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ozzy The hard way
Joined: 30 Jul 2015 Posts: 475 | TRs | Pics Location: University place, wa |
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ozzy
The hard way
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Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:18 pm
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Well for the second straight week Bryan and i found ourselves in the cascade pass area! The week before we had admiring views of Formidable that inspired us to go get her! We started at 0800 and made cascade pass at 0930. We made it to the cache glacier around 1030 and started to the col shortly after. There was definitely more glacial ice exposed this go around. I hugged the rightside and punched through a snowbridge knee deep that almost made me crap my pants! I instantly felt the cold air hit my face and heard a wind tunnel noise! Wow close call, we made the col shortly after. Then we made the 800ft descent to kool aid lake. From there it was to the next obstacle, red ledge! It wasnt easy but wasnt overly hard either. I didnt use crampons either way. The gettin off the snow and up to the ledge took some fancy footwork. After that we made the slightly descending traverse to the toe of the middle cascade glacier. DAMNNNN!! The glacier looked so sweet but intimidating too. Up high we could see a faint boot track through the glacier proper. So we threw on the pons and headed up.
cache glacier kool aid lake yea buddy Bryan Red ledge Get some Bryan outta the moat at last ooowwweeeee icefall on middle cascade glacier start point of glacier slog
We stayed as far climbers left as possible until around 7000ft then started the traverse towards the spider/formidable col. It got kinda intense when being within feet of melting out crevasses! The big ones were easy to stay away from but the smaller ones would seemingly come out of nowhere and you really dont know how big and deep they are lol. I dont travel on glaciers much so my butt was puckered the whole time! I could be over exagerrating lol. We weaved in and out of the mine field for what seemed like too damn long and made the col around 1700! We were treated to amazing views towards old guard and Sentinel! To make it even better we were at our home for the evening! We set up camp in the other col just to the west. The summitpost description says there is room for 2 bivies here and they were right on lol! It was kinda tight but definitely a righteous perch! We drank some whisky and vodka while taking in all the wonder surrounding us! Probably one of the best bivy spots ive had. The stars were crazy that night and it didn't even get cold enough for me to get in the bivy!
Bryan headin up higher obstacles whoa on the traverse to the col, lookin back Spider/formidable col and old guard/sentinel Negotiating the last little bit relaxin in camp mirin sunset on middle cascade Bivies sunset over old guard
We awoke to a goat walking between our bivies and got ready to start the day. We dropped the 200ft on steep snow down the spider/formidable col. From there we traversed towards the saddle north of pt7285, just above the ptarmigan traverse trail. Once gaining the saddle we dropped another 200ft into a basin on the south side of formidable, the gully was pretty rotten where we dropped at. Then we aimed for the cleaver where you gain access to the other basin that is farthest west just below the summit proper. Bryan was pretty worn out at this point so he called it quits around 7200ft just below said cleaver. When I mounted the cleaver i just rode the ridge all the way up around 7400ft to the permanent snowfield where one gains access to the ledges. I was kinda nervous continuing on solo knowing the history of the mountain but overall it wasnt as bad as anticipated thank god lol! I climbed up and to the right on snow to get to the ledges and before long i was on the ledge that wraps around the south face. The chasm crossing was pretty easy and that was probably what worried me the most about the whole trip! Before long i was a couple hundred feet below the summit. I almost made the mistake of going to the rightmost summit but its not that one, its the one farthest climbers right. Before i knew it i was on top awestruck! Superb views all around! I didnt linger too long seeing that i was on edge because of all the obstacles we had to go back through and we didnt want to walk down the mix up arm in the dark. We left camp at 0600 and i made the summit around 1100. I didnt take hardly any pics of the scramble route because it was kinda serious, there were a lot of very large boulders precariously perched waiting to fall on the innocent. After the short summit stay i carefully downclimbed back to Bryan, fully stoked to bag this beast! We climbed back outta the basin and made good time back up to camp. It was mid 80 degree weather both days so we were both feeling it when we got back to camp around 1430. We were nervous about the glacier again mainly because we couldn't really see our boot pack. We made it through with no issues, back down the red ledge and to kool aid lake and we were pretty much home free. The 800ft of gain to get back to cache col sucked. Then back down the cache glacier with no issues where we saw the first people since leaving cascade pass the day before. They were starting the PT. We made it back to the car at 2200, making for a long last day. This trip was one of my best, the scenery absolutely blew me away and i cant wait to go back! What a great couple of days to be alive!! Cheers weary travelers!!
the curious little goat downclimbing from spider/formidable col wow south face formidable, cleaver in left center separating basins Descending gully from pt7285 canonhole on route middle cascade glacier from above thy register familiars familiars the author icefall old guard again passin back by Bryan tryin to get off ledges
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
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Michael Lewis Taking a nap
Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 629 | TRs | Pics Location: Lynnwood, WA (for now) |
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RichP Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 5628 | TRs | Pics Location: here |
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RichP
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Tue Aug 13, 2019 6:12 am
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Lookin' good.
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neek Member
Joined: 12 Sep 2011 Posts: 2329 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle, WA |
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neek
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Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:37 am
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Very nice! I feel that the glaciers weren't nearly so sketchy when we did this in Sept 2016.
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iron Member
Joined: 10 Aug 2008 Posts: 6391 | TRs | Pics Location: southeast kootenays |
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iron
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Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:40 am
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dang, that is a really sad picture.
send snow now!
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Jake Robinson Member
Joined: 02 Aug 2016 Posts: 521 | TRs | Pics
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Yeah, wow, that looks way more melted out than when I was there last year on 8/28.
Great effort getting this one! That's a haul in two days. I think the sketchiness of Formidable is underplayed a bit. All those loose blocks really spooked me.
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Jake Robinson Member
Joined: 02 Aug 2016 Posts: 521 | TRs | Pics
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Here is the Cache Glacier 8/28/18 (photo stolen from Trace Gough)
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ozzy The hard way
Joined: 30 Jul 2015 Posts: 475 | TRs | Pics Location: University place, wa |
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ozzy
The hard way
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Tue Aug 13, 2019 7:02 pm
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Thanks Jake! Yea that pic is crazy and sad too! Awesome area though!
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
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Matt Lemke High on the Outdoors
Joined: 15 Jul 2010 Posts: 2052 | TRs | Pics Location: Grand Junction |
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Matt Lemke
High on the Outdoors
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Sat Aug 17, 2019 6:27 pm
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Was my signature from 2013 still there or was the register replaced since then?
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