[Mike Collins]

This mountain has a reputation for loose rock. It wasn't my first choice for climbing on a one-day outing but my partner mentioned his interest. So we arrived at the Mineral Park campground off of Cascade Pass road at 2300 Sat night. The weatherman promised a beautiful Sunday. The rainfall on the tent fly early Sunday morning caused us concern, but when we left our car at 0600 the rain had stopped. All traffic on the Cascade River Road stops at the gate next to the Eldorado climbers parking area at MP 20. It was then a three mile bike ride to the Cascade Pass parking area where the bikers became hikers. Our route was up Sahale Arm and then within 70 feet vertical of the Sahale summit traverse around the east side corkscrewing our way to the Boston-Sahale saddle. We then kicked steps up to the point where the wall of Boston touches the saddle's slopes. From there on it is a matter of "feeling" your way through steep rock slopes traversing north. When we were past the summit block itself about 500 yards we worked our way onto the slopes themselves. TBNelson in a previous writeup says about the mountain, "It is essentially a choss-pile of nightmarishly loose rock." Let me go further. Mountain climbers involve themselves with the inherent risk whenever they go out. Boston though is a mountain with an attitude. What looks like a chockstone is really in an imperceptible fall. If you so much as brush it it is in your lap. Every handhold is suspected of failure. Zig-zagging our way to the top was successful. We summited to find the one piece of solid material on the peak, the bombproof register left by the Mazamas. I followed the practice of Stefan and kissed the summit rock, as a soldier returning from Iraq might kiss the soil once returning home. This is a dangerous peak. We were delighted to have found three rappel stations which took us safely to the glacier below. On the return I jumped up to the top of Sahale as it was only twenty feet above the route. We returned to the car at 2130. The brisk bike ride from Cascade Pass was solely gravity driven and if we pedaled I don't remember it. The views are quite beautiful of Logan, Buckner, Forbidden and Boston Glacier. Not pretty enough to entice a repeat from this climber.

[Mike Collins]

The road is scheduled to be open in one week per the Marblemount RS. There is some light blacktop to be done and some clearing of logs with a bulldozer.

[Dean]

Nice TR. Yeah, Boston is nasty. I still have to do Buckner since it is the Skagit county highpoint (but I'm not looking forward to it.) I'll be heading for North Gardner this weekend. Anyone been up there recently?