Years of trying finally pay off and it's everything I thought it would be
Mileage: 51.25
Gain: 38000' ish (includes several optional side trips)
Elapsed Time: 6 days
Start time: 8am
Approach/deproach: short dryland on both ends
Partner(s): Ben Peters
Ski Gear: Mid Weight, Dynafit tlt7 and DPS Wailer 99's (a little more ski than is needed for this)
Technical Gear: Camp nano axe, whippet, Petzl Irvis hybrid crampons
Rope: 30M petzl Rad Line with glacier kit and a few cordelettes for anchor building
Pack: Heavy with food and long tour gear about 53lbs to start.
Start: Hannegan pass road, as far up as you can get
Finish: Sourdough Mountain TH, Diablo
Dryland: A little one both ends
Travel Logistics: Best to be dropped off and picked up, long car shuttle
Notes: Slow and steady wins the race. Welcome to some of the deepest wilderness in the lower 48. The route we took is known as the "Mineral High Route" variation. This is a very committing route.
This route was first skied by Lowell Skoog, Carl Skoog, and Jens Kieler in 1985 (fuck yeah!)
The Mineral High Route variation was first skied by Jason Hummel and Forest Mcbrian in 2010 (Huge thanks to Jason who shared his GPS track with me)
We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
Background and Prep
It's not easy to get big stuff done in the Cascades and have a job. Weather windows are few and far between. It is very difficult to pick a week two months out and have a good weather window present itself. This was at least my third year of trying, I had planned a week off every spring, generally late May or early June along with my friend Sam Lozier. On a trip as long as this one hoping for a perfect weather forecast is a great way to never get it done. If memory serves me right the years we bailed things were looking downright nasty. Clouds, no good freeze ups, and rain systems all moving through.
One year Sam and I went to the Tetons and got some amazing skiing. Another year we went down and explored the eastern Sierra. If you don't have extended time off to wait for a weather window I strongly suggest you have a plan B. After at least two years of striking out I planned a week off in late may of 2017. Sam had obligations so I contacted my friend Ben Peters who was living in the back of a van at the time. He was game but wanted to play it by ear.
The funny story about Ben is that we both went to the same small high school in rural New Hampshire. It was very small, 40-50 students. Ben encouraged me to get into backcountry skiing which is the entire reason this website exists. Ben attended Dartmouth while I was at UVM and we skied at Stowe and in the White Mountains. After college he chose the Salt Lake City path while I decided that long approaches and getting rained on were preferable to blower powder. In addition to being a much better skier than I am (he raced college D1... until we got him to quit and ski pow) he has also been quietly becoming one of the most prolific and talented ski mountaineers in the country. You won't find him being sponsored by any gear companies or posting videos to his youtube channel. He just somehow manages to not need to work too much and to ski his ass off. Even though it is often a year or more between our communications we can meetup and it is as if no time has passed, just gear up and jump in. It also helps that Ben is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic outdoorsmen I have ever met. He rolled into Seattle coming off an epic solo ski traverse from Yosemite to Bishop, his feet were shredded and he was tired. I was worried about all of that, but I didn't need to be. He would prove to be the stronger partner.
About a week out we made the call. Freezing levels were looking a bit high but we had already been through a serious wet slide/consolidation cycle. There was a small system coming through mid week and we would probably have some clouds but things were looking good at the start of the week. We figured that dealing with inclement weather is just part of the game on a traverse such as this and packed accordingly. Knowing what I know now I think we made a good call. There was plenty of rotten snow but the massive earlier cycle of wet slides and cornice collapses had mitigated much of the hazard. I would be on the lookout for either a good consolidation and melt/freeze cycle, or if things have stayed warm but there has been a heat wave and much of the nasty stuff has gone off that can work too.
Our experience on this trip as well as the experience of Forest and Trevor on their Cascades Traverse show that the Cascades can be safely navigated in the spring even when there is little to no melt freeze cycle. More about that later. Don't get me wrong I would have preferred perfect melt freeze corn... but these are the Cascades.
One year Sam and I went to the Tetons and got some amazing skiing. Another year we went down and explored the eastern Sierra. If you don't have extended time off to wait for a weather window I strongly suggest you have a plan B. After at least two years of striking out I planned a week off in late may of 2017. Sam had obligations so I contacted my friend Ben Peters who was living in the back of a van at the time. He was game but wanted to play it by ear.
The funny story about Ben is that we both went to the same small high school in rural New Hampshire. It was very small, 40-50 students. Ben encouraged me to get into backcountry skiing which is the entire reason this website exists. Ben attended Dartmouth while I was at UVM and we skied at Stowe and in the White Mountains. After college he chose the Salt Lake City path while I decided that long approaches and getting rained on were preferable to blower powder. In addition to being a much better skier than I am (he raced college D1... until we got him to quit and ski pow) he has also been quietly becoming one of the most prolific and talented ski mountaineers in the country. You won't find him being sponsored by any gear companies or posting videos to his youtube channel. He just somehow manages to not need to work too much and to ski his ass off. Even though it is often a year or more between our communications we can meetup and it is as if no time has passed, just gear up and jump in. It also helps that Ben is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic outdoorsmen I have ever met. He rolled into Seattle coming off an epic solo ski traverse from Yosemite to Bishop, his feet were shredded and he was tired. I was worried about all of that, but I didn't need to be. He would prove to be the stronger partner.
About a week out we made the call. Freezing levels were looking a bit high but we had already been through a serious wet slide/consolidation cycle. There was a small system coming through mid week and we would probably have some clouds but things were looking good at the start of the week. We figured that dealing with inclement weather is just part of the game on a traverse such as this and packed accordingly. Knowing what I know now I think we made a good call. There was plenty of rotten snow but the massive earlier cycle of wet slides and cornice collapses had mitigated much of the hazard. I would be on the lookout for either a good consolidation and melt/freeze cycle, or if things have stayed warm but there has been a heat wave and much of the nasty stuff has gone off that can work too.
Our experience on this trip as well as the experience of Forest and Trevor on their Cascades Traverse show that the Cascades can be safely navigated in the spring even when there is little to no melt freeze cycle. More about that later. Don't get me wrong I would have preferred perfect melt freeze corn... but these are the Cascades.
Resources:
Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Routes Washington - Martin Volken - 2014 - Paperback
Food and Gear
For food we mostly stuck to things that can be bought at Costco. The exception being some freeze dried meals I put together myself (plenty of good resources online). The emphasis was on "slow burn" foods heavy in fat and protein. We brought a little sugar such as gummy bears and M&M's but a lot more meat and cheese. I wish I could say we calculated our calorie needs and precisely measured food... but we basically laid it out on a table and guessed. We tried to bring good food we could look forward to (not mountain house) and wanted to bring enough but no more. Food made up probably 40% of our starting pack weight so keeping it reasonable was vital.
Gear was pretty standard overnight touring stuff. We were going to use a megamid which IMO is the only way to go in the spring.
One tricky thing to decide was how much gas to bring. We were bringing isopro canisters for a MSR Reactor. The gamble is deciding how much snow you will have to melt vs how much you can get from natural sources. Melting snow uses way more gas than cooking so that is the most important variable. We went heavy on fuel and would have enough to melt snow the entire trip if needed even though there was a good chance we would get occasional running water from natural sources.
I think that fuel isn't a bad thing to have a little too much of. One of the cool things Forest and Trevor learned on their trip was that if you have extra fuel you can use the stove to warm the tent and dry stuff out. They had some much rainier weather than we did. I can see a real utility to having a little extra fuel for this purpose. Sometimes 5 minutes warming hands over the stove or pre-warming boot liners can make a huge difference in morale. As the good book says "You can't put a price on Morale." (Training for the New Alpinism)
I think that fuel isn't a bad thing to have a little too much of. One of the cool things Forest and Trevor learned on their trip was that if you have extra fuel you can use the stove to warm the tent and dry stuff out. They had some much rainier weather than we did. I can see a real utility to having a little extra fuel for this purpose. Sometimes 5 minutes warming hands over the stove or pre-warming boot liners can make a huge difference in morale. As the good book says "You can't put a price on Morale." (Training for the New Alpinism)
Day 1
My partner Anne kindly dropped us off on Hannegan pass Rd. I think we made it to within about a mile of the trailhead. We only had to carry skis 1.5 miles or so which was a blessing, with the full weight of the food plus skis the packs were a little heavy. Things were very gloppy and soft. Oh well let's see how this goes.
The Ruth ascent went quickly, we enjoyed a summit snack and some of the best easy access views in the cascades. There was a long downhill traverse then we started up Mineral Mtn. The direct line up mineral looked nasty, steep krumholtz with rotten snow. I did a little pack-free exploring and found this couloir to the north.
Megamid style tents are the only way to go. We camped at a flat spot in the ridge on Mineral below the summit.
OK views I guess...
Day 2
I don't have much for photos between Mineral and Whatcom. I remember mineral to Easy peak being relatively straightforward. Dropping off Easy peak there is a massive skiers left traverse. We covered 2.2 miles while downhill traversing with a little sidestepping. As annoying as it is not to ski fall line at least these traverses really cover ground quickly. Beyond that, the ascent to the saddle between challenger and Whatcom is one of the cruxes of the trip. In order to avoid some horrible garbage chutes you need to ascend through some trees and sneak between cliff bands to reach mellower terrain about 1000' below the saddle. It was warm and this climb was a bit of a grind.
We skied from the upper ridge then down through one of the slopes cutting through the lower cliff band. The first of several optional side trips. We traversed in from lookers left (Whatcom/Challenger saddle) and dropped our packs to head for the ridge. The photo is from our campsite on a rock outcropping low down on the massive Challenger glacier.
Day 3
We took a short side trip to ski from the summit of Challenger. This was the only time we had real problems with wet slides. Our sizable human triggered wet slides made an amazing noise as they struck the bergschrund.
There was some tricky route finding as we traversed above cliffs dropping into the Northern Picket Drainage. We went too low and had to ascend at one point (visible on track). This was not fun, we were in an area of active wet slides and wanted to keep moving. Fortunately this can be done descending if you nail the route which will minimize time spent dealing with the objective hazard. Another massive traverse had us to the base of Luna creek. We ascended to near Luna lake and dropped our gear opting to ski the Luna couloir.
Ben opted to ski off the summit of Luna. I wasn't thrilled by the super steep loose snow to get there so I stopped at this vantage point a few feet below the summit.
Skiing an amazing couloir in the middle of nowhere. Yep, this is what we came here for. The traverse from the Challenger glacier into the northern Pickets basin is visible in the upper right portion of the photo. Clearly some objective hazard to navigate. We took the high route above the main cliff band then dropped through a choke. The trees on the right side also look like they might go, avoiding some of the objective hazard.
A weather system rolled in that evening and we spent some time really digging the tent in. Sam sent us a weather update via the inreach, it seemed like we were looking at a day or two of clouds but nothing horrible. This storm was severe in Bellingham, winds gusting to 60MPH, by the time it reached us it wasn't too bad. Winds gusted to 30MPH followed by a cool down that had us chipping the tent out of the frozen snow the next morning.
Day 4
We awoke to some downright chilly temperatures. No regrets on bringing some warm clothes. We chipped the tent out and got moving. Coming off three very big days it seemed reasonable to have a lighter day.
We skied down about a thousand feet of horrible frozen snow and avi debris from the col on the Luna ridge, then a short up to get into the drainage on the SE side of Fury. This drainage was our ticket to McMillan creek. We got a great look at the glacier on the SE side of Fury, it looked like an amazing ski. With our low energy and not being sure if it would thaw we passed it up. This is probably the only thing we passed up that I am really bummed about. It looked like an amazing feature. We needed the rest though.
The descent into Mcmillan creek proved to be a little tricky. We had to cross a cliff band and managed to downclimb some steep krumholtz and some fourth class rock (not easy in ski boots with overnight gear). We never needed the rope but just having it made me feel better. Below the main cliff band we basically followed the drainage only having to exit right once or twice to avoid cliffs or blowouts where we found the wonderful slide alder pictured above interspersed with snow patches.
Other folks have tried variations to avoid this drainage and it sounds like it has sucked all around. I'm not saying there isn't another good way but I have heard enough shitty stories from people trying other things that I am very happy we went this way.
Other folks have tried variations to avoid this drainage and it sounds like it has sucked all around. I'm not saying there isn't another good way but I have heard enough shitty stories from people trying other things that I am very happy we went this way.
Even though the south side of the valley was getting very melted out there was enough avi debris to make the drainage skiable to the bottom. Yay! Avi debris skiing.
We made camp midday and schemed for the next day. We had been pretty stingy about our food consumption to this point and we seemed to be accumulating a little reserve so it was nice to dig into a little bonus food.
Day 5
On the Dagenhardt glacier, only time we needed the rope. Ski objective is center and winds its way through the big cracks.
Out primary side trip goal had been to ski Mt. Dagenhardt. In addition to being one of the best named mountains in the cascades (amongst plenty of stiff competition) the glacier on the north side looked fantastic and had only been skied a handful of times. We awoke to clouds but otherwise good weather. There is some serious objective hazard danger as you traverse under Mt. Terror (also a fantastic name) mostly from spring wet slides and the occasional rockfall. The slope we traversed was filled with deep runnels. It was nice to have the cloud clover to minimize the risk of warming.
Out primary side trip goal had been to ski Mt. Dagenhardt. In addition to being one of the best named mountains in the cascades (amongst plenty of stiff competition) the glacier on the north side looked fantastic and had only been skied a handful of times. We awoke to clouds but otherwise good weather. There is some serious objective hazard danger as you traverse under Mt. Terror (also a fantastic name) mostly from spring wet slides and the occasional rockfall. The slope we traversed was filled with deep runnels. It was nice to have the cloud clover to minimize the risk of warming.
Ben opted to ski off the summit which included a very tricky ice axe assisted move. Again I opted to drop my gear 50 feel below the summit and just downclimb. He is just a much better skier than I am, there is no other way to put it.
In addition to the giant cracks the upper route is exposed to some enormous cliffs (behind Ben in the photo above). Only after traversing back under Terror are you out of the exposure and objective hazard. After that traverse we found some amazing corn, probably the best skiing of the trip.
We skied back to our gear stash by McMillan Creek and prepared for the climb out of the McMillan drainage. We had to pick our way through some tree bands and do some light veggie scrambling in a few spots to get to the snow slopes pictured above. Here we are just below the ridge that connects to Peak 6914. It's amazing how big the cornices were even after the enormous failure cycle they had clearly experienced. It had been a long day, was getting hot and we were in full death march mode.
We had an entire wheel of brie cheese that I dug into with vigor while sitting at this vantage point taking a break. Thus started my greatest trial of the trip. I don't know if the cheese had turned in the heat or, if it was just too much soft cheese, but I got one hell of a tummy ache about 10 minutes after eating it. As I like to say... "if that's the worst thing that happens on this trip that's ok with me." I was completely miserable for the rest of the day until we got to camp.
Remember when I said Ben was enthusiastic... After a crushing day we made camp and my watch was at 9800' of gain for the day. Ben rallied me to ski above camp with him to break 10K, I was totally wrecked and not fully recovered from the cheese incident, but his enthusiasm carried my aching legs and upset tummy the extra 200'.
One route note, we tried too hard to stay on the ridge crest and had to ski some sketchy steeps. Just stay below all the cliffs on the south side of the ridge below Peak 6914 and Elephant Butte.
One route note, we tried too hard to stay on the ridge crest and had to ski some sketchy steeps. Just stay below all the cliffs on the south side of the ridge below Peak 6914 and Elephant Butte.
Day 6
We topped out Elephant Butte hoping we cout ski off the east side... NOPE. It just turned into a full pack side trip as we had to turn around and traverse around it. After navigating some very serious terrin for 5 days I thought this last day was kind of a gimme. I was quite wrong. It turns out that the stretch between Elephant Butte and Stetattle Ridge-North Peak is very complex. There are cliffs everywhere along with plenty of steep impassible treed slopes. This turned out to be some of the most difficult route finding of the trip and right in the middle of it we heard voices.
The voices turned out to be Forest McBrian and Trevor Kostanich. I knew going into this trip it was possible we would see them based on their progress in their epic traverse. It still seemed very unlikely though. We ran into them in the saddle by Torrent creek. Some route beta was exchanged, we also tried to hoist some of our extra supplies on them (mainly gas and sunscreen). They took us up on the sunscreen (HA! no unsupported FKT for you : )
It came out later that they had only seen one other group of people on their traverse (other than their resupplies). Pretty cool to see folks in the middle of nowhere. After about 10 minutes we continued on our way.
The voices turned out to be Forest McBrian and Trevor Kostanich. I knew going into this trip it was possible we would see them based on their progress in their epic traverse. It still seemed very unlikely though. We ran into them in the saddle by Torrent creek. Some route beta was exchanged, we also tried to hoist some of our extra supplies on them (mainly gas and sunscreen). They took us up on the sunscreen (HA! no unsupported FKT for you : )
It came out later that they had only seen one other group of people on their traverse (other than their resupplies). Pretty cool to see folks in the middle of nowhere. After about 10 minutes we continued on our way.
One topic for discussion is the fact that we had a lot of skin issues. The glue on my and Ben's skins were totally breaking down (mine were G3 and Ben's were BD). Ben's just weren't sticking and my glue was coming off in these horrible glops on my ski bases. Here we see the Voile straps on ben's skis doing the work the glue should be doing. I'm not totally sure what the solution is, but it seems to be a common problem. Forest and Trevor had similar issues. Both of our skins were older, going into a trip like this with a relatively new set probably isn't a bad idea. Being constantly wet is very tough on the glue. I might even consider taking a spare set for the group if I was going back (similar sized skis would be required). That way one set could be "rested" each day and would hopefully dry out all the way. Anyways I think one things is for sure, gear companies do not take this sort of use into account when designing skins. I recommend 4 Voile straps per person minimum because those are going to get the job done no matter what the glue does. You loose a lot of glide doing that and they need to be readjusted regularly, but hey... it's better than booting.
We had been in touch with Anne via the inreach so were able to provide a pretty accurate arrival time at the sourdough mountain trailhead in Diablo. Anne was amazing, she brought all sorts of fresh food for us! I can't overstate how amazing it was that Anne dropped us off and picked us up. After a dip in the freezing cold river a we headed back to civilization, I had been dreaming of consuming a Katsu burger on and off for most of the trip.
Final thoughts:
This trip will always stand as one of the highlights of my skiing career. It would have been much easier without the side trips but would also have been much less memorable. It's also that much sweeter because it took so long to get in the right conditions.
Lessons Learned:
Final thoughts:
This trip will always stand as one of the highlights of my skiing career. It would have been much easier without the side trips but would also have been much less memorable. It's also that much sweeter because it took so long to get in the right conditions.
Lessons Learned:
- Fast and light fitness does not equal slow and heavy fitness. I had been in amazing shape for fast and light pushes going into this trip but it turns out that once you slow the cadence and add a heavy pack it all changes. I should have been doing a little more strength endurance training that spring, also an overnight trip or two with a heavy pack would have helped me feel a little more comfortable.
- Watch out for technical terrain with a heavy pack. There is an enormous difference between a 25 lb and a 50 lb pack when navigating steep technical terrain, be it going up or down.
- Skins can be a real issue on a long spring trip, try to resolve this somehow
- Stick to hard cheeses