link to photo album
As the summer of ridiculously stable, sunny weather continues, Becky and I decided to do a quick trip up to the North Cascades. We had originally thought about climbing Rainier this weekend, but we had family in town visting, so we couldn't be gone the whole weekend.
A Friday night drive up the Cascade River Rd and a five hour snooze in the back of the Subaru, and it was time to hit the trail. Headlamps on and up the trail we went at 4:30am. There were other hikers/climbers car-camping nearby but no one was on the move yet.
The weather was cool and overcast for most of the ascent, it made the hike up seem pretty quick and relatively easy work.
No other hikers around so early in the morning, just birds, marmots, and a young male deer who appeared to prefer walking along the trail than bushwacking it.
As we neared the toe of the Sahale glacier, we saw a few groups of climbers milling about their tents, but still no one in front of us on the glacier or behind us on the trail...we were starting to think we were home-free to have zero traffic jams on the summit pinnacle. As we got closer to the top of the glacier though, we spotted a big group...eight folks...all heading towards to the top.
By the time we caught up to them, they had one person just about ready to start leading the last bit to the top, so Becky and I pulled up a chunk of rock and sat down to wait for them. After about an hour, their last climber was on the way up and Becky could finally get moving. When the group opted to stop, pull up their rope and lead another pitch to the top, we finally asked if we could just sneak past...they were very friendly and let Becky zip on by and then reel me in. Before even half of the big group of Mazamas were on the summit, we had our rappel rope tossed and were sliding back down the south side to the snow below.
After a little lunch break and stowing our climbing gear, we hit the trail back down Sahale Arm towards Cascade Pass and the parking lot.
As the summer of ridiculously stable, sunny weather continues, Becky and I decided to do a quick trip up to the North Cascades. We had originally thought about climbing Rainier this weekend, but we had family in town visting, so we couldn't be gone the whole weekend.
A Friday night drive up the Cascade River Rd and a five hour snooze in the back of the Subaru, and it was time to hit the trail. Headlamps on and up the trail we went at 4:30am. There were other hikers/climbers car-camping nearby but no one was on the move yet.
The weather was cool and overcast for most of the ascent, it made the hike up seem pretty quick and relatively easy work.
No other hikers around so early in the morning, just birds, marmots, and a young male deer who appeared to prefer walking along the trail than bushwacking it.
As we neared the toe of the Sahale glacier, we saw a few groups of climbers milling about their tents, but still no one in front of us on the glacier or behind us on the trail...we were starting to think we were home-free to have zero traffic jams on the summit pinnacle. As we got closer to the top of the glacier though, we spotted a big group...eight folks...all heading towards to the top.
By the time we caught up to them, they had one person just about ready to start leading the last bit to the top, so Becky and I pulled up a chunk of rock and sat down to wait for them. After about an hour, their last climber was on the way up and Becky could finally get moving. When the group opted to stop, pull up their rope and lead another pitch to the top, we finally asked if we could just sneak past...they were very friendly and let Becky zip on by and then reel me in. Before even half of the big group of Mazamas were on the summit, we had our rappel rope tossed and were sliding back down the south side to the snow below.
After a little lunch break and stowing our climbing gear, we hit the trail back down Sahale Arm towards Cascade Pass and the parking lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment