July 3-4, 2003, Sahale

Went to climb N face of Mt. Buckner with 5 others, no skiers.  Climbed in T-2s.  Carried boards to Sahale Arm camp at 7500 feet.  1 1/2 hours to cascade pass, four hours to camp.  Could have skinned up the last 1000 feet off to climbers right and wish I had.  Spotty coverage above Cascade Pass to about 6000 feet, where the Arm flattens out.  From camp, dropped pack and blissfully skinned up to top of Sahale glacier, just below summit rocks around 8500 feet.  5 pm-ish.  Great run down to camp, 4 soft inches over hard.  Not corn but permitted very aggressive line.  Runnels are there but minor. coverage good.

Did not take skis for Buckner attempt and regretted it (concerned about having extra weight for most of the day and also about impeding ice tool swings).  But could have skinned up to Sahlae peak, and Boston Glacier traverse from boston peak across just below ripsaw ridge over to base of N face Buckner was beautiful and very smooth.  Crevasses relatively few and a nice initial 700 foot ski was available and the skin accross the mile to Buckner base would have been easy.  Buckner conditions were perfect for climb, used double high dagger mostly, no real ice,  never had to swing a tool so skis would not have been in the way.  But had to have rope, picketts, ice axe and tool, harness, ice screw so weight was up there and not sure how I would have felt after a couple hours of 45 degree plus.

The real treat would have been SW face of Buckner for descent, snow was awesome corny for maybe 1500 feet of 40 degreeish slope from around 8700 feet that i had to downclimb - too steep and fast to glissade and too hard to plunge step (around 12:30ish).  From Sahale Arm it looks very exposed, with big cliff at base, but in those conditions I would have been overjoyed to ski it.  You can actually ski a nice pitch all the way down to about 6400 feet (then climb 1000 feet back to camp)

From camp, skiied main face at 7500 feet down just over 1000 feet at around 5 pm, medium pitch, again I wouldn't call it corn but a few inches of soft over hard, very nice, even at the lower elevations.  carried boards couple hundred yards, then got another 400 or 500  feet in as the trail turns sharply to the left.  Carried coards across flats, then eked out a couple more minor chutes on the way down to the pass.

In sum, Sahale offers a good ski and great views as a day trip right now but you have to carry boards 8 or 9 miles round trip to get it.  There's less painful options available (lots of reports of skinning close to parking lots)  and I probably wouldn't do it again unless much earier in the season to permit skiing and skinning much lower down

Buckner is the real prize.  You have to overnight and carry a bunch more technical gear, so it is grueling.  But who said earning your turns would be easy?

JimmyO