[TR] Cascade River Rd - conditions 03/02/2019

[RobUSA]

Trip: Cascade River Rd - conditions

Trip Date: 03/02/2019

Trip Report:

 

With ambitious hopes of finding winter alpine climbing and maybe also a certain Spanish-rumored City of Gold, I found myself out on the Cascade River Rd this past Saturday (March 2nd.)  Although my plans were ultimately thwarted and uninteresting, I figured I should at least share a report on the current state of the road.  Indeed, as the park service reports, the Cascade River Rd is gated at milepost 18; but right now that’s a pretty moot point, because it’s unlikely you’ll drive even that far until things warm up and the snow melts back a bit.  Patchy snow began about 4 or 5 miles away from Marblemount.  Around milepost 10, it got thick and swimmy enough that my car (a 2017 Subaru Forester with average tires,) required chains to keep going.  At milepost 16, right by the entrance to Mineral Park Campground, the only car ahead of us had parked (a Subaru Outback.)  We tried driving forward on the unbroken road beyond that, but my car was having none of it, we were forced to park at milepost 16 as well.  From there, the road had 1 to 2 feet of snow depth on it, ideal for skinning if you’re skiing.  Also packed enough you could walk it in just boots, but still without a doubt more tiring than if the road had been melted down to bare gravel.  I hope all the rest of you did something more satisfying with that glorious weather weekend than all the lame road walking I ended up doing!

Gear Notes:


Approach Notes:

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by RobUSA

[JasonG]

Thanks for the update!

[Marcus Russi]

http://rjrice.com/cascades-take-two/

[JasonG]

One of my all time favorite reports @Marcus Russi!  The Cascades can deliver beat downs like few other ranges.

[Brad Pointer]

How high did you guys make it @RobUSA? That was some challenging conditions for sure!! I’ve been feeling like we gave up prematurely but it was just silliness.  

Edited March 6, 2019 by Brad Pointer