March 21, 2006, Formidable Glacier

The Formidable Glacier on the Northeast side of Mt. Formidable first caught my eye as being a very asthetic line for a ski descent (quite possibly a 1st given the arduous approach with skis) in early February during the exit to Cache Col on my trip to Spider Mtn. with Ben & Sky.

My recent attempts to drum up a partner drew little interest near term.  Most responses I received was that this trip would be better done in the Spring.  Paul Belitz had the week off from UW, so once family left town on Sunday he was down for some Cascade MidFork action (I mean sufferfest).  I was concerned that the high pressure window would not hold beyond Monday based on forecasts.

I picked Paul up early Monday morning and we were on our way (I told work I had something important to do, so I arranged Monday/Tuesday off).  After getting to the old sign dividing the Mid & South Fork "unmaintained" trails in around an hour, we soon found ourselves on the crux of the approach, just above the raging waterfalls.  Needless to say, I did this approach in early February in the dark, so parts were obviously easier to follow by day.  After a couple of hours of hell we found ourselves skinning.  

By early/mid afternoon we were at the base of the drainage of the Middle Cascade Glacier.  We decided to stay high on the left side to avoid any further B.S. with downed trees.  We continued onward & I proposed to Paul we camp just beyond the trees that blanket the approach up to Kool Aid Lake.  He insisted on camping higher to get a better view of our route and a quicker ascent the 2nd day.  We settled on a spot around 5,400' which had a relatively flat ramp along the east side of the Middle Cascade Glacier.  From here we could see our route.  Paul raised the Betalite & by late afternoon the bluebird skies quickly gave way to a high cloud layer.  

Winds were variable throughout the night, and by morning, we noticed that some clearing would present us with sun once it rose.  We were off from camp by 6:30.  Wanting to avoid any debris fall from the lower ice cliffs, we followed the ramp that creates the lower dogleg of the route.  Within 1 hr. we were close to 6,500', and were making good time.  Breaking trail was quite taxing, which consisted of packed powder of varying depths on the route.  The crevasse hazard was nominal, although we both agreed we thought we had crossed a couple of bridges on the lower section.  After a quick break we continued.  The route got steeper and there were deep pockets of powder in sections making the going slow.  It was close to 9am, and we found ourselves just above the final bergshrund.  It was well bridged and presented no problems.  The final 50-60 feet steepend to around 40 degrees up to the saddle, so we decided to boot it.

Within 15 minutes, we were on top of the glacier and ready to ski.  I asked Paul to get some pics of me with my SLR  ;).  As I dropped in the conditions up top were windbuffed powder with a slight crust.  The sun had been out on most of the upper route the entire ascent, so within a couple hundred feet of the top, we had a combination of cruiser powder with some pockets of a slight wind crust.  The balance of the route provided us with some amazing powder.

As I had anticipated, this was a very asthetic line with the serac & icefall sections on the lower half of the descent.  After traversing Formidable's icefall debris field, we found ourselves back on the Middle Cascade Glacier & back at camp.  We were fortunate that the sun decided to make it's presence for nearly the entire day.  We were met with a constant rain as we returned to the car by early evening, as if someone was making a statement......