Easy Pass to Cascade Pass
Over a 4 day Memorial Weekend, the other Kyle, Silvia, EZD, and I skied from Easy Pass to the Cascade River Road. We generally followed Skoog's "Logan High Route" with a different start and finish, and a notable deviation around Logan. Instead of going over the summit, we skied down the Banded Glacier, further into Logan Creek, then up the valley onto the Fremont Glacier. This was a great alternative and involved no scrambling with full packs and ski boots and a potentially good descent of the Banded.
Some more details on our route: Easy Pass -> Silent Lakes -> Arriva Meulefire Col -> Spectacular Ridge. Then Fisher Pass -> Douglas Glacier -> Banded Glacier -> Fremont Glacier -> Park Creek Pass. Then Park Creek Pass -> Booker/Buckner col -> Upper Horseshoe -> Buckner summit. From Upper Horseshoe -> Sahale Arm -> Soldier Boy Creek -> Car.
The 2 feet of fresh snow that fell right before and then warm temps really messed up the skiing, but travel conditions were safe enough and not too slow at least. Coverage was adequate on every descent, although the initial Easy Pass descent was a little bony. Glacier were pretty sealed up, but we did bring glacier gear.
This was an incredibly scenic traverse and one of my favorite trips ever, despite the bad snow. The total was 42 miles and 21k ft gain. 4 days felt pretty relaxed but the area is deserving of taking it easy and soaking it in.
https://climberkyle.com/2021/05/29/easy-pass-to-cascade-pass/
Logan
Gazing out to Logan from the Arriva area.
Silent Lakes
Skinning by the Silent Lakes.
Goode Sunrise
Morning atop Spectacular Ridge.
Douglas Glacier
Skinning up the Douglas.
Banded Glacier
KJ ripping the Banded Glacier.
Forbidden
Forbidden from the Fremont Glacier.
Park Creek Pass
Cresting Park Creek Pass.
Buckner
Epic terrain beneath the SE ridge of Buckner.
Buckner
Lovely. Nice to see folks doing long tours!
Wow, thanks for sharing--I feel transported. The image of Goode at sunrise is incredible.
An amazing journey superbly captured in beautiful prose and incredible pictures, thank you Kyle.
Only broke one piece of ski equipment this trip? Seems like you are starting to taper for the long, dry shoulder season.
Great photos. Looping around Logan via the Banded Glacier seems like a good route, with better skiing. The Fremont Glacier has nice views, but the skiing isn't exceptional. When I was skiing routes like this in the 1980s thru 2000s, I tended to look for the most efficient way in terms of climbing and descent, not the best ski terrain, so we overlooked some nice descents like the Banded Glacier.
Peakbaggers would be up in arms that I passed so close to the Logan summit but did not bag it. The descent of the Banded could have been really good, just we had bad snow. The climb up to the Fremont was one of my favorite parts of the trip, such a wild valley.
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