[Happy Trail Dog]

With Friday July 4th looking partly cloudy, but still the best of the long weekend, I decided to risk the North Cascades and the long-delayed Sahale Peak. I left early and hit the trail by 5:45AM. I arrived at the trail head just in time to see the first sun on the summit of Johannesburg, which I took as a good sign. The first part of the hike went by without my noticing it, a nice walk through forest looking at the facades of Johannesburg Mountain, The Triplets, Mix-up Peak, Magic Mountain and on and on. The only worry was the low clouds occasionally blowing by and covering everything. The first patches of snow appeared just before Cascade Pass and continued as intermittent distractions all the way to the campsites at the bottom of Sahale Glacier. Most of the hike from Cascade Pass to the campsites was in a total fog. I have hiked in clouds too often to expect that at some magic point I would rise above the cloud cover and plunge into bright sunshine, but, in fact, this is just what happened. As I approached the Sahale Glacier, the clouds melted away and I was treated to the first views of Sahale Peak and the mountains all the way to Glacier Peak. I started straight up the still-intact glacier and got as far as the last bit to the Sahale rock pile before realizing that most of the foot traffic had steered right to avoid this steep section. I traversed over to an exposed patch of rocks and headed up on the right (Southeast) side of the peak. Even though this route is less steep, it still approaches 45 degrees and continues all the way to the beginning of the rock. There are a number of potential routes up the final 200ft of rock. I chose the left (Southwest) ridge. The first section has lots of options but the goal is to stay just right of the ridge itself. This route features a cozy 100ft chimney which makes it easier to forget that a misstep here would be a bad idea. The views from the summit are stunning. The jagged spires and massive rock faces extend in all directions. The ridge running from Buckner Mountain along Ripsaw Ridge, to Boston Peak and on to Forbidden Peak is amazing. After 30 minutes on the summit, a cloud rolled in and enveloped the peak in fog. It was an interesting feeling to sit on a small pile of rocks way up in the sky with nothing but whiteness all around. I decided to head down fearing that the cloud was just the beginning. The trip down the glacier was also in near total whiteness – it’s a good thing the crevasses were still under thick snow cover. In the end, I needn't have worried: I didn't get rained on and I had the peak to myself.

Boston Peak

Ripsaw Ridge and Boston Glacier