[TR] Mt. Cashmere Summit and Ski - NE Couloir 3/5/2008

[telemarker]

Trip: Mt. Cashmere Summit and Ski - NE Couloir

 

Date: 3/5/2008

 

Trip Report:

Mt. Cashmere is just massive, with many different aspects. It's the first feature I notice as I'm leaving Wenatchee, the less informed often confusing it with Mt. Stuart. The forecast was just too good to pass up Wednesday. I wanted to summit then ski something on that NE side.

 

Wanting to beat the crowds, I started from the car at 6.30am. I followed 8 mile Rd. up to the Mt. Cashmere trailhead, booted up Pioneer Creek, and pretty much just skinned up until I had to posthole the final gully that led to the summit. I ditched the skis at an obvious col, and scrambled the last 200 feet to the summit, reaching it by 3pm. I lounged on top, not a breath of wind, enjoying a coke and 360 views.

 

From the summit, I could see Icicle Rd. roughly 6,000 feet down via the NE basin. It looked easy enough from the summit and relatively open.

 

Time to ski. I clicked in at the top of the steepish col, and skied 150 feet down to the top of the NE couloir. I took the mandatory couple of cautious turns at the top waiting for the shooting fracture below my skis, but not today. The turns were dreamy powder, about shin deep down the couloir, and for another 3,000 down the basin. The last 3,000 feet was survival skiing on sun-baked crust, cliff end-runs, and an endless traverse back to 8 mile Rd, reaching the car by 5.30pm.

 

I must have hit it just right, because I didn't see another soul up there.

 

The Route

 

Mt. Stuart and Co. with Annoying Smudge on Lense

 

 

Rainier

 

Black Pyramid below Cashmere's Summit

 

Looking South from the Col

 

 

Glacier Peak from Summit

 

 

Looking Down the Couloir. The horizontal white line in the top left of the photo is Icicle Rd.

 

 

Looking Back Up

 

Edited March 7, 2008 by telemarker

[ryanl]

Sounds like a GREAT time on a very pretty mountain. No pictures?

[grtmtnchic]

BEAUTIFUL pics - glad you got out there.

 

 

 

[Erok]

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!.

[Ed_Hobbick]

Nice work! Beware the Avalanche! Nice Pics!

[SmilingWhiteKnuckles]

Telemarker,

 

You certainly plucked the day from this week! Sounds like a great trip.

 

What would it have been like had you skied the couloir and a bit further then skinned back up to Cashmere's shoulder and then skied the south side back to your ascent route? Too long I suspect for your timing, but would the skiing on the south side been crap or corn?

 

Thanks yo.

[telemarker]

Thanks! I was tossing around that idea of skinning back out to ski back down the s. side. But the snow was already turning to crap as I was skinning up, and the powder was just too damn good to stop skiing, even though I knew it too would turn crusty lower down.

 

I just have to add that the summit on Cashmere is one of the best in the area, even better than Stuart in my opinion.

[marek]

Hey Telemarker

Thanks for your TR! I used all your info and did it yesterday.

Foremost, I liked the shortcut up Pioneer Creek.

Now, to get to the NE Ridge, I had to go all way around the south side, over a saddle (NW corner) summited wrong peak at the far NW corner, traversed North Face, hook up with your tracks to the top. How did you access the north side below the NE runnel?

[marek]

I forgot, here is my TR on NWhikers.

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=353591#353591

ps, I lifted your topo

[telemarker]

Hey Telemarker

Thanks for your TR! I used all your info and did it yesterday.

Foremost, I liked the shortcut up Pioneer Creek.

Now, to get to the NE Ridge, I had to go all way around the south side, over a saddle (NW corner) summited wrong peak at the far NW corner, traversed North Face, hook up with your tracks to the top. How did you access the north side below the NE runnel?

 

Nice work! I'm sure you passed under the south gully that leads to the NE ridge, that leads to the true summit. I postholed up the thing, thigh deep. They must have been filled in. So, there are two gullys just west of the Pyramid, on the S. side. Choose the (climber's) rightmost gully, then head up left to the ridge.

 

I climbed it about 5 years ago in the sprng with the Ellensburg "Freds", so I already knew where to go.