Home > Trip Reports > Mt. Cashmere, Jan 9, 0h-10

Mt. Cashmere, Jan 9, 0h-10

1/15/10
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by jwplotz on 1/10/10 6:01am
It can be said I lack imagination.  If you looked at my touring resume, you'd find it's very top-heavy with tours like Cannon Mountain, 8 Mile Mtn, Colchuck, Stuart...get the point? 

So it was no surprise when I decided to tour Mt. Cashmere, completing a loop starting up 8 Mile Rd., top out at Cashmere's west peak (pt. 8232) and ski down Dr. Creek out to Icicle Rd.  I convinced Scott (Alecapone) that this really would be a good split-board tour.  I told him there would be, "minimal transitions."  Man was I wrong...

Santa was good to me this year, and this would be a good litmus test for my new touring gear:  Manaslu Skis, Dynafit Zzero C4 boots.  They totally didn't disappoint!  I literally had a 6 to 7 pound weight savings on my previous setup, and I felt the difference.

Starting out at 6:30am there was a light drizzle/graupel, a bad sign but not enough to douse the stoke.  We turned off at 8 Mile Lk trail, cutting up Pioneer Creek.  In a good year it's a huge pain, and this time it didn't disappoint.  Low coverage left a lot of rotten snow over brush and logs, making skinning strenuous.  At one point we had to boot up a rotten headwall.  Up higher, the sun came out and it felt...warm?  Weird!  The snow was turning to corn, and the views regaled themselves.  We hit the high point at around 2pm.  Had it not been for the icy wind, we could have hung out longer. 

We found Dr. Creek variable.  The upper 1,000 feet or so was a few inches of powder over crust, then lower, crust, and lower, rain-runneled crust.  Dr. Creek is made up of multiple bowls and flat tiers, and Scott endured a frustrating series of transitions and post-holing that would leave even the most enthused among us disillusioned. 

We hit the Dr. Creek logging road (Thank God!) at around 3:15 and Icicle Rd. by dusk, which left us with a skinless skin 4 miles back to the car.

Gorgeous day despite, and only hope Ale can forgive me for the misinformation!  There are better split-board tours out there I'm sure!
Ha.

No worries. The good far out weighed the bad. It wasn't really that bad. I probably could have done parts of that a little more efficantly.  It was cool to get a tour of the area you know so well, and worth it for the views alone. Has me inspired to go and check out the area a little more. Thanks for the solid lead!

Great effort guys! So cool that you guys are out out exploring this area in January.  My touring resume lacks trips in this area which I hope to change sometime soon.

Strong performance -- I calculate about 19 miles of distance and 6000ft of elevation gain on that route.

That ridge pic is great...nice TR!

Thanks!  I usually round up when calculating my mileage, so I'm sticking with 20 miles!

Of course, in the planning stage I usually round down significantly.

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mt-cashmere-jan-9-0h-10
jwplotz
2010-01-10 14:01:53