Boston Basin

[rxx]

Anybody been up to Boston Basin recently? Any idea about current conditions, snow line, etc?

 

I know that Cascade River road is currently closed 2 miles prior to its end, but I've heard that the road is mostly clear of snow.

 

Thanks in advance for any info.

[Jake F]

We got out of Boston Basin on Saturday afternoon. We did have the 2 mile road walk, but no snow was on the road. The trail is pretty much snow free until a few hundred feet below tree line, at which point we lost the trail. There was considerable foot traffic during our 3 days up there, so routefinding should be pretty easy pretty soon. Stream crossings were not problematic, Boston creek is solid snow. Both lower and upper camp are snow covered. We found running water ~10 minutes above upper camp.

 

We climbed Forbidden (E. Ridge Direct up, W. Ridge down), and found conditions to be great. Accessing the E. ridge was all snow, and good neve in the morning. The ridge itself was mostly snowfree, and the climbing was spectacular. The W. ridge is also basically snowfree, and the W. ridge couloir has snow all the way to the ridge. The snow was getting quite soft in the afternoon, crampon-balling was a problem but we didn't encounter much postholing. As someone else mentioned a week or so ago, the N. ridge had some large cornices, and Torment still has considerable snow. On our way out, however, we did bump into a party in the ranger station that was hoping to try the Torment-Forbidden traverse, so maybe someone will have more to report there in the near future. Two others in our party climbed Sahale via the Quien Sabe, and they reported no crevasse problems, and snow all the way to the summit.

 

Jake