Jim and I had hoped to get one more long trip in before the end of September but the weather did not cooperate. With a 3 day weather window, we scrambled to come up with something. We had hope to do Spider Mountain back in July so we had good snow cover and long days but why not now. The colors in the high country are so beautiful in September.
We headed out for Cascade Pass Monday morning. If you have never been here, you should go. But be aware you will see all kinds of different people with all sorts of different accents. Cascade Pass is one of the few accessible area in the North Cascades National Park where the views are obtained with a reasonable amount of effort. Some people never leave the parking lot. But be warned the Cascade Pass road in long making the drive from Bellevue around 4 hours.
We arrived the parking lot to find it nearly full even though it was a Monday. We were taken back by the fresh snow on all the peaks. Good thing our climb was south facing.
It was less than a 2 hour hike to Cascade Pass. We arrived and found a crowd peering over the heather slope. There was a small black bear 50 yards down the slope, furiously eating blueberries and greenery trying hard to put on some weight before winter comes. Most of the year, bear sightings are very rare but this was September.
We stopped for a quick picture of the mountains to the south. The snow really adds a lots of texture.
Then we headed up the climbers path and the traverse to the Cache glacier. Soon we had crampons on and were headed up the Cache glacier to Cache Col. We hoped getting off the glacier would not be tricky but we prepared for the worse putting on harnesses prior to getting on the snow. We were pleased to have an easy walk off.
We were bummed to find Spider and Formidable in the clouds to our south. To the north, Sahale and Buckner were clear as ever but had way more new snow on their south slopes than we had expected. Jim and I were starting to have doubts that our climb would be successful.
As we started headed down the other side, we saw our second bear of the day. A large brown one that almost looked gold in the sunlight. We were glad to be camping a mile away in the next basin. Even though the bear had no interest in us (we were careful to leave all blueberries at home), it was nice to know there would be a large cliff between us and him.
We dropped into Koolaid Lake and found 2 other tents camped there but no people. There was not a lot to do from Koolaid Lake. Most people camp here as day 1 of the Ptarmigan Traverse. Near dusk, we saw people coming down from Hurry Up Peak above the lake. Jim went over and found out they were Geologists from Western University, Jim’s alma mater, collecting rocks. They talked rocks for a good 20 minutes.
As we ate dinner, the sun set and the moon came out. The clouds were working on clearing and gave the area an eerie feeling. It was going to be a cold night.
We set a 5:30 alarm so we would be on the move soon after first light. We were treated to clear skies and low valley fog.
I left camp in multiple layers of clothing. It was cold and we would not see the sun for several hours. The talus fields were full of rocks with dustings of snow and some ice making the traverse slower than we had hoped. Then the sun hit Mount Formidable helping to remind me of why we do this crazy sport.
As we got closer to the Formidable glacier, the new snow started to pile up on our route which actually made the talus fields much easier to cross. As we turned the corner under the large buttress at the end of the traverse, we got our first look at Spider.
Before long, we were roping up and heading up the Middle Cascade glacier just left of the Formidable glacier.
Then we made the turn and headed for the Spider-Formidable Col.
At the col, we were treated to the amazing view of the La Conte glacier with Old Guard and Sentinel peaks. This was my third time to the col. The view still takes my breath away.
To the right is a great view of Anges Peak and Gunsight.
The other side of the Spider-Formidable col is a steep snow filled couloir. This late in the season, it was ice with fresh snow. Moats on both sides. Totally unappealing. I started in the moat but that got ugly very fast. I decide to use the technic we learned getting off Hard Mox, I sat down on the snow and Jim belayed me down the snow/ice field on my butt. Worked great.
We were finally at the base of Spider Mountain. We took a break and looked at our route beta. Spider is known to be a grungy climb up a gully with a crap load of lose rock. We were glad it was just the two of us.
This is where I stopped taking pictures for the next 3.5 hours. First we crossed a half mile of scree. Then we turned up this horrible looking gully. Everything was lose. There was a small stream running down the middle. It was really tight. Maybe 5 feet wide. As we climbed, Jim and I never got more than a foot or two from each other as not to knock rock on each other. About every 10 feet, one of us would dislodge a rock.
We hit a couple class 3/4 steps which required us to actually climb in the stream. We were delight to discover that the wet rock was not slippery at all. It actually had the best holds because they were solid.
After about a hour in the gully, Jim and I were elated to be able to obtain the rib to our right. Getting us out of the worse gully I have ever climbed in.
The rib was soft dirt so every step up, you went half a step down. Jim and I were getting so very frustrated. Finally, we hit the ridge crest. There was quite a bit of fresh snow but it was so much easier than the soft dirt.
After dealing with an irritating false summit, you think this crappy climb is over with and then NO, we had to drop down to a notch and up the next ridge.
The summit ridge was a fun, easy class 3 scramble which was good since it was covered with snow.
The views from the summit are spectacular. You can see so much of the Ptarmigan Traverse.
As we headed down, we started discussing alternative down routes. Neither of us wanted to go back in that gully. We had a rope and slings so rappelling was an option, if we could find something solid.
Fay had descended the gully to the right of the main one. Not wanting to go back into the crap main gully either so we knew the gully would go at least part way down the mountain. The upper slopes were easy plungable dirt.
When we could no longer descend the gully, we got on the rib above the main gully. We started to descend the rib finding it much more pleasant than the gully we came up. We were almost down when the rib came to the end. A big cliff.
We looked around and found a nice ledge that dropped us in the bottom of the gully. We had about 150 feet to descend. Took us 15 minutes and we were out of this yucky place, never to return.
By the time we got back to our break spot, it was 5pm. We knew we were returning in the dark. It wouldn’t be the first time from here. We returned in the dark after our Mount Formidable climb with Beth several years back.
We knew we had to get off the glacier before total darkness. From the top of the Spider-Formidable col, we could see the sun still on the near ridge. We had plenty of time.
As we started our descent following our footsteps up, we noticed something very unusual. A goat had used our up track. He had matched our steps one for one. Jim said he had never broke trail for a goat before. We have used so many of their trails. It was nice to return the favor.
We got down the snow and under the buttress before we were taken by darkness and needed headlamps. Once we found the trail on the heather ridge and started the long traverse, we decided to take a break, turn off our headlamps, and take in the evening. The small moon lite up the snow. Stars were starting to fill the sky. It was so peaceful. I love times like this.
We arrived camp just before 11pm. Ate dinner outside until a cold wind came in and drove me into the tent. We had our tent secured with multiple rocks and lots of guidelines so we fell asleep within minutes. Cuddled up under our mountain quilt. Snug as a bug on this chilly night.
We woke slowly after our 16 hour climb the day before. We were not going to set a speed record getting back to the car. We were both pretty tired.
It seemed to take forever to get back to Cache Col. The view of Mount Formidable and Spider Mountain are spectacular from here. If you have seen the painting in our stairwell done by Jim’s brother Brad, it is Formidable from Cache col.
The only highlight on our trip back to the car was these two marmots who had made a home right in the middle of the traverse route. The big one slept through our entire visit. He did readjust his head so it was more comfortable on his rock. The little one watched us carefully as we moved around their home. In the end, she felt comfortable rejoining her lazy husband for their afternoon nap.
By the time we reached the car, my body ached everywhere and my feet were screaming at me. It was nice to have something hurt worse than my knees.
———————– Complete Photo Gallery ———————
