Sahale West Face - NW Face Forbidden N Ridge - Buckner N Face

Mike, Bri and I set out on 4/12 for a few days with hopes to get on a few steeper lines but with the cautious optimism that comes from more than a few unsuccessful trips out of Cascade River Road.

We used our first day to approach the moraine around 6500 below the Queen Sabe Glacier. It felt like winter with cold temps and intermittent snow squalls. A few brief breaks in the weather made us hopeful that we’d get a few turns in but it never really cleared up.

The morning of 4/13 was perfectly clear and calm but frigid cold. The west side of Sahale doesn’t see sun for quite some time. We had boot top powder from camp that got progressively deeper as we skinned up the Queen Sabe. We stopped short a hundred feet or so from the summit and skied great snow down the west face of Sahale back to camp. We quickly packed up and headed towards Sharkfin Col excited to reach some sun. Getting up and over Sharkfin was straightforward and barely requires a rappel at the moment. We fixed a line that we planned to use to get back across later in the trip.

We unloaded overnight gear on the bench below Sharkfin Col and skied great snow down the Boston Glacier before starting a rising traverse to the Forbidden Ridge notch. Once on the Forbidden Glacier we traversed to the base of the NW Face of the North Ridge. This line is quite striking when viewed from Eldorado. I had read about Lowell Skoog skiing it some time ago but otherwise did not have much info on it. We decided to give it a go and found very difficult booting conditions in the deep snow. The skiing was excellent for the majority of the line except for an icy section through a rock choke. We reversed our track back to camp below Sharkfin excited about the conditions we had found so far.

The next morning we woke up to another clear calm day. We roped up and started a contouring traverse to the base of Buckner’s north face. Once at the face we were able to skin to about 8k before switching to booting. Fortunately we found much easier booting conditions on Buckner and made great time to the summit. Again we enjoyed excellent skiing conditions down the steep north face with just a short firm bit on the crossover section. We milked good snow all the way down to 6800 on the Boston Glacier. A long traverse back across the Boston got us back to camp.

We hung out in the sun and packed up and then made use of our fixed line to get back over Sharkfin Col. We were able to ski continuously from Sharkfin Col to Solider Boy Creek drainage and down to the road. Even more surprising was how nicely corn had set up on solar aspects in just a few days.

For as many beat downs as I’ve had down Cascade River Road it’s trips like these that keep me coming back!