July 4-5, 2009; Glacier Peak, Dusk Patrol
7/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
4323
9
Short story
Long Story
With all the good weather forecast I decided to forgo my usual style of 'fast as possible' and actually enjoy a trip. With that in mind I drove late Friday night to the North Fork Sauk TH with the idea of getting plenty of rest for the next day. Well, being me, that turned into only 1 hour of sleep, but who cares, the sky was blue and the temps nice and warm.
The NF Sauk trail seems to have fallen into disrepair over the last few years, and while easy to follow, has it's share of slowdowns. The jungle sections are quite overgrown, but Red Creek is easy to cross on a log jam. Halfway up the climb to White Pass there is a particularly thick section of avalanche crushed trees that I avoided by hiking straight up through the woods, skirting the debris on the left, and intersecting the trail at a higher level.
White pass has always been one of my favorite areas, and it never disappoints as far as scenery is concerned. I hiked the Foam Basin trail a short ways from the pass and headed up slope on the first convenient snowfinger descending from the ridge. Too lazy to keep carrying camping gear, I dropped it all off about halfway up to the ridge crest. A few good turns led down to the beginning of the White Chuck basin and its enormous suncups.
I took the low route through the basin, definitely a mistake, to Glacier Gap. The snowcoverage was continuous. In just a couple turns I was down to the base of Gerdine Ridge, now melted out. The dirt slope looked faster than the steep sidehilling on skis so I hiked to a high point of the ridge where it was easy to get back onto snow. The section from here to the col past Dissapointment Cleaver only had one tiny crevasse and relatively small suncups.
The dirty climb up the pumice slope led to the final ultra squishy post-holing and the summit. It seemed too late (7:20) to mess around with anything but the fastest way back down, so I skied the line of ascent back to where I could traverse the dirt over to the col. The snow had really firmed up in just a short time and the turns were quite good, but unfortunately it was rock hard suncup land at the col. 1000ft of chattery scraping and it became pretty good again, and I enjoyed nice turns back to the base of the ridge.
To speed things up through the White Chuck basin, I decided to try a higher level traverse and this saved a ton of time. On the way I was was treated to a fantastic red sunset. The ski turns here where mostly survival type through giant suncups (sun-mountains?). By headlamp I followed a boottrack over the ridge that crossed sooner than my original route, allowing me to save a bit of needless climbing. Under the nearly full moon I reached the tent at about 11:00pm.
After getting to sleep by 3am I was up at 4 for the morning light. I lazed around the pass, taking pictures and basically enjoying the weather until finally packing up and heading out by noon. I can't remember the last time I've had such an opened ended itenerary on a trip---it was a nice change.
Trip Summary
Good snow coverage from White Pass, with only a couple bare sections, (melting fast though);
Big suncups in White Chuck basin, smaller to no suncups higher up;
I didn't need axe or crampons;
The approach trail is slow, but easy to follow;
The Sloan Creed road is open and freshly graded to the TH.
With all the good weather forecast I decided to forgo my usual style of 'fast as possible' and actually enjoy a trip. With that in mind I drove late Friday night to the North Fork Sauk TH with the idea of getting plenty of rest for the next day. Well, being me, that turned into only 1 hour of sleep, but who cares, the sky was blue and the temps nice and warm.
The NF Sauk trail seems to have fallen into disrepair over the last few years, and while easy to follow, has it's share of slowdowns. The jungle sections are quite overgrown, but Red Creek is easy to cross on a log jam. Halfway up the climb to White Pass there is a particularly thick section of avalanche crushed trees that I avoided by hiking straight up through the woods, skirting the debris on the left, and intersecting the trail at a higher level.
White pass has always been one of my favorite areas, and it never disappoints as far as scenery is concerned. I hiked the Foam Basin trail a short ways from the pass and headed up slope on the first convenient snowfinger descending from the ridge. Too lazy to keep carrying camping gear, I dropped it all off about halfway up to the ridge crest. A few good turns led down to the beginning of the White Chuck basin and its enormous suncups.
I took the low route through the basin, definitely a mistake, to Glacier Gap. The snowcoverage was continuous. In just a couple turns I was down to the base of Gerdine Ridge, now melted out. The dirt slope looked faster than the steep sidehilling on skis so I hiked to a high point of the ridge where it was easy to get back onto snow. The section from here to the col past Dissapointment Cleaver only had one tiny crevasse and relatively small suncups.
The dirty climb up the pumice slope led to the final ultra squishy post-holing and the summit. It seemed too late (7:20) to mess around with anything but the fastest way back down, so I skied the line of ascent back to where I could traverse the dirt over to the col. The snow had really firmed up in just a short time and the turns were quite good, but unfortunately it was rock hard suncup land at the col. 1000ft of chattery scraping and it became pretty good again, and I enjoyed nice turns back to the base of the ridge.
To speed things up through the White Chuck basin, I decided to try a higher level traverse and this saved a ton of time. On the way I was was treated to a fantastic red sunset. The ski turns here where mostly survival type through giant suncups (sun-mountains?). By headlamp I followed a boottrack over the ridge that crossed sooner than my original route, allowing me to save a bit of needless climbing. Under the nearly full moon I reached the tent at about 11:00pm.
After getting to sleep by 3am I was up at 4 for the morning light. I lazed around the pass, taking pictures and basically enjoying the weather until finally packing up and heading out by noon. I can't remember the last time I've had such an opened ended itenerary on a trip---it was a nice change.
Trip Summary
Good snow coverage from White Pass, with only a couple bare sections, (melting fast though);
Big suncups in White Chuck basin, smaller to no suncups higher up;
I didn't need axe or crampons;
The approach trail is slow, but easy to follow;
The Sloan Creed road is open and freshly graded to the TH.
Nice work and thanks for the conditions update. Is that second picture looking back down from Glacier toward the approach route, with the N Fork Sauk valley in the far background?
I think you skied right past us as we were climbing to camp Saturday night near Glacier Gap? Great job going from the road to the summit and back to your camp in one day! That's a long haul.
The photo looking down the mountain is the ascent route I took, with Disappointment Peak in the fore/middle ground. Yeah, I really wanted to get back into those big suncups fast, so I had to cut down on the talking:)
It was a great time up there. Nice to meet another skier (I think that was you anyhow). What a great place! I couldn't believe how many people there were in that area though. A shock to us after not seeing anyone for nearly a week.
ultradonkey -- miraculously i caught a pic of you standing on the summit (it was unintentional but very cool -- i have 2 shots -- one just b4 w/o and the next with you) ... we were camped below on the ridge and i said hi ... when we have them edited i'll post it and pm you ... now to unpack all the wet stuff ....ugh
o yeah jason ... i forgot ... and some good shots of your killer turns of the day, too ;)
o yeah jason ... i forgot ... and some good shots of your killer turns of the day, too ;)
Nice! that's a hell of a tour for such a short time! props!
here ya go (but sorry i can't figure out how to attach my large size photo so you can see -- you on the summit ... and jason's and kyle's turns on disappointment and east of the climbing route -- so go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33792231@N00/3698896801/sizes/l/in/set-72157620978750667/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33792231@N00/3698898553/sizes/l/in/set-72157620978750667/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33792231@N00/3698896801/sizes/l/in/set-72157620978750667/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33792231@N00/3698898553/sizes/l/in/set-72157620978750667/
Sweet! Thanks Kath.
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