AlpineK Posted March 3, 2003 Posted March 3, 2003 (edited) Cman and I skied up to Boston Basin this weekend. We left Seattle early in the morning and drove to mile 20 on the Cascade River Road. Skinning up the road went smoothly; there was no avalanche debris at Midas Creek. Skiing up by the Diamond Mine was tough due to the lack of snow, however we eventually got to some glades where the skiing was much easier. After the glades we skied up through big trees until we reached open slopes at the top of Midas Creek. As we traversed left towards the center of the basin the skinning got much harder. You could get your edge into most of the snow, however there were areas with 2’ of powder on an icy base. When we reached the basin proper we had lunch and set up our tent. After the break we headed uphill with much lighter packs. Skiing up the Quien Sabe glacier went smoothly, but when we reached the base of Sharkfin tower a cloud settled on Sahale and Boston Peaks. The low snow year has left some big crevasses open on the upper part of the Quien Sabe glacier, but we managed to thread our way up to Boston/Sahale col. The wind was strong at the col, and the clouds swirled all aroud us. We caught a couple views of the Boston Glacier and Buckner then we started our ski down the glacier. The snow was nice; there was some powder and some areas of icy snow. We took a break after we had skied the initial slopes and watched as the clouds started to break. At camp the white out we had skied through was replaced with blue skies and alpenglow. We planned on skiing up to the base of the SW face of Forbidden on Sunday, however it started to snow during the night, and we woke to a cloud ceiling 100’ above us. The clouds started to lower, and we decided that skiing back to the car was a better idea. There was some nice skiing above the Diamond Mine. I would rate this trip Fun. Spring skiing is going to be a short season ths year! Edited March 3, 2003 by AlpineK Quote
JoshK Posted March 3, 2003 Posted March 3, 2003 Spring skiing is going to be a short season ths year! Quote
glen Posted March 3, 2003 Posted March 3, 2003 Nice pics in the photo gallery AlpineK. Could you tell what conditions would be like for a similar trip towards ElDorado? Any easily seen gaping crevasses? Glen Quote
AlpineK Posted March 3, 2003 Author Posted March 3, 2003 Unless there's a lot of new snow the surface will be icy and hard to skin up without ski crampons. There's some snow in the slots; we had to snake through the upper glacier. From what I remember of the Eldorado glacier you shouldn't have too much trouble. Quote
JoshK Posted March 3, 2003 Posted March 3, 2003 The right (looking uphill) side of the eldorado glacier is nearly crevasse free as it and is probably a good grade to skin up. I've dreamed about going up there in the winter, and that was my planned ascent path. Quote
Fairweather Posted March 4, 2003 Posted March 4, 2003 Nice post/pics AK. Shit, who'd believe you could drive to mp20 up Cascade River Road in late Feb/early March! Quote
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