but looking across the expanses of slush that we needed to slog to the triad and HLP we swallowed our pride and went down eldo creek and bummed a ride. 

thanks to folks who shared their trips on this route.  heres some pictures:  http://picasaweb.google.com/ebensargent/IsolationTraverse#




Strong work!

I especially like your photo #30 of the McAllister cirque. What a beautiful place.


Very Nice. Cool you ran into Casey and Morgan.

Sick trip.  Real nice pics.

Here is a shot I managed to grab as you skied by us Sunday evening below Klawatti, wish I'd had time to set-up better and I'd have a sequence, but it is one of my fav. shots of our trip (wish I'd had the energy to make a run - that snow was sweet.

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isolation-traverse-may-22-25
Eben
2009-05-26 22:06:23