Sahale Peak via Quien Sabe Glacier (8/6-8/7/16)

After moving to Olympia last fall, I joined the Olympia branch of the Mountaineers and registered for their Basic Climbing course.  One of the requirements to graduate the course is the completion of three climbs: One glacier climb, one rock (multi-pitch) climb, and one basic alpine which could include a rock or glacier climb.  For my glacier climb, I was able to get on the Sahale Peak climb via the Quien Sabe Glacier.


Mike was our climb leader with Janette being the mentored leader as she is working to become a climb leader herself. Janette handled all the logistics and a few weeks before the climb, sent the participants a prospectus of our climb.  The plan was simple.  Leave Olympia at 4am, meet at Marblemount Ranger Station at 8am to get permits, leave the trailhead at 9:30am, and arrive at camp at 12:30pm.  On the second day, get up at 2am, leave camp at 3, summit, come back to the camp to pack up, and head back to the cars, reaching the cars by early afternoon.

As the trip neared, we were all paying attention to the weather forecast.  Though Saturday looked to be a sunny day, Sunday's weather forecast was deteriorating.  40% chance of rain showers with thunderstorms possible.  With the possibility of rain and thunder, Janette sent out an e-mail with an amended plan to possibly leave camp at 1am to try to beat the weather.



On Saturday morning, we met at the Marblemount Ranger Station as planned, reviewed our plan one last time and drove to the Boston Basin trailhead (3,240 ft elevation).  Mike suggested that instead of stopping at the listed high camp at 6,200 feet, that we go to the toe of the glacier to make summit day easier.  As such, we were planning to go as high as 7,000 feet. (Sahale Peak is at 8,681')   The first 500 feet of the trail were uneventful, but then the trail got steep.  We were climbing over blown down trees and crossed five streams.  The trail is not maintained and it took a lot of time and effort just to get to Boston Basin at 5,400 feet. 

We finally came out of the trees and after one final large stream crossing, saw Sahale Peak off to our southeast.  Boston Basin itself is quite beautiful.  Marmots were peaking out of the rocks all around, and off to our northeast we could see Forbidden Peak, Mt. Torment, Sharkfin, and Boston Peak.  We continued up slowly as the day warmed and our energy levels depleted.  We were well past our 12:30pm scheduled arrival, but the group trudged on.  At around 6,000 feet, we had to stop as one of our climbers developed leg cramps.  One of the leaders stayed back with him, while the rest of the group slowly trudged on.  Finally at 3:45pm, we reached the 6,700 foot level where there was a rock outcropping that would be a sufficient place to set up camp.  Half an our later, our climber who had the leg cramp made it to camp, but he decided that he was likely unable to continue the climb the next day.  He and one of the assistants ultimately stayed at camp while the other 10 planned for our summit day.

Around 5:00pm we had dinner and discussed our summit day plan.  There was talk, because of the concern of thunderstorms the next day, to possibly start our climb at 8 or 9 that night, but since that would put our arrival at the summit in the middle of the night, we kept with the 1am departure time.  We filtered water and got our gear ready for summit day, then around 7pm, we all headed to bed to try to get some sleep before waking up at midnight.
 

I lied down at 7pm and I would fall asleep for a few minutes then wake up with the pattern continuing more or less until just before midnight when we all got up and prepared for a 1am departure.  By 1am, all 10 of us had our helmets, harnesses, and crampons on, we were tied into our rope teams and left right at 1am.  We had two rope teams of three and one of four.

I was on rope team #1.  One of our assistants, Tai, led the rope team, with me being the middle climber on the team.  Tai led at an efficient pace.  He navigated around crevasses and kept the whole group moving even on the steep section on the right side of the Quien Sabe Glacier.  Finally, we got to the ridgeline above the glacier.  We took off our crampons and climbed the ridge but before we could get to the summit block, we had to cross a steep section of snow with significant drop off.  It was decided that we would set pickets to protect the teams in case of a fall.  We put our crampons back on then Tai went out to set five pickets while I belayed him.  Then when he was out of rope, I followed with the third climber, Tristan, belaying us.  We soon crossed the slope with the other two rope teams following.  There was one more steep section of snow that required three more pickets to be set, but the entire team was able to get to the summit block by 5am.

 

Tai and Tristan then went to set a fixed line for us to get to the summit and Mike climbed to the summit to get the rappel set.  Since the actual summit of Sahale is small, and since only two or three people could be at the summit at the same time, it was decided that one person would be going up the fixed line and after a couple of quick summit photos, they would rappel while the next person would ascend via the fixed line, repeating this process until everyone had summited.  The plan was remarkably efficient and we had all summited and rappelled down by 6:30am.  Meanwhile, the sun rose and we had beautiful views of Glacier Peak to our south, Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan off in the distance in the northwest, and Forbidden Peak and El Dorado also off to our north and northwest. 

After eating our summit treats, drinking water, and applying sunscreen, it was time to descend the same way we came up.  Our rope team which was the first coming up, became the last rope team with Tristan removing the pickets.  We made our way down the ridge and then stopped to get our crampons on one last time.  We noticed that while it was sunny at the summit, fog and clouds were rolling in and we could not see the camp from the ridge.  As such, with reduced visibility, we would need to take extra care to be aware the crevasses around us.

The three groups descended into the clouds following the boot tracks of previous climbers, but at one point, the first rope team lost track of the boot tracks, so our rope team, let by Tai, took over leading and Tai, somehow, got us back to the camp even though we did not have clear views.  We were back at camp by 9:45am

We set a goal of having camp packed up and be back on the trail by 11 and sure enough, at 11am, we were ready to go.  The travel was slow as we had to stop to take care of one climber's blisters, and then after getting out of Boston Basin, had to deal with the stream crossings and blow down of the climber's trail.  We got back to the cars, all of us exhausted, but safe, at 3:45pm.  After congratulating each other, we got into our cars and headed home.

It was a good climb.  We had beautiful views, nice weather, and the group got along really well.  I would love to go back to Sahale one day and try the more popular Sahale Arm route.  I also have to say that the whole North Cascades National Park area is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend visiting even if it is for a day hike.