Forum Index > Trip Reports > Sahale Peak - 8/28/2011
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woutervw
In search of trips



Joined: 02 Oct 2010
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Location: Sammamish, WA
woutervw
In search of trips
PostMon Aug 29, 2011 11:11 am 
A little over a week ago a fellow WAC climbing class student Anita emailed me to suggest we’d go up Sahale Peak. Glacier and rock is involved, she promised. I had read up on Sahale before, during one of my look-up-a-peak-and-get-distracted-by-its-neighbor moments. It sounded like a great trip in an area I hadn’t been to yet. It would be a two person hike, and just a week to plan, prepare and get ready. The final summit is supposed to be class 4/5 if you take the difficult route. Which I figured would be the appropriate thing to do. We’d need trad gear and a thin rope if we could find one. Hauling up my heavy sport climbing rope for one or two pitches didn’t sound like the fun thing to do. A friend came through with both advice on the route and needed gear and a small rack of cams and nuts for us to use. Another provided the 60m 8mm half rope we could use. My single cam and set of nuts completed the rock gear we’d need. I was excited; this would be my first trad lead in an alpine environment. Anita provided all the creature comforts like coffee, beer afterwards and a very comfortable ride to the trailhead. She picked me up on Saturday at 6pm and we got to the Cascade Pass trailhead close to 9pm. We had planned to just camp next to the car and hit the trail at 6am. At the parking spots was a ranger truck, and no-camping signs and we started looking for the non-existing plan-B. The sign board mentioned 3 camp spots on the Johannesburg Camp, just a little bit back from the parking area. We donned headlights, got our tents and headed up the little trail. After the indicated 200 yards we found one tent and one camp spot. Where that third one is, I don’t know. Anita took the spot and I set up my cross between a bivy bag and a tent in a little more-or-less flat area between some trees. The people in the tent got a much earlier start than we’d planned and Anita thought I might have slept through my alarm. Apparently I informed her that it was still way too early, although I only have fractured memories of that. A little before 5am I woke Anita and before long we were at the car having breakfast. The coffee Anita made helped waking up and we hit the trail at 20 to 6. Anita set the pace and boy did she set a pace. I had to concentrate not tripping over my own tongue, so keeping track of the number of switchbacks we had done was too much. The reports said there were 35 in total. It seemed like they just kept going on and on. At least the trail is nice and makes for easy hiking. At the 22nd (someone had marked it) Anita let me set the pace. By now I had gotten used to it and I just kept doing the same thing. After an hour and a half we were at the pass. Good progress.
Looking across Cascade Pass
Looking across Cascade Pass
That's where we're heading
That's where we're heading
A couple of additional switchbacks got us on the Sahale Arm and the vistas opened up for us, including the first sighting of our destination. Eye-candy everywhere! The trail here is less well defined but still easy to follow. With the exception of a part with bigger rocks where my route finding skills kept us going in the right direction, but not by using the easiest trail. Why do the easy thing when you can do the hard thing?
The last part of Sahale Arm
The last part of Sahale Arm
Before long we were at the glacier. Time for me to fill my water bottles and to put on my crampons. The snow was still very hard and slippery this early in the morning. Anita had not brought crampons and went slowly ahead. Soon I caught up and we saw the crevasse. Time for us to rope up. It looked like the thing spanned the whole width of the glacier with the exception of the west (left) most part. The path most climbers had taken crossed a snow bridge in the middle where the crevasse seemed to be discontinued. We both felt that with the hard morning snow there wasn’t much risk with crossing it there. We were now at the east side of the glacier and this is where the scramble to the top is supposed to start. Not now, this year. There is another snowfield reaching at least 100feet higher.
Heading up to the glacier proper
Heading up to the glacier proper
The crevasse
The crevasse
Class 2 scramble, still a snowfield to cross
Class 2 scramble, still a snowfield to cross
Now we were what I was looking forward to the whole trip; the final rock climbing part. I clipped myself into both ends of the rope, hung the rack and slings around me and put my backpack on. First mistake; this way I would not be able to grab slings. Change the sequence of adding things to my torso and I was ready to head up. Because there was so much snow above the glacier the route I had memorized was partly obscured. We were starting at a higher point and it took me a while to figure this out. Just head up the south face and find some interesting moves. The rock was better than I expected and I found ample places to put nuts. I tried to save my cams for when I really needed them. Progress was going well and before I ran out of rope I was at the belay point. This was fun climbing, just a bit too short.
Start of the rock part
Start of the rock part
Almost there
Almost there
There was another pair of climbers patiently waiting for us so they could rappel. I prepared myself to belay Anita up with the saved cams and some yelling later she was on her way. One nut I had placed so well, that even though I had bought a nut tool for this trip and had given it to Anita, she could not free it. Luckily this was one of my nuts and not one of my friend. Just when she made the last couple of moves, another all-female team came up from the Quien Sabe Glacier and I was the only guy up there. We took the required summit pictures, did some silly poses on the summit rock and waved frantically at someone we knew who was somewhere on his way to Buckner. Now it was time to look at Boston. We had considered this as an extra summit we could try. But one look at the thing made us realize that we should just leave that “heap of low-grade ore” for when we have more experience with this kind of climbing. Practising placing gear in a pile of rubble is probably not going to be a safe experience. Thus we had taken our backpacks up for nothing but a good workout.
Summit shot
Summit shot
Buckner
Buckner
Forbidden
Forbidden
After both girl teams rappelled (the Quien Sabe team made it a loop by descending the Sahale Arm) we set up our rappel. I made a little stop on the way down to free my nut and some not-so-gentle tapping with a rock pushed it back to where I could ease it from the crack. Now it was warm and the snow was getting slushy. We roped up before getting on the glacier and after a little back and forth decided that crossing the bridge was still fine. A couple who had downclimbed a different route while I was rappelling crossed the same bridge unroped.
Time to go back down
Time to go back down
Our route up followed this crack/line in the middle
Our route up followed this crack/line in the middle
Slushy snow heading back down
Slushy snow heading back down
The rest of the way down went uneventful. I slipped a couple of times on loose rock as I usually do and the switchbacks seemed even longer than going up. Somehow we were required pretend to be airplanes while going around the switchback curves, including propeller sounds. Or, at least, so did Anita tell me. After 11 hours we were back at the car and I was sipping my promised beer.
Doubtful Lake
Doubtful Lake
Looking down Sahale Arm
Looking down Sahale Arm
One last look...
One last look...
I loved this climb. We were complementing each other and not doing anything that was beyond what we could handle, while still being challenging. It touched every aspect of what we had learned in class. The planning, the preparation, glacier travel, steep snow, rock climbing and rappelling; everything was there. This felt to both of us as the graduation climb. No instructors, just two students who manage to safely climb a moderate peak. Thanks to all the WAC instructors who helped us get to this point!

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BarbE
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 1:47 pm 
Congratulations on your first "solo" climb! You picked a spectacular place. dance.gif Clearly, your WAC class has paid off. up.gif

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ira
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ira
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 2:26 pm 
Quote:
Clearly, your WAC class has paid off.
of course, i taught him everything i knew. well not really, maybe a few more things to teach. climbed sahale on sat and then buckner on sunday.

-ira
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Tom
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 3:24 pm 
Ira, good to run into you on Buckner yesterday. Attempted Sahale on our way out but didn't have good beta or time to route find and bailed fairly quickly after starting up the "difficult route". doh.gif

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Allison
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Allison
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 3:47 pm 
Some people have been known to discreetly sleep in their vehicles in the CP parking lot. Not that I would ever condone that.

www.allisonoutside.com follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
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BirdDog
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 4:31 pm 
Nice TR. I love your low grade pile of ore description for Boston! Congrats on getting the summit.

"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country." Teddy Roosevelt August 6, 1912
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meandering Wa
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 6:15 pm 
I was up there Saturday and enjoyed watching the high climbers from the comfort of the Arm You had a wonderful day and seeing several people high up in the snowfields added much to my enjoyment of my hike.

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woutervw
In search of trips



Joined: 02 Oct 2010
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Location: Sammamish, WA
woutervw
In search of trips
PostMon Aug 29, 2011 7:31 pm 
BirdDog wrote:
I love your low grade pile of ore description for Boston!
I can't take credit for that. I read it in the SummitPost article on the peak. It is the description that stayed with me and made me realize that it should probably have to wait for a future exploration. I didn't want to make that final decision until I had seen it, albeit from afar, for myself.

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Jetlag
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 7:43 pm 
Enjoyed your trip report, especially since I climbed Sahale Friday with two quite fit beginners. We went up the Quien Sabe and down the Sahale. Three other parties gave up for one reason or another so we had the summit to ourselves. Last year I also climbed Sahale this weekend, but instead of perfect conditions, we had driving winds and accumulating snow. One of my partners was hypothermic. Another partner, on Storm King nearby, slipped near the summit and died. RIP John Arum.

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the Zachster
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PostMon Aug 29, 2011 7:59 pm 
Nice report on a beautiful climb! up.gif It was one of my first and still one of my favorites!

"May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am"
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Sadie's Driver
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Sadie's Driver
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PostTue Aug 30, 2011 12:55 pm 
up.gif up.gif up.gif chickenleg.gif chickenleg.gif dance.gif Good for you and Anita! What a beautiful spot to hang out. Congrats!

Four-paw buddy lets me tag along!
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