Our long awaited and much anticipated trek finally arrived on July 31. The Ptarmigan Traverse is a Washington classic. Starting at Cascade Pass, southeast of Marblemount, it traverses southwest over glaciers, ridges, cols for 4 days before descending into the forest just east of Darrington (see map at the end of this blog). It's really more of a climbing trip than a hike. Mostly off trail, we will cross many glaciers, steep snow fields and loose rock and heather. In addition to all our normal backpacking gear, ropes, harness, ice axes, pickets, helmets and crampons are required. Tuesday morning was spent shuttling cars to our exit spot on the Suiattle river road. Due to construction, we had to drive up the White River road and over Rat Trap pass to access the end of the road where we parked two cars. The road is still closed 9 miles from the end of the trail, so our last day will be quite a slog out. Then we drove up to Marblemount for an interesting breakfast and on to the Cascade Pass trailhead.
Day one - Cascade Pass trailhead to Kool Aid lake.
Eager to get started, from left to right - Jacob, Andy (me), Dave, Alan, Jon and Jeff. Margaret hiked with us up to the pass to say her goodbyes.
Approaching the pass on what will soon be the last of a nicely graded trail for 6 days
Just above the pass, our route takes off to the right, up through heather, scree and eventually snow as we climb towards Cache Col. The red line indicates our approximate route.
View looking back down at Cascade Pass and Sahale Peak
On the Cache Glacier, the col is the notch at the upper left.
A very cool cornice on top of Cache Col created a frozen wave of ice.
Jon in the tube.
Our route down from Cache Col to Koolaid Lake, our first night - then on over Red Ledges and toward Spire - Formidable Col on day 2.
Kool Aid Lake was mostly still frozen over, but we had some nice melted out camp spots on the ridge near the outlet.
Day 2 - Kool Aid Lake to Yang Yang Lakes, via Spire - Formidable Col.
On the steep snow approaching Red Ledges. The ledges were completely melted out and not any problem at all. Just a bit of exposure.
Top of Art's Knoll - good camp spots here.
After Art's Knoll, we traverse around and up the left side of the Middle Cascade Glacier.
Approching the top of the Middle Cascade Glacier.
Time to rope up as we near the crevasses on the upper Middle Cascade Glacier.
Just approaching Spider - Formidable Col
This is the left notch filled with nice easy snow that we should have descended.
This is the loose rock gully of doom that we thought was the easy way, little did we know. Decending this was probably the sketchiest part of the trek. No more pictures until safely at camp at Yang Yang Lakes below.
I could have stayed here an extra night, it was absolutely beautiful.
Day 3 - Yang Yang Lakes to White Rock Lakes via the South Cascade Glacier.
The morning dawned a bit foggy, which would prove to cause some delay as route finding is fairly difficult on the PT if you don't have visibility.
Heading across the upper Le Conte Glacier.
Not sure exactly where we are....
We arrived at this col between Sentinel and Old Guard when it was completely socked in. We couldn't see 100' and were not sure that this was the correct spot to descend. We sent Jacob down the snow shoot to do some reconnaissance, but it proved to be too sketchy.
Heading further to look for another col, the sun finally came out.
We finally decided to back-track down to the saddle below Sentinel and skirt around the base of Sentinel Peak and across the top section of the South Cascade Glacier. This proved to be a much easier way. It's amazing the difference it makes when you can see where you're going.
At the top of the South Cascade Glacier, looking across at the Dana Glacier. Our camp at White Rock Lakes is just below them.
Looking down at White Rock Lakes, mostly snowbound. We camped on the ledge just before the ridge dropped off.
Yet another amazing camp spot at White Rock Lakes.
Looking down on our camp spot at White Rock Lakes
Freshly frozen water in the early morning.
Our route across the snowfields above the cirque and up the Dana glacier up to Spire col.
Heading across the lower Dana Glacier.
Spire Point, the col is off to the left.
Up at Spire Point, there were lots of small flower gardens.
Heading down from Spire Point, on our way to Cub Lake.
Dome peak from the flats near Cub Lake.
Cub Lake, mostly still frozen.
Camping on the ridge above Cub Lake turned out to be much nicer then down at the lake. It was quite hot as we savored the last views before starting our long decent down and out of our high traverse and into the forest.
Near the blow down on our way descending Bachelor Creek. With the exception of this blowdown area, there is a trail all the way from Cub Lake to Downey Creek that is pretty easy to follow.
The well known log crossing at 4200' across Bachelor Creek.
Our stash was still intact in Downey Creek. We enjoyed fresh cold IPA, diligently packed up a week prior by Alan and me via mountain bikes.
Our last night's camp at the old car camp where Downey Creek joins the Suiattle River.
Complete route with each day's camps.
