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Trip: Buckner Mountain/Mount Buckner - North Face Trip Date: 05/14/2019 Trip Report: Last week, Tyler and I skiied the Sahale Arm. This past Monday/Tuesday, though, we decided to ratchet it up a bit and go check out the north face of Buckner. Our plan: Boston Basin > Boston-Sahale Col > Boston Glacier > camp > Buckner > Horseshoe Basin > Sahale Arm. With skis/splitboard! We had a beautiful, amazing adventure! We discussed our hesitation with Tuesday's 2-4" snow and gusty winds forecast; I really appreciated Tyler's rational explanation of how it probably did not mean certain death, but that he was open to other objectives, too. "I just want to be in the mountains." We decided to take fuel and food for an extra day if we ended up needing to hunker down.We left the Boston Basin trailhead with a fine alpine start of a bit past 11 AM. Tyler decided to try carrying his splitboard as Star Wars thrusters. I decided not to ski strap my skis together, and we both thought our mods worked well! I think he's doing a shakedown, stability-test dance We were able to get onto snow relatively quickly and start skinning. Conditions were great, fairly cool and mostly overcast. We were able to skin all the way to the col with no issues, then switched to crampons and made our way up and around the ridge toward Boston. There was a little section of steepish snow to go around to wrap onto the Boston Glacier side: About to get over onto the shoulder of Boston; Boston Glacier in background. Photo: Tyler But then we were on the glacier, transitioning to skis/splitboard, and having a blast on the great snow!! The sun had come out for a bit, and it was amazing. These two photos are looking toward Sahale: We skiied/splitboarded around the huge crevasses and made our way toward the bottom of the north face. We had to skin a bit, but then soon we were making a sort of snow lean-to in the slope. Tyler made sure to put in a skylight/window. The sunset over Forbidden was fantastic, and the night was wind-less. Tuesday at 5 AM was when the weather was supposed to move in, but there was just light overcast and nothing ominous in sight, no wind. We packed up and started uphill... about 20 minutes or so after we began, I punched through some rock moat thing up to my chest (feet dangling in space until I realized I could kind of stem). Exciting! After I extricated myself, our headlamps revealed ~8' down to some big rocks. I was super super slow on this section and Tyler was extremely patient! About halfway up the face, we saw the nasty black clouds coming in and the snow finally arrived. As we got toward the summit, the winds picked up. Finally we were on the summit (Tyler signed the register/log and noted that the last entry was last October, hmmm) and then quickly off, downclimbing steep icy-ish slopes to the southwest in very low visibility. Photo: Tyler Photo: Tyler We found a shallow moat to shelter in as we refueled ourselves, and then we continued downclimbing for about 800ish feet to where the angle eased up a bit. We put on our skis/splitboard and carefully made our way across the icy-ish slopes of Horseshoe Basin and all of the avy debris. By this time it had changed to rain, and the snow was softening up. We got some good turns in! Finally we were toward the bottom of the exit gully and put the skis/splitboard away, and booted up and up and up in very low visibility. Some phone GPS-checking confirmed our route in the (did I mention?) very low visibility: Finally, within sight of Sahale Glacier Camp, we put on our skis/splitboard and got some good turns in without succumbing to too much vertigo, using our Sahale Arm ski memories to get into the Soldja Boii Creek drainage and with only a few minor tree shenanigans, finally got to the end of the snow, and then popped onto the Cascade Pass trail, and then back to the car! The pizza and beer were well-earned. I'm really grateful that I was able to go on this adventure with Tyler. He's patient, kind, generous, and encouraging. Thank you, Tyler! :-) Times: Day 1: 8ish hours Day 2: 9ish hours Gear Notes: 1 60m half/twin rope --> not used 3 pickets + 2 long screws --> not used One regular axe + one tool --> good Skis/snowboard --> worth bringing! Ski crampons --> yes Bivy sacks + shovels --> dope Goop --> yes (Tyler's calorific concoction of peanut butter, chocolate chips, and oats, in a ziplock bag) Approach Notes: Through, up, up, over, down, around

I think Alisse downplayed a bit the traverse onto Boston's north face from the Boston-Sahale Col (at least in my opinion). I thought that section was quite spicy, with huge exposure, and involved some pretty careful steps through shallow snow. Thankfully Alisse led that bit and I had nice steps to follow. It seemed like the couple inches of new snow weren't bonding super well to the old stuff. I would be hesitant to get on anything steep if the snow keeps accumulating this week. Although maybe some rain will help if freezing level drops. We were on the N face quite early in the morning (front-pointing), but if the snow softened like it did on the north aspect of Boston the evening before than it would have made for an excellent ski. No exposed rockbands to speak of yet, just a couple of (probably jumpable) 'schunds lower on the face. The Boston glacier is nicely filled in. Easy route-finding with or without skis, although I'd personally rope up if not on skis.

Great story of a N. Cascades pioneer at the link for those interested in such things. "Morovits' renown as a mountaineer began to spread through the Northwest after July of 1908, when Seattle's Mountaineers, bent on ascent of Mount Baker via a new route pioneered between Park and Boulder glaciers by Joe, camped 54 strong near Baker Lake on the long pack-in from the terminus of a logging train then reaching through to Concrete. "He strode into camp with a 100-pound pack on his back like the mountain itself in human form," wrote one of the club members. "A Bohemian, he wore the mustache of a French Canadian. He wasn't more than 5 feet 9 inches in height, weight around 170 pounds, but he was of a close-knit, muscular build with remarkable girth of chest, belling out immediately under his chin and tapering to a small waist. His great arms hung near his knees. An impressive man of swarthy, wild appearance, he had a look of will power and determination about him to match his physical prowess. Without equipment of any kind except for a long pike of fir tipped with. a self-made contrivance of steel shaped like -the bowl of a large spoon, he had made all the major climbs of the area, seeking out the most violent routes up the mountains as a 'pastime' compared to the hardships of running a one-man mine and stamp mill." http://www.croatia.org/crown/croatians/www.croatians.com/MOUNTAIN MAN MOROVICH.htm