[wildernessed]

Location : E. of Marblemount on Cascade River Rd. Access: Near end of Cascade River Rd. on left between Eldorado and Cascade Pass TH Guidebooks: Hiking the North Cascades by Molvar, Climbing Washingtons Mountains by Smoot Maps : GTM - Cascade Pass and Diablo, Custom TOPO

Boston Basin Area

This has been a good year of hitting the trail to many wonderful places, and a year of improving and learning new skills, to expand my knowledge base, and use as tools to get me where I want to go . A recent rock climbing course, and now the six day snow / glacier travel course crammed into four days with private instruction to be held in Boston Basin on the Quien Sabe Glacier, ending in a summit of Sahale Peak . The standard stuff with some customization to your individual needs and goals, can't beat that. Christmas in July , well maybe I just wanted to play with more gear, the garage is looking empty, if only I could afford it now . I met Seth an instructor / guide with Northern Cascade Mountain Guides at the ranger station in Marblemount, we checked some gear, and we both drove up Cascade River Rd. where he dropped his truck off at the Eldorado TH and we drove a short distance to the Boston Basin TH. We had cloud cover and it was coolish so we hit that obstacle course of a trail, me with a 50lb. pack (OUCHY !), working our way up to the high camp . Once you break out of the trees it's gorgeous in the alpine zone surrounded by a huge basin, with ridges, and peaks .

Eventuallly we made it to high camp at around 6250' only to find a mass of tents from a group of college kids who were majoring in "Outdoor Recreation", there assigment, climb a bunch of Cascade Peaks, I don't remember that being available when I went to college .

High camp, not what I had in mind for solitude, the group left on our second day, leaving us with some peace.

Sweet ! after one and a half days of rain, no leaks !

Climbers path to the snowfield and glacier.

Johannesburg Mtn. with Dome Peak in the background.

They were cool, but noisy We setup our tents / gear then... Day 1 : Review all gear and knots related to snow and glacier travel. Day 2: Glacier travel techniques, anchor systems, rope travel etc... Day 3: Crevasse Rescue all day in the rain and 30-40 degree temps, then Trip planning, navigation . Day 4 : Alpine start summit of Sahale via Quien Sabe Glacier, travelling around and over crevasses, travelling through ice fields , clear camp, then descend to vehicles.

Learning snow anchors and roped glacier travel etc...

It flew by fairly fast, but a full night and day of rain, was less than optimal, on the plus, my BD Firstlight never leaked , on the minus it was cold, the tents had ice on them, and I almost slipped off that nice crapper with views of Johannesburg into the rocks. Seth was trying to persuade me to packup and do a day of climbing off Washington Pass, but, NOT, I stuck to the plan, I wanted to do the Glacier and the Peak. We awoke early to completely blue skies.The glacier was nice, probably not as hard as the Colchuck Glacier, except for winding around the open crevasses. The rocky ridge was dry thankfully, and a fun, but exposed class 4 scramble in places, with a smallish summit, already occupied by some climbers via the Sahale Arm, but the views were just fantatstic, talk about a sea of peaks, you sure are in them right there. I had hoped to rappel off the summit, but Seth thought rappeling off 4th class rock was lame , so we downclimbed and made our way back. Along the way we checked out some crevasses and he routed us through some snow bridges and the "Dry Glacier" (Ice) descending through that convluted mess, that will focus the mind . Eventually it all played out, and it was a bomber experience / trip. I'm ready for some desert hiking now .

Johannesburg late evening the day before the summit, after a night and day of rain in the 30s-40s practicing crevasse rescue.

Early morning coffee at high camp. A cold night with ice on the tent.

The path of least resistance to Sahale Peak.

A cloud free Johannesburg Mtn.

Early morning ascent up Quien Sabe Glacier. Sahale Peak up to the left.

Early morning ascent up the Quien Sabe Glacier.Sahale Peak just right of center.

South ridge of Boston Peak.

Lower N. ridge of Sahale Mtn.

Boston Peak from Sahale Peak

Forbidden Peak

Glacier Peak

?

Snowking over the NW shoulder of Johannesburg ?

S and W on Sahale summit 8700'.

Mt. Baker, Eldorado Peak, Mt. Shuksan, and Forbidden Peak.

Sharkfin Tower from high on the Quien Sabe Glacier.

View from the N. ridge of Sahale Peak.

Upper Boston Basin withW ridge of Forbidden, Mt. Torment, Eldorado Peak in the background, Mt. Baker behind Eldorado..

Negotiating crevasses on the way down from Sahale Peak.

Snowbridge over crevasse.

Sharkfin Tower

Boston Basin looking West.

Johannesburg Mtn. on the way down from high camp in Boston Basin.

The toe of The Quien Sabe Glacier. The convoluted and crevassed icy descent down to the snowfield below was interesting.

Johannesburg the evening before th Sahale summit, hoping for clearing conditions.

Looking WSW over Johannesburg Mountain.

Near the summit of Sahale looking WNW into Boston Basin and beyond.

[wolfs]

Sounds like it was a great trip. My brother and I climbed Sahale / Quien Sabe maybe 15 years ago, this may have been before NCNP had permits and designated sites up there (or perhaps we scammed). Plan A had actually been W Ridge Forbidden but we didn't like the looks of the schrunds in the entrance couloir. So Plan B became a Sharkfin (standard route) Sahale QS combo. I remember the glacier as having exposed crevasses and in particular some quite steep ramps/bridges, but looking more intact than your pix. I also definitely remember one airy slablike thing jsut below the very top of Sahale where I was glad to have a quickie belay.

[wildernessed]

There are some quite open and deep crevasses on there. Like I said above it was below freezing during the night, so with the early start and retreat, the snow was hard. So here we are roped up going around this stuff, including the ice and my axe barely dents the snow, so I am putting some intention into planting my crampons (especially descending into it) because there is no self arresting in that. Rather knarly. Boston Peak looked cruddy from the col, not slabby like Sahale. As far as Sharkfin, that's above my level, maybe my desire. I like the views, didn't have enough time to take all the pics I would have liked and I had my wifes Kodak point and shoot, less weight and bulk, terrible images and capabilities.

[wildernessed]

[TrailPair]

Excellent!!! I love the glacier travel ......the crunching of crusty snow underr the crampons....the coral tinted sunrises ...I don't like carying the *^*^^ heavy pack up steep knarly climbers trails (but that's the price we pay to climb on the norhtcascade peaks. With your new knowlede, you can be on our rope team any time (but we don't do the technical rock climbing stuff) Keep up the good work

[wildernessed]

Thanks TP, I'm lining up my gear. What are you guys using as a glacier travel rope ?, I was looking at a Mammut Phoenix 8.0mm 30M.

[GeoTom]

Nice pictures

[TrailPair]

Wildernessed, We use the Beal Rando 8 mm x 30 m dry rope (often called mountain floss). I like the light weight. The down side is that when tying on the prusiks, it takes more wraps to make it snug.

[Slide Alder Slayer]

Way to go! Any problems with condensation on the inside of you tent?

[ActionBetty]

Sweet stuff Rob! Looks like all went well...now you can teach me..eh

[wildernessed]

[wildernessed]

[wildernessed]

[Matt]

Nice job sticking out the weather so you can get the glacier practice and the summit.

[wildernessed]