March 12, 2005, Sahale Arm
3/12/05
WA Cascades East Slopes North
1932
0
Decided to day trip up the Sahale arm yesterday. A fairly early start around 7:30, and about 7 cars at the MP 21 gate.
A few wide eyes at the site of my mountain bike, this would pay off on the way out.
Like the post from last weekend, the road is essentially clear except for a debris slide over the road in one spot, and some buckling in the pavement just after the Boston Basin trailhead. Pushed the bike most of the way to the Cascade pass trailhead.
I decided to take the trail because the valley approach looked like some alder/maple bushwacking. The trail has some snow at the start for a short while and then is bone dry to about a 1/4 mile from Cascade pass.
Found a couple that had camped on the trail friday night and helped them kick steps to the pass. I hated the idea of them missing the view after coming all that way.
They had been rained on Friday night while hiking up. You could see some minor "sun/rain cups" in the hard snow around the pass.
From the pass, the south facing snow softened up first, but boot packing seemed the quickest way up that section.
I skinned to the base of Sahale's summit pyramid, and turned around at 1:30. It was off/on wind all day, and there was definitely some nuance to finding good corn.
The uppermost snow didn't form up by the time I skiied it and it was a nice scrapey decent to the main snowfield above the moraine. This big snowfield is just beautiful, and will be great for a weekend trip where you can get some laps in. The best corn was below the basecamp moraine down to where the arm kinda flattens out for a bit. On the way down, I passed about 6 or 7 skiers. You can ski continuous down the arm if you stay to the east side of the arm.
Then a short climb up to the top of the bump on the arm before the pass.
On the final slope down to the pass, I took a nice "straight-ski, caught edge" tumble in front of some heavy backpack'ed climbers. They were the only overnighters I saw heading up for Saturday night.
The snow was really warmed up and nice and soft. I was able to get to the pass with a short slide over a couple feet of heather.
I decided to take the valley back, as others had booted up it during the morning. The slopes down from the pass, have such a nice angle, but they were pretty hard from the wind and shade. A little route finding getting down the small cliff band, I ended up toe-ing my way down. It wouldn't be that bad once the snow softens up some more, you just need to know which way to pick. I wasn't looking for any heroics by myself.
Once below the small cliff band, the snow was blocky from slides and frozen hard, very difficult to slide on. So it was mostly hiking out.
It's definitely quicker to go the valley route, instead of the trail. Once I got back to the trailhead, my bike got me to the gate in 10 minutes.
I had a good day, alot of mileage, great views.
A few wide eyes at the site of my mountain bike, this would pay off on the way out.
Like the post from last weekend, the road is essentially clear except for a debris slide over the road in one spot, and some buckling in the pavement just after the Boston Basin trailhead. Pushed the bike most of the way to the Cascade pass trailhead.
I decided to take the trail because the valley approach looked like some alder/maple bushwacking. The trail has some snow at the start for a short while and then is bone dry to about a 1/4 mile from Cascade pass.
Found a couple that had camped on the trail friday night and helped them kick steps to the pass. I hated the idea of them missing the view after coming all that way.
They had been rained on Friday night while hiking up. You could see some minor "sun/rain cups" in the hard snow around the pass.
From the pass, the south facing snow softened up first, but boot packing seemed the quickest way up that section.
I skinned to the base of Sahale's summit pyramid, and turned around at 1:30. It was off/on wind all day, and there was definitely some nuance to finding good corn.
The uppermost snow didn't form up by the time I skiied it and it was a nice scrapey decent to the main snowfield above the moraine. This big snowfield is just beautiful, and will be great for a weekend trip where you can get some laps in. The best corn was below the basecamp moraine down to where the arm kinda flattens out for a bit. On the way down, I passed about 6 or 7 skiers. You can ski continuous down the arm if you stay to the east side of the arm.
Then a short climb up to the top of the bump on the arm before the pass.
On the final slope down to the pass, I took a nice "straight-ski, caught edge" tumble in front of some heavy backpack'ed climbers. They were the only overnighters I saw heading up for Saturday night.
The snow was really warmed up and nice and soft. I was able to get to the pass with a short slide over a couple feet of heather.
I decided to take the valley back, as others had booted up it during the morning. The slopes down from the pass, have such a nice angle, but they were pretty hard from the wind and shade. A little route finding getting down the small cliff band, I ended up toe-ing my way down. It wouldn't be that bad once the snow softens up some more, you just need to know which way to pick. I wasn't looking for any heroics by myself.
Once below the small cliff band, the snow was blocky from slides and frozen hard, very difficult to slide on. So it was mostly hiking out.
It's definitely quicker to go the valley route, instead of the trail. Once I got back to the trailhead, my bike got me to the gate in 10 minutes.
I had a good day, alot of mileage, great views.
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