July 11th, 2016. Time to do this! 7:40am and I’m leaving Mukilteo with Brien and his two friends who are taking us up to the North Cascades to start this trip. I really don’t know what I am getting myself into, but Brien has been planning this for a long time and I trust with his planning and both our experience, we will be fine.
We started hiking at 11:00am on our way up to Cascade Pass. It’s a cloudy and cool day and as we worked our way up to the pass, the fog/mist became thicker until we reached Cascade Pass at 12:45pm. From here, the Washington Trail Association says on a nice day, views of several impressive peaks and glaciers can be seen, but so far, that’t not happening today. The weather is supposed to by iffy today and a weather system is expected to arrive overnight. As locals know, a generally a overcast or light rainy day in Seattle can make for a wild day in the mountains. To the left, the trail continues to the East towards Stehekin. To the South, the trail quickly disappears which now begins the Ptarmigan Traverse.
Cascade Pass
We crossed three snow fields early and as we hit a fourth, we met two climbers who had stopped to put on crampons. We decided to do the same as the terrain was steep and icy. One of the climbers was a guide and he was training the other guy to be a guide and this was their first time out here as well. They did have family with them who was supposed to join on the trip, but they quickly realized it was to dangerous and they turned back not too long ago. Both guys have full climbing and safety gear and roped up early. Now I am wondering what is to come because crampons is the most advanced gear I have. Soon as I finish putting on crampons, the fog lifted giving way to an amazing view. I’m motivated again and lets go! The fog continued to come and go until we reached Cache Glacier. The fog closed in and reduced visibility to 50 feet and temps hovered at 38 degrees. We finally reached the top of Cache Glacier and once over the top, it was tough navigating.
Following Brien – Don’t Slip
Our goal is Kool Aid Lake which is more like a pond. Reading a map with very little visibility is very tough! All a sudden the skies opened up for about 10 minutes and we could see what we thought may be Kool Aid Lake and as the skies closed up, we took off right away. Just before the lake, while crossing a giant boulder field, Brien had one rock start moving and sent him falling face first down the hill, the rock which was about three feet by two feet by 18 inches tall came sliding onto his leg pinning him there. I instantly threw off my pack and ran down below Brien and grabbed the rock. I was able to lift it up barley enough where he could slide his leg out from under the rock and get away from it. He has some leg and knee pain and is swollen and cut up, but it appears he didn’t tear or break anything. Brien assured me we are moving on and he will make it. I trust his decision as much as he would trust me. We are moving on.
We managed to find the lake and looked at the time and decided we can go further and wanted to try and push to Arts Knoll. The slope is blocked a half mile South of the lake by a rock rib running down from Arts Knoll (7200′). We needed to find Red Ledge which is talked about being tough to cross. Once we arrived there, you can see in the rock where there is a setup in place for climbers to hook up to in order to get up and over in case the snow is gone later in the season. Lucky for us there was some snow left, or maybe no lucky. A narrow band of snow goes up at an angle to the narrow ledge. Brien went first nice and slow and dug in some steps to help get up to the top. We went one at a time to have less weight on the snow, plus we didn’t have rope to tie off with. One step at a time nice and slow, try not to look to your right and down, because I don’t know how far the bottom was where I would come to rest had I slipped. We both made it to the ledge and scrambled a little further until we were on safe ground again. Even though I can go up that snow finger, going back down is not an option (Going up is generally easier than going down in snow).
We finally reached Arts Knoll and temps had made it up to 45 degrees and no wind yet, but we looked for a spot that can somewhat be protected by winds for the expected weather system coming in later. While setting up our tents (6:30pm), the clouds lifted up a little and gave way to a view of Formidable Glacier. Oh my gosh, its huge and amazing! Pictures don’t do justice from what it was like to see in person. There is no one else around and just sitting here in the peaceful wildness listening to the sounds of nature. The peacefulness was briefly interrupted when a giant rock slide gave away across the valley. Just a reminder that mother nature is in charge out here.
Cooked up some mashed potatoes and stuffing for dinner and hoping the rain isn’t to bad tomorrow. Hoping the sun returned by the following day. We did run across one marmot and a huge pika! 8:00pm and bedtime.
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