[Michael Lewis]

Matt Lemke, Josh Lewis and I went up to Lake Victoria then up snow to the summit following a line on Cashmere's Northwest face using this route.

We awoke to cloudy skies that led to a neat sunrise to distract us from the road.

Drive by shooting capture fail of neat sunrise

rain on my parade

Mount Stickney from Goldbar

Persis from the old Index Tavern

Index and Persis from the Old Index road

Persis

Index

The beginning was a sticky bushwhack through 1st gen growth in a burn area. Log jumping and scraping. Log bridges helped but were not enough. Sometimes they had little spears on them. Josh punctured his shoe on one of them and a log tried to kill Matt. Not very enjoyable but very reminiscent of Cannon Mountain on the other side of the creek.

Josh punctured his shoe from all the brush

I am a traveler of both time and space

burn area views of Icicle Ridge

Drainage to Lake Victoria

After 5,000' it was all snow. It started out icy thin and punchy over boulders making for sketchy business whenever our path came near a creek. Eventually it became deep and solid. Lake Victoria was still mostly frozen so we walked across to save on our approach time after I displayed my guinea pig powers. Once on the other side, the snow had an icy hard base with a variable 5" crust. Sometimes it was soft, others it was punchy and then others it was ice. The West shoulder of Cashmere blocked out the sun for this part of the climb stabilizing the snow while we climbed a 40 degree gully to the upper basin.

Matt and Josh approach Lake Victoria

West Cashmere from Lake Victoria

Matt at Lake Victoria

The mountain casts its shadow

Matt and Josh begin from the lake

Matt reaches the upper basin

At the upper basin, after much effort kicking steps, we layered up while clouds and wind moved in. We debated whether to follow the standard route from the 8,000' col or just climb straight up one of the many gullies on the Northwest Face that led to the summit. I felt that rime ice would make any scrambling too sketchy so we went up the NW Face, avoiding almost all scrambling save for one move. We summited an hour before sunset with a magnificent show of the entire Enchantments on display.

upper basin

Cashmere's snowy North Face

Shadow ax

Josh approaches the final summit snow-climb

Matt nears the summit

Matt after leaving the easy final summit blocks

Myself on Cashmere's summit

Cashmere summit pano

Josh has a snack on Cashmere's summit

Sunset over Daniel 3

Enchantments with cornice

Cashmere from the SW

We descended to Lake Caroline at dusk, donned headlamps and looked around for tracks in the snow. Matt led the way using GPS with the full moon shining above the Enchantments while we walked the trail. A symphony of frogs could be heard croaking near the trail head. After another 2.5 mile walk to Bridge Creek, we hitch-hiked back to the car a little dismayed to discover that the management opened the gate while we were up there. All-in-all one of my best ALW summits and incredible view. I only wish there was an established trail to Lake Victoria to avoid the nasty brush. Very decent snow climb that avoids almost all the scrambling and crowds of summer. Thanks Matt for taking us up there and guiding us down in the dark.

[contour5]

Wow! Really nice shots of Index and the Enchantments.

[NWtrax]

that's lookin more like spring in the NW. great images, nice to see you guys out together

[HitTheTrail]

There is actually a trail (of sorts) onto Victoria. You guys are "The Dudes" for going in from that side. Josh is looking better. Good to see him getting out.

[ofuros]

Great scenery.....

[RichP]

Cool route .

[MLHSN]

I've had a lot of fun exploring that side of the mountain. I don't mind so much that there are no official trails. It keeps the masses away. Thanks for the report.

[Distel32]

Nice trip

[Matt Lemke]

I had lots of fun on this trip! Reminded me a lot of our cannon peak climb nearly 4 years ago

[Get Out and Go]

Great season timing to avoid the boulder-fest later in the year.