Alisse

Trip: Bonanza Peak - Mary Green Glacier Trip Date: 07/22/2018 Trip Report: Bonanza has been on my list for a couple of years, and I was so happy to find two smart, fun, competent human beings that wanted to check it out, too. There are lots of trip reports and beta and route descriptions everywhere, but this was an amazing trip! I want to share photos and inform you that the glacier/bergshrund/moat is still very good to go (or was a few days ago)! One thing that made this climb so great was that our party was three women; for no specific reason, I had only climbed with dudes or mixed parties before. I really enjoyed the fun and collaborative atmosphere of this trip C and I got over to Lake Chelan on Saturday morning and dodged swarms of cyclists from the CHELANMAN. Z showed up just in the nick of time for us to get on the Lady II at Fields Point Landing and head uplake. Met one another party headed for Bonanza, and they informed us of two other parties heading up (!). Well, that number of people was a little unexpected...(we later found out it was just one group of five). Got to Lucerne and got on the Holden bus to get up to Holden Village. What an interesting place! Read about it here: http://www.holdenvillage.org/ Sort of a spiritual commune learning retreat that was bought by the Lutheran church in 1960 (I think) from a copper mining company that had first developed it and shipped a bunch of copper out to Tacoma (!) Hiked out to Holden Lake where Z and I took a refreshing dip (objective #1 complete) and then applied the DEET in good amounts. Getting up from the lake to the talus field below Holden Pass was not too bad, with just a minimal amount of schwacking. Stay between the swampy bits and the alder and trees. The views of the glacier (giant icefall and crevasses) and the waterfall slabs everywhere were amazing.... Holden Pass still has a snow patch (otherwise dry) but there's the creek coming down from part of the glacier you can fill up at right before the Pass. During the night, we heard the 5 people coming down; they approached, climbed, and went back to Holden in the same push They have a TR on NWHikers... We got going around 5:20 AM the next morning. The waterfall slabs were fine, the glacier was in great shape with good snow conditions and a smart bootpack, the snow finger felt fine, the step from the snow to the rock was easy, and about 3 hours from the pass, we were headed up the rock. Geode thing that C found Luckily, the two-person party that had left a bit before us was just coming down as we got to the final stretch before the summit -- I was a little concerned about them rapping above us as we came up. It worked out perfectly! The summit views were incredible, and we hung out for awhile. I especially loved seeing Lyman Lakes and Cloudy Pass, since I had hiked the Spider Gap - Cloudy Pass - Buck Creek Pass loop from the Chiwawa River Road last summer. We did a combination of down climbing and some careful rappelling and then back onto the glacier, where we definitely noticed crevasses and bridges looking different from the morning... We were back to the Pass by around 4, and the mosquitoes were terrible. Z and C set up "the princess fort" which was Z's mosquito netting hung on the rope strung between two trees, it was excellent! Another group showed up, and it was a guided party! We spoke for awhile with the guide, who hadn't climbed Bonanza before, and he left us a very nice note the next morning! I later found out they were successful, too Z left after a semi-alpine start so she could get back in time for a bit of rest before heading off to Goode, but C and I hiked out in the hotter weather, we found a cairn in the talus field below where we had approached from and that made it easier, I ate about 60 thimbleberries , back to Holden, back to Lucerne, I went swimming in Lake Chelan (objective #3 ticked), back to Fields Point Landing..... So great! Gear Notes: 60m rope, light axe Approach Notes: Get a copy of the informative newspaper on the Lady II, go swimming at every opportunity, bring a mosquito net fort, eat thimbleberries

Congrats on your first climbs at Washington Pass! That's an amazing area and I'm excited for the Liberty Bell Conservation Iniative! Not to be the LNT police (or maybe a little), but did you guys end up camping on completely vegetation-free areas? From your photos it looks like backpacks are on grass. I think this area gets more and more use every week and needs extra extra special attention to strict LNT practices. Have fun out there!

Glad you got down the DC safely at that time!! Oh, Dad...

https://www.kxly.com/news/climber-dies-in-fall-at-mt-stuart/758393274 My deepest condolences to the people who knew this person.

Cruxes/Cruces SOLD! Technos still up for grabs!

Happy birthday to her!

Riveting

No climbing talk, this is the spray section!

Do you any of you do anything special for the summer solstice?

Had to look up YMMV, good one to know. I like walking, and I'm interested in a Maude/7FJ thing, but I think I'm going to go do something shorter to have more time with my folks this weekend. May have found some partners to go check out/adventure/maybe get scared on Pilchuck! I'll report back :-) @JasonG Pics or it didn't happen!

@JasonG + others: I know this one doesn't meet my requirements, but what do you guess I'd find if I went up to look at the Gunsight on Pilchuck? I'd get a bit more elevation gain to do with the road being gated down below...I'm just curious about the snow coverage. I'd bring a short rappel setup for open waterfalls, etc. as I'd be interested in trying to do the full descent down to Heather Lake. Thoughts?

Dumb ol work that I can't get out of... Have fun and report back!!

@JasonG Thanks for your response. I actually skiied about 1/4ish of the WSG route two times earlier in the spring but decided to bail both times (uncertainty about snow stability).... That creek area would indeed be hellish now! Enjoy the good weather this weekend!

@JasonG Have you ever skied the North Face of Maude (in Volken)?

I would like to go skiing on Saturday. Do you have any suggestions for me with our current conditions? - Summit - More than 7,000 feet of gain - North of Highway 2 - Carrying for awhile, even through alder no problem - Few humans +10 I know something on Baker might be obvious, but I'm looking for other ideas! Thanks :-)

Welcome! Some friends of mine skied the South Spur route yesterday and this is what one of them said about the conditions: No corn to speak of, was more early season conditions with wind-blown powder and ice. Hope that is helpful in some way! Enjoy the SW Chutes!

Here is a (cropped) photo from a 30-second walk to the Cascade Pass parking lot/TH. Lots of avy debris (easy to ski in the afternoon) but I think it'll be pretty good even now.

That tarn photo!

Great TR -- sounds like an awesome outing, happy birthday! 🎂

I guess it depends on what kind of adventure you want Cascade Pass would definitely be the easiest way! We saw 0 people heading up to/in Boston Basin until we were on the summit (then we saw a group of 3 at the very base of the glacier) but as we got onto the Sahale Glacier, we saw probably 10 people....

Love those ski descents

Congratulations!

Trip: Sahale Mountain/Peak - Quien Sabe and Sahale Glaciers Trip Date: 05/27/2018 Trip Report: What a trip! What a day! We got excellent conditions and fantastic weather, we got Boston Basin all to ourselves, and we got to ski from the bottom of the snow-free summit pyramid to within a 3-minute walk to the Cascade Pass trailhead. Amazing! Cascade River Road is still gated, so we parked at the gate and at 4:15ish in the morning, set off up the road to the Boston Basin trailhead. Carrying skis through the downed trees and minor bushwack was not the best part of the trip. Crossing Midas Creek was not bad. Got up onto the ridge right before Boston Basin and switched to skinning (finally!). The morning's low clouds began lifting, creating some beautiful effects. Skinning conditions were perfect, styrofoam snow with good ski crampon bites. The Quien Sabe Glacier was in great shape, very few open crevasses (especially our route) so we picked a line that never had us above any open ones. We felt comfortable being unroped until we got up to where it steepens before the Boston-Sahale col; here we switched to crampons/axe/rope/glacier mode. Definitely some more open ones up there, although peering over the edge, it appeared to be more like a big sink-hole with a not-too-deep bottom, but I wasn't about to jump in and test the "floor." Up at the col, we were dismayed to see the giant cornices. Hmmm. Hmmm. We've seen the diagrams of cornice "roots" and we know the danger of cornices. Cornice on one side, steep snow on the other with moats and scary things down below. We weighed the options and talked about the risks, the concerns, the (excellent firm) snow conditions, the (now over the horizon) sun. In the end, we chose what was not the absolutely most conservative decision. I'm still thinking about this one. We picked our way up and as far away from the cornice as possible, getting excellent axe and whippet bites, excellent secure feet. We took our time -- no-fall zone. We got up and over that slope, and could clearly see the summit block now with some less-steep snow and the rock scramble. The snow here was less firm and so I deadmanned a picket before stepping up onto a snowpatch, and then used my 5 slings to protect the rocky section as we continued up. I think we summitted around 11:45 am. The summit views were AMAZING!!! We hung out on top for around 30 minutes, then made the one rappel down to the soft snow of the Sahale Glacier. It was a full 30m rappel to the snow. Few crevasses, nice snow, and some fun terrain had us hooting down the glacier and then the Sahale Arm. Saw my first marmot of the season (!) lounging and enjoying views of Johannesburg. We were able to stay in the drainage out Cascade Pass and there was continuous snow almost entirely to the Cascade Pass parking lot! Incredible. Got back to the car around 2:50 and drank beers and smorgasborded. The worst part was finding out at home that my skis now, too, have become victims of the sticky pollen! I had just waxed them, too. Gear Notes: approach shoes, ski crampons, aluminum axe and crampons, crevasse rescue gear, 60m half rope Approach Notes: Boston Basin trail with skis...type 2 fun

Today we went in through Boston Basin, summitted Sahale, and skiied out via Cascade Pass. The Quien Sabe glacier was in great shape, very few crevasses. Skinning was great, firm snow, great for ski crampons. I bet it was excellent skiing. I'll post a TR later today.