KevinC71 Posted June 28, 2015 Posted June 28, 2015 Trip: Sahale - Sahale Arm Date: 6/27/2015 Trip Report: My wife and I left the Cascade Pass trail head about 4:30am. There was already enough light so headlamps weren't needed. About 30 minutes into hike we came across two deer on the trail. The deer were pretty stubborn and it took about 10 minutes of yelling before they moved on. The trail is snow free up to Sahale Arm where you will encounter small patches of snow that can be easily avoided. There are good water sources about half way up Sahale Arm. We reached the base of Sahale Glacier just before 8:30am. It was already starting to get very hot but the snow was in good condition so we left our crampons in our packs. Some very minor crevasses on the glacier but easily avoided so we decided not to rope up. We had intended on taking the normal scramble route up the summit block but as I kicked steps up to the right of the summit it became clear this approach wasn't going to work. There's a pretty significant cornice to deal with and given the heat and snow conditions I decided to traverse across the slope (~40 degrees) to my left. I worked my way directly under the summit block and then headed up for about 100 feet. Once on the summit block we had another 100 feet or so of class 3/4 scrambling to reach the summit. We gained the summit just before 10am after another party had rappelled down to the Boston/Sahale col. We had planned on linking up with Boston but it was too hot so we decided to head back. One 60m rappel will take you back down to just above the snow line. We had to scramble down about 10 - 15 feet but very easy. I setup another anchor (just slung a rock feature) at the top of the snow so we could rappel down the steeper section. From there it's a quick descent back to the base of the glacier. Despite the heat it was very a perfect day in the amazing north cascades! Some pictures can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/112659747688504533474/Sahale Gear Notes: 60m rope, ice axe, helmet, crampons (not used), glacier gear (not used) Quote
goatboy Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 I seem to remember that two ropes are useful to rap off of Sahale, can you comment on that? Quote
alpine et Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 A single 30m rapping down on the Sahale Glacier side will get you to about 10-15' of easy scrambling above where it flattens out. Twin 30s, or a single 50 etc will all get you comfortably down. Quote
dougd Posted July 10, 2015 Posted July 10, 2015 Thinking about taking the grandkids up there next week, and looks like the mounds are still mostly covered in snow. Did you get a look at the camping sites up there? d Quote
KevinC71 Posted July 12, 2015 Author Posted July 12, 2015 The camping spots at the base of Sahale glacier were mostly snow free two weeks ago. With the recent heat should be plenty of sites to choose from. Quote
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