[TR] Sahale Peak (ski descent) - up Quien Sabe, down Sahale Arm 7/9/2012

[timmy_t]

Trip: Sahale Peak (ski descent) - up Quien Sabe, down Sahale Arm

 

Date: 7/8/2012

 

Trip Report:

On Sunday my friend Brennan and I did a little loop on Sahale Peak: we hiked up to Boston Basin, skinned up the Quien Sabe Glacier, then rapped off Sahale's summit and skied all the way down to the road just below the Cascade Pass trailhead. There is so much snow yet!

 

Here's Brennan a bit above the moraine in Boston Basin, with Johannesburg Peak towering in the background

 

 

 

Looking up the Quien Sabe Glacier toward Sharkfin Tower and Boston and Sahale Peaks. We were able to skin all the way up to the Boston-Sahale saddle. The route is in awesome shape.

 

 

 

Looking west again

 

 

 

Taking a break below Sharkfin Tower. There's a small moat but the approach gully to the tower is in great shape.

 

 

 

Forbidden, Sharkfin, and Boston from high on the Quien Sabe

 

 

 

Giant cornice on the final traverse to the base of Sahale's summit pyramid. We skinned up to this spot but decided a boot pack might be a good idea from this point on. The snow was verrry soft up here.

 

 

 

Looking back toward Boston and Buckner above Ripsaw Ridge while on the traverse to Sahale's summit pyramid

 

 

 

The cornice from the other side

 

 

 

Again

 

 

 

On top of Sahale, with skis

 

 

 

Rappelling off the summit pyramid

 

 

 

Now for the payoff... Brennan gets ready to ski down the Sahale Glacier

 

 

 

The snow was actually pretty good most of the way down, and at any rate with a 5000' descent in July you can't complain.

 

 

 

Not too bad a view for a little ski trip

 

 

 

The Sahale Arm is almost completely snow-covered, but we had to take our skis off 4 times: once to walk a short section of trail on the arm (pictured here); once to hike uphill for a couple of minutes on the arm; once to hike up to Cascade Pass after having skied a hundred feet below it, and once to traverse the slide alder below the pass to find a route down into the basin.

 

 

 

Skiing down to Cascade Pass

 

Gear Notes:

Skis!

 

Approach Notes:

Approach to Boston Basin is in really good shape; snow starts about 200' below Boston Basin

[justcallmegary]

Nice one guys!

[kevino]

nice looking trip. dumb question perhaps, you went up the boston basin trail then came down cascade pass trail to make a loop back to your car?

[Jason4]

That looks like a good trip, I wish I had made it out there a week earlier and with full snow gear, crampons, rope, harness, etc.

 

I was up there on Saturday, July 14 and a lot of snow has melted out since you were up there. We followed the hiking trail up to Cascade Pass and then maybe a mile out the arm before turning back to find a ski route back down to Cascade Pass. We had to downclimb 2 times on the way to Cascade Pass and then hike up to the pass the same as you did. From there we followed a questionable path and had to downclimb through some slide alder between a couple of water falls. There was a route that traversed through from skiers right to left but we missed the entrance even though we had spotted it and shot pictures from above for reference lower down. You can see pictures from Saturday here.

[timmy_t]

nice looking trip. dumb question perhaps, you went up the boston basin trail then came down cascade pass trail to make a loop back to your car?

 

Yes, sort of. We went up the Boston Basin trail, then skied down Sahale Arm to Cascade Pass, then skied from Cascade Pass down the basin to the road, then walked a mile on the road back to our car (so technically we bypassed the Cascade Pass trail).