November 19-20, 2005, Cadet Peak

The Hummels and I biked, hiked, wallowed and skied from Barlow Pass to the Glacier Basin.  Upon arrival in the basin, we checked our watches to make sure we were still on schedule. 11:30!  Four hours?  It took us four hours??  We looked at each other in disbelief, since we hadn't really even taken any breaks.  Must be because we are in "summer shape".  Or maybe it was the biking on snow, all the road hiking, and diffcult attempts to skin up the Glacier Basin trail through mush.

Well, no matter what, the day was already half gone, so we didn't waste too much time dumping our overnight gear and starting the slog up Cadet.  We had 2700ft left to go, which seemed reasonable given the remaining daylight - but I guess we wouldn't be achieving our "7 summits" goal so boldly laid out by Jason at the trailhead!

We climbed 1500ft up a couloir/stream gully, then across the bench on the west face of Cadet, to the final deep couloir that cuts through the summit cliffs.  It looked super-neato, and not too steep - but there was a little "bergschrund-kinda-thing" halfway up.  I kept quiet about it, hoping it was just an illusion.

The couloir was somewhat of a shooting gallery with the warm sun melting snow and icicles off the cliffs.  We wore our helmets despite the oppressive heat.  Jason was the first to reach the bergschrund, whereupon he proclaimed "Home sweet home!".

It turned out to be a cave with a 2 foot high snow entrance, but over 10 feet high inside, with rock walls decorated in icicles.  The back of the cave rose up and beyond into darkness.  After spending some time checking it out on the inside (and ascertaining its extremely high coolness factor), we decided we'd better figure out how to get over it on the outside.  Jason provided much entertainment as he solved this problem ("We gotta ice climb it.  It'll be a total joke... and I've never even ice climbed!").

We reached the summit some time after 3pm.  What an awesome spot, with rugged peaks all around.  The sun was low, the colours were rich, the views were wonderful.

The skiing was not.  Well actually, in the top couloir, things were really soft and it was actually pretty good if you like it that way.  I do.  The narrowness and half-pipe shape provided some tricky but fun turns.  The sun set behind Wilmans Peaks as we made our way down the bottom couloir, and so for the last 400ft or so things got really crusty and interesting.

That night the stars and Mars were beautiful, the skies were so clear.  Then they faded as the moon rose and lit up the Basin with surreal light (dim, yet somehow blinding).  Sunday morning we were a little too lazy/tired and un-enthused with the conditions to lug our butts up anything else, so we just skied out.

Um, well the ski out of the basin was just about as horrible as snow can be.  Extremely variable, bottomless slush on talus, crust - you get the idea.  It was fun, in that kind of way, you know...