June 24, 2018, Sahale/Sahale Arm
6/24/18
WA Cascades East Slopes North
2270
2
We skied Sahale via Sahale Arm on Sunday.
The road is closed at the El Dorado trailhead due to washouts, so we brought mountain bikes for the last 3 miles/1200ft to (and more importantly, from) Cascade Pass Trailhead. We then carried our skis up the never ending switchbacks to Cascade pass; snow is mostly continuous starting at about 6100ft, with one or two carries, the longest one at 6500ft. Crevasses were no problem (the big one at 8000ft spanning Sahale Glacier is still well filled in).
View from 6100ft:
We started skiing from the base of the summit pyramid at about 5pm. Conditions were great; we triggered some superficial, slow moving loose wet stuff just below the summit probably left over from recent precip. Made it to Cascade Pass with three carries. We considered trying to ski back to the parking lot by following fall line instead of the aforementioned never ending switch backs, knowing all that was between us and the road was a short snow free section at around 5100ft, but bailed at the prospect of getting cliffed out / having to cross a creek. Judging from looking back from the trailhead that was probably a good decision.
The ski-to-hike/bike ratio on this one wasn't great (1:2?), but the skiing, the views, the weather and the bike ride back to the car made it a memorable trip.
The road is closed at the El Dorado trailhead due to washouts, so we brought mountain bikes for the last 3 miles/1200ft to (and more importantly, from) Cascade Pass Trailhead. We then carried our skis up the never ending switchbacks to Cascade pass; snow is mostly continuous starting at about 6100ft, with one or two carries, the longest one at 6500ft. Crevasses were no problem (the big one at 8000ft spanning Sahale Glacier is still well filled in).
View from 6100ft:
We started skiing from the base of the summit pyramid at about 5pm. Conditions were great; we triggered some superficial, slow moving loose wet stuff just below the summit probably left over from recent precip. Made it to Cascade Pass with three carries. We considered trying to ski back to the parking lot by following fall line instead of the aforementioned never ending switch backs, knowing all that was between us and the road was a short snow free section at around 5100ft, but bailed at the prospect of getting cliffed out / having to cross a creek. Judging from looking back from the trailhead that was probably a good decision.
The ski-to-hike/bike ratio on this one wasn't great (1:2?), but the skiing, the views, the weather and the bike ride back to the car made it a memorable trip.
Looks like a great trip! Any photos looking toward cache col and Magic? Was thinking of doing the Magic S loop first week of July and/or putting up a base camp in Petlon Basin.
author=Eckels link=topic=40824.msg162144#msg162144 date=1529965205]
Looks like a great trip! Any photos looking toward cache col and Magic? Was thinking of doing the Magic S loop first week of July and/or putting up a base camp in Petlon Basin.
No close ups, but I cropped this from a pano:
You can find the full resolution panorama at http://myselph.de/myselph/Sahale_to_mixup.jpg
There was a boot pack from Cascade Pass to Cache Col, and we saw one or two groups on it; we also saw a group of two downclimbing Yawning Glacier (looked very skiable). It looked as if there snow slabs higher up on Mix-up Peak above the first, northeast-facing section of the traverse, waiting to come down, and with the rock band below, it looked a bit sketchy to us.
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