Cinco de Mayo, 2007, Sahale

Dave, Adam, Joe and I headed for Boston Basin last night.  From the gate at the Eldo TH it is about 2 1/2 miles to the BB TH.  There are 2 washouts - easily crossed with low freezing / water level.  We had high hopes of a big trip, but then it started raining hard, later snowing, postholing was bad and visibility turned to very poor.  Around 9 pm and at 6,300 we called it a day and pitched the Kiva.  It snowed hard all night and at 5 am it was still snowing and visibility was unchanged.  We decided to sleep a couple of more hours and previous plans were modified.  Headed up towards Sahale at around 8 am as weather had improved.  The new snow got deeper and deeper and at around 7,500 we were breaking trail in about 2 feet of new snow and temp was 20 F.  Our progress slowed considerably.  At the Boston/Sahale col plans were further modified as crossing Boston with this much new snow on a steep sun exposed slope would be asking for it.  We decided to go up to Sahale and ski Boston Basin and leave original business to a later day.  The top few pitches of skiing were fenomenal - 2 feet of cold February blower powder.  Were able to ski down to cascade river road via a short carry and a couple of slide alder railers.  Day topped off at the Birdsview Brewery, nice place.