[b00]

cashmere mt 6-20-09 there is much written about the route so i won't give a route description, just a few notes. route was fun and easy. did not bring helmets. brought ice axes, used them a few minutes. with the snow conditions we encountered, we may have been able to get by without them. under other snow conditions, ice axe would be needed. we cut off a portion of the distance and time by taking a shortcut - leaving the trail just past (north of)( at roughly 6600') little lake caroline and heading up easy open slopes directly to the ~8000' saddle west of cashmere pk. did the same coming down. i would highly recommend this shortcut. found water from the trailhead to little lake caroline - we had no need to carry much water. did not find the summit register. all my regular buddies were doing something else and since most had done cashmere before, i took this as an opportunity. three guys i knew decided to join me. one had done this twice before so route finding, thanks to him, was never an issue. in addition, two strangers(one girl and a 24 yr old kid) joined us. you never know what will happen with those you don't know. everyone's a stranger before you meet them. this trip you need to be in good shape and the two strangers, although they said they were, were not. since it was easy trail we got a little spread out. two hours into the trip, two of us stopped and waited for the others to catch up. waiting for the last two, we see the girl coming but she has no pack! huh? just after her is a buddy carrying her pack. he tells me she was going so slow he could not figure anything else to do but take her pack. ok, we split up her pack contents and continue. next the kid starts slowing, so we do the same with his pack. somehow, thanks to my buddies, we get everyone to the top. we give them back their packs and head down. but part of the way down the kid starts fading, so we take his pack again. we get everyone back to cars and the kid looks like he is totally exhausted. the rest of us were not that tired. if you are in shape, its a great trip. if not, do it in two days or do another trip. beautiful hike, fun scramble, a must do! :>)

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argonaut

ps - thinking 'bout you iron!

[HitTheTrail]

Great shots. A couple of us are thinking of going into Windy and Ruth Lakes from that area. How much snow is there around Caroline Lakes?

[b00]

[the Zachster]

That was very kind of you to take strangers up there, especially when they weren't looking too strong. Looks like a fun trip. Great pics!

[gray matter]

Thanks for the TR. I got shut out on Cashmere last fall due to a car breakdown (seems to happen to me more than it should!). I have plans to go up next month! Thanks for the beta. -Matt

[wildernessed]

Great views !