Home > Trip Reports > April 9, 2017, Cashmere Mountain

April 9, 2017, Cashmere Mountain

4/9/17
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
4503
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Posted by goleary on 4/10/17 3:24am
Only saw one other group heading up this way yesterday morning. They were headed for Canon Mountain Couloir...wonder how it was.

Ed and my objective for the day was Cashmere. I'd been eyeing the scramble route for a while but a winter condition ascent sounded like even more fun.  We decided on the south route due to icicle creek road being gated at eight mile road.

We were on the lookout for the wind slab in the forecast but other than a few pockets we didn't find much instability.


With the last few cold and wet weeks our wishful thinking had us starting in ski boots at the eight-mile icicle creek junction. 2 miles later we actually put our skis on...  The road is melting out fast down low.



We more or less followed the road to about 3800 feet where we had to cross a creek and began booting upwards.  The snow was patchy and we did a bit of slabby scrambling to get back to snow above for more skinning.


Slushy corn made for challenging skinning at points.


Corn gave way to mushy fresh snow which made skiing horrendous. We gave up and began booting somewhere between 7 and 7.5k


We ditched our skis for the last few hundred feet to the summit.  - More of it was "skiable" than what we did but in our tired states and with the consequences we decided to save that for another day.  The scramble to the summit was enough to get the heart pounding but definitely not enough to warrant lugging a rope or pro.


The views were absurdly gorgeous. Never seen the enchantments from this angle before.


the skiing down was variable but quite enjoyable nonetheless. Packed powder gave way to corn around 5k.

Plenty of spring shenanigans were had getting back to eightmile road.


All in all a stellar day in the mountains.


Horribly noisy GPS track here: https://www.gaiagps.com/datasummary/track/9849ba14ad2991959f737caff88165ad/

Anyone else ever have their iPhone go haywire when tracking with GAIA? mine seems to be getting worse and worse...
Strong work!

Someone might want to check on their crampon fit - the left foot attachment looks quite precarious!

Great report Gents, the pictures tell 1000's of words. It looks like winter is still going strong above the lake.

cchapin - You know I actually thought the same thing when I first looked at that picture.

I found another photo of Ed that shows the crampon a bit better (attached). I think it's the white/gray rubber of the boot that makes it look the way it does.  I However stick to my fully auto crampons for my ski boots.

Jake the Brit - thank you sir! Winter will definitely sticking around for some time up there.  Sadly the road and a lot of the terrain lower down is already surprisingly bare (surprising to me anyway).

Nice work!  Great view of Colchuck from that spot.  We were on Stuart that day.  Surprisingly cold up high! 

author=Good2Go link=topic=38281.msg155126#msg155126 date=1491935218]
Nice work!  Great view of Colchuck from that spot.  We were on Stuart that day.  Surprisingly cold up high!   


Isn't it!

Was that your snowmobile track on on 8mile road?  What did you guys get up to on Stuart?

author=goleary link=topic=38281.msg155130#msg155130 date=1491945197]
Isn't it!

Was that your snowmobile track on on 8mile road?  What did you guys get up to on Stuart?


We went in via the Teanaway Rd.  Climbed the Cascadian Couloir, and skied the down the false summit and SE shoulder as that line was holding smooth pow and buff.  Was pretty good skiing top to bottom. Should be plenty of snow up there for late season couloir bagging. 

author=Good2Go link=topic=38281.msg155137#msg155137 date=1491958726]
We went in via the Teanaway Rd.  Climbed the Cascadian Couloir, and skied the down the false summit and SE shoulder as that line was holding smooth pow and buff.  Was pretty good skiing top to bottom. Should be plenty of snow up there for late season couloir bagging. 

Awesome! That route is on my list for this season.  Did you guys use a sled to access? I hear the roads back there are still quite covered...

Yep, sleds were used. Road is still covered all the way to 29 Pines (think it's about 12 miles to the summer trail head).   

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goleary
2017-04-10 10:24:55