[TR] Sahale Peak- Sahale Glacier-solo 7/18/2006

[Keith_Henson]

Climb: Sahale Peak-Sahale Glacier-solo

 

Date of Climb: 7/18/2006

 

Trip Report:

At 10:30, Tuesday morning, July 18, 2006 I left the Cascade Pass parking lot heading for camp at the base of the Sahale Glacier planning to climb Sahale on Wednesday morning. The weather was hot with high clouds. I made it to the upper moraine at around 3:15 and began to set up my Zoid when I heard a celebratory yell coming from Sahale’s summit. About 20 minutes later I saw two climbers on the east ridge and soon they were headed down the snow. In 10 more minutes they were at the moraine and heading down the arm.

 

Since I was feeling good and it looked close, I decided to go for it and quickly changed into my boots, climbing togs, threw some stuff in my pack and headed for the summit at around 4. By 4:20 I was on the east ridge and began climbing up the loose rock toward the summit. Above the highest snow patch on the south face, I traversed left onto the south face and started climbing the steep and loose. I moved right into a chimney, emerged, then back left and up to a rappel/belay. I left my ice axe clamped to the biner at the station and headed up.

 

The quality of the rock, the exposure, the class 5 climbing, and being alone on the mountain focused my attention. As I climbed I started worrying about down climbing what I was going up. By that time a cloud had moved in and the summit began to be obscured. At 5 o’clock I reached the top and looked north to Boston Basin and saw only gray.

 

In my gripped state, I immediately set out to get off the mountain and noticed a rappel station a few feet down from the summit. I went to it and started down climbing carefully. I ended up at the next rap station, grabbed my ice axe, and delicately headed down to the snow on the south face. I got on the steep and soft snow, faced in and kicked steps for about 50 feet down to the loose chossy rock and traversed back to the east ridge. I was in camp by 6:30.

 

I was pretty disappointed that the view to the north was socked in but happy that I finished the climb. I relaxed with a peanut butter sandwich, a big hershey bar, and delicious filtered mountain water. Clouds blew in and out for the rest of the evening and the wind was strong.

 

Wednesday morning I was on the trail at 7 and strolled down the Sahale Arm. The clouds had settled below the mountains to the west. I crossed Cascade pass for the seventh time in my life and was at the car by 11:30 heading back to Puyallup.

 

More photos to follow in my gallery...

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Helmet, Ice Axe, Crampons (not used but snow was hard in the morning before the sun hit and would be necessary)

 

Approach Notes:

Trail virtually snow free from parking lot to glacial moraine camp

[paramagic]

Nice one, you've motivated me. Always looking for good solo trips since partners aren't always available mid-week when I'm off.

[ericb]

When I did Sahale, we traversed across the SE gully, and took the ridge from the N/NE. It seemed like solid rock, Class 4. A single rope rap with 30M rope (15M) from a good sling at the summit got us to a good ledge again where we could comfortably downclimb. This sounds much easier than the south side loose class 5 climbing that I often read about and might be better/safer for a solo climber.

[scot'teryx]

That south side is loose, and right now you can get to the traverse in the SE gully just above a snow finger and then go straight up. Once you get around near the NE side higher up the rock is pretty bomber and has good flakes and cracks. We made the exit onto the summit on the far right.

 

The south face is a good rap route, with another rap anchor halfway down

Good timez