June 11-13, 2015, Cache Col Environs, NCNP

David and I spent a few days around Cache Col and beyond, camping by Kool-Aid lake overlooking Formidable and its glacier and green Middle Fork valley below.  As we had feared, there wasn't much snow left around Cascade Pass.  Pelton Basin is now pretty bare as well.  Sahale still looked pretty snowy higher up.  Our approach to the lake was mostly on foot, except the glacier below the Cache col. Since South/West facing slopes were rather dry, we did not venture out Red Ledge and beyond.  However, we did find great skiing over the Hurry-Up/Arts-Knoll saddle into a basin below Spider Mtn.  Except a short carry, we enjoyed ~2500' of good corn snow. The glacier from Cache Col skied really well and we were able to ski straight down the main gully to the Pelton basin floor almost all the way.  It was a sweet steep ending of a ~2400' run.  Overall, the trip was very enjoyable despite the lack of snow.  Searching for hidden ski-able snow is always fun, well most of the time.

-Where is the snow?


-toward the Cache Col


-down to the lake, 8 turns? maybe


-not much snow here either


-pretty evenings, however




-skiing over Arts Knoll saddle down to Spider basin (?)


-skiing off Cache Col






More pics here.