Climbing Sahale Peak
Other than photography, my other big passion is ski touring. Although ski touring provides amazing photo ops, the process doesn’t lend itself to a big dslr and a bunch of lenses. In fact, you have to be prepared for the possibility that all of your gear will get water logged (even if you have everything in plastic bags). So to allow me to remain a photographer while ski touring, I bought a relatively inexpensive point a shoot for bringing with me on ski tours.
The thing about ski touring is it generally requires you to be in pretty good shape; something that I am currently not. But my brother talked me into doing a 2 day guided ski tour to climb Sahale Peak in the North Cascades Mountains.
Right from the start, the trip had 3 miles added to it from the start because the road to the trail head was washed out last fall, which meant an extra 3 miles of hiking in ski boots.
You can see one spot where the road was washed out with only the drain culvert left remaining
The trail itself wasn’t in that good of shape as you can see from this one spot where we had to cross a boulder field
We eventually got to snow, which allowed us to put our skis on so we could start touring up hill (its actually much easier to go up hill with touring skis on, than it is to hike up hill).
It wasn’t all work getting up the mountain, we did take a few opportunities to enjoy the sun.
This was our ultimate goal; Sahale Peak. Sahale Peak is known for being one of the most scenic mountain peaks in the Northwest. From the top you can see more mountain peaks than from the top of any other mountain in the North Cascades.
Our campsite was humble, but it was good enough
Through the night we could hear avalanches on the slopes all around us, it sounded like a cross between a high flying jet airplane and thunder off in the distance. It was a bit unnerving and didn’t make it that easy to sleep.
When we woke up the next morning to find 6 inches of snow on our tents, and the snow was still really coming down. We took some time to remove the snow off of the tent, and then climbed back into our tents to see it would clear up while we enjoyed a breakfast of instant oatmeal and hot chocolate.
It never cleared up so we decided to start heading for the peak in hopes that the weather would eventually break. You can see just how bad the white out conditions were
We reached the ridge on the mountain where we needed to take off the skis and put on the crampons and rope up. It was nearly complete white out conditions, the wind was really blowing, and I was completely wiped out. I opted to wait for the others at this point 300 vertical feet from the summit. I figured that I didn’t need to risk my life to see the top in white out conditions. So I skied a little ways below the ridge, and dug a hole in the snow and climbed in it to get out of the wind. After about 30 minutes the sun suddenly broke out and for a few minutes I got a glimpse of the beauty of that place. You can see my ski pole as I took the photo while sitting in my hole.
Then the climbers came off of the peak and we all skied down to our camp site.
And we did get to do some skiing on our way back down
For the rest of the trip down I really didn’t take any pictures, because all I could think of was getting off the hill. Getting some real food and a beer, taking a shower, and then tending to my blisters.
The thing about ski touring is it generally requires you to be in pretty good shape; something that I am currently not. But my brother talked me into doing a 2 day guided ski tour to climb Sahale Peak in the North Cascades Mountains.
Right from the start, the trip had 3 miles added to it from the start because the road to the trail head was washed out last fall, which meant an extra 3 miles of hiking in ski boots.
You can see one spot where the road was washed out with only the drain culvert left remaining
The trail itself wasn’t in that good of shape as you can see from this one spot where we had to cross a boulder field
We eventually got to snow, which allowed us to put our skis on so we could start touring up hill (its actually much easier to go up hill with touring skis on, than it is to hike up hill).
It wasn’t all work getting up the mountain, we did take a few opportunities to enjoy the sun.
This was our ultimate goal; Sahale Peak. Sahale Peak is known for being one of the most scenic mountain peaks in the Northwest. From the top you can see more mountain peaks than from the top of any other mountain in the North Cascades.
Our campsite was humble, but it was good enough
Through the night we could hear avalanches on the slopes all around us, it sounded like a cross between a high flying jet airplane and thunder off in the distance. It was a bit unnerving and didn’t make it that easy to sleep.
When we woke up the next morning to find 6 inches of snow on our tents, and the snow was still really coming down. We took some time to remove the snow off of the tent, and then climbed back into our tents to see it would clear up while we enjoyed a breakfast of instant oatmeal and hot chocolate.
It never cleared up so we decided to start heading for the peak in hopes that the weather would eventually break. You can see just how bad the white out conditions were
We reached the ridge on the mountain where we needed to take off the skis and put on the crampons and rope up. It was nearly complete white out conditions, the wind was really blowing, and I was completely wiped out. I opted to wait for the others at this point 300 vertical feet from the summit. I figured that I didn’t need to risk my life to see the top in white out conditions. So I skied a little ways below the ridge, and dug a hole in the snow and climbed in it to get out of the wind. After about 30 minutes the sun suddenly broke out and for a few minutes I got a glimpse of the beauty of that place. You can see my ski pole as I took the photo while sitting in my hole.
Then the climbers came off of the peak and we all skied down to our camp site.
And we did get to do some skiing on our way back down
For the rest of the trip down I really didn’t take any pictures, because all I could think of was getting off the hill. Getting some real food and a beer, taking a shower, and then tending to my blisters.
Andrew
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
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Comments
bsvirginian
Thanks! It was a fun trip.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
Nice pictures (my favourite is the whiteout pic) and interesting reading, thanks for sharing!
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As for the white out, our guide was leading us with nothing more than his experience and a compass. There was no way to know up, down, right, or left; it was all the same.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
Ian
I also ski tour quite a bit and always enjoy the reports.
I pack my DSLR on most every trip, I am more about the pictures than the skiing sometimes. I use a Lowe-Pro fanny pack loaded on the front to not interfere with backpacks. works well and after several spills everything is still safe and sound. It's a little heavy but I consider it worth the weight.
BTW: I heart the jet-boil too!
I notice a Dynafit set up and other AT bindings, Have you tried the Tele yet??
3 miles in AT boots aren't so bad, they are made for that!
I am going to post my latest tour here soon.
Thanks!!
I will generally bring my DSLR when its a day trip, but the weight, size, and cost of loosing it are too prohibative to take it on a overnight trip (especially when I know I'll have questionable weather). When I do bring it I generally have my DSLR in a holster style bag, and attach it to my backpack belt strap. Keeps it out of my way while hiking and skiing, but it keeps it easily accessible.
The jetboil was nice to have. Two in our group were in dynafit set ups, I have silvretta bindings. As for tele... I don't think my knees could handle it.
Yah, the 3 mile hike in only sounds bad if you don't tour and you don't know about AT boots, I figured no one in this forum would call me on it
For me it was difficult because this was only my second time out for the season so I was totally out of shape. Regardless of any protests on my part, my brother drags me out on at least one overnight tour every Spring.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange