Sahale Peak, North Cascades

Morning comes, still socked in. Reports from the previous day were that the cloud stopped at the divide. We decide to climb up and over Sahale Peak (8680 feet) and get a good view of the world, and see what it looks like from there. A guided party would be doing the same, and Ram had been this way several times before, so we thought that despite the whiteout, we could navigate our way up the glacier without falling into a "gaper".

Packing up in the morning.

All packed up, ready to head up into the whiteout.

up and up and up...

On occasion, it threatens to clear.

(captions are hard, when there is nothing to see...)

I really like this pic by Ram.

Perfect snow conditions for booting.

The guide and guest were ahead of us, but they stopped to do some crevasse rescue training, so we were relying on Ram's memory (and occasional glimpses) to find the route.

Rocks above us, maybe even Sharkfin Tower, which we had hoped to try the previous day.

Thanks to Ram for stopping and taking photos on this section. I was too busy just trying to keep up!

We were roped up because the route climbs the glacier to the ridge crest.

I like this shot, so I made it BIG.

Getting near the top.

Bucky making the transition, snow to rock, always treacherous.

Moi (Tom) making the last few moves to the ridge crest.

The ridgecrest, looking South toward Sahale Peak.

We'all taking a break on the ridge, and enjoying some sunshine (on and off). Looking north toward the rarely climbed Boston Peak, actually the shoulder rather than the steeper summit pyramid.

Looking over the other side, into Horseshoe Basin.

Bucky doing his best Tom Jones imitation (not me, the other one).

Starting up the ridge. Clouds blowing in and out.

Kinda alpine-feeling, eh?

Near the top, a couple exposed but easy moves. Aaron climbing...

Aaron on the final moves to the top.

Bucky pulling up over the top.

Tom coming up over the top, annoyed at being asked to pose on the route's only 5th class move...

Summit! of Sahale Peak.

Ramoo and Aaronoo on the summit. What, me worry?

From the summit, (Bucky on) a short rappel to the north starts our 5200 foot descent.

The Ramoo rapping into the fog.

From below. This is also the easy way up, but the rap seemed easier than downclimbing the ridge somewhere.

Summit from a little rest spot on the ridge...

Clouds still blowing in and out.

Clouds clouds clouds. We were hoping the clouds would be breaking up, so we could go over and camp over here somewhere and try another peak or two ... but it was not to be. The smart money was on getting out of Dodge, heading to drier conditions on the East Side.