March 28, 2015, Cascade Pass

Cascade River Rd is gated ~3/4 mile beyond the Eldorado TH and snow free all the way to the Cascade Pass lot.

We left the car at 0700 under moderate rainfall and light wind, following the summer trail to Cascade Pass. Rain transitioned to snow and above 4500' and continuous snow on the trail began around 4800'. Our initial plan was to head up Sahale Arm (hoping for rising clouds/clearing), but a stiff W wind and thick fog convinced us to bail and ski dense pow on the east facing slopes off Cascade Pass. We generally found good cohesion between the new snow and old rain saturated snow, aside from 10+" windslab on a rain crust near the ridge.

Around 1300, vis seemed to be getting worse so we began our descent back into Cascade Basin in a whiteout, using the line of trees above the cliffs as a handrail to find our route into the basin. Boilerplate up high, some windboard in the middle and deep schmoo down low, and a short 'schwack to the lot. As we were putting our skis back on our packs for the stroll out, the clouds lifted and began to part. When we reached the car, we were greeted by sunshine... a true PNW day.