Cashmere Mountain and Colchuck Peak Attempt

Cashmere Mountain (8,501ft) and Colchuck Peak Attempt

Hiking up the west ridge of Cashmere

September 8, 2018

Eric Gilbertson

Aaron and I finished climbing Snowfield Peak on September 7 and headed back to Darrington that evening. Aaron headed back to Seattle, but I headed back east to climb some more peaks. I drove through pouring rain and made it to the eightmile creek trailhead by 10pm. Luckily it was a bit drier east of the crest, though the forecast was for rain the next morning.

I slept in the car and left the trailhead at 4:30am hiking up the eighmile creek trail. I turned off to Lake Caroline and pass a few tents around the lake. There should have been a view of Cashmere from the lake, but unfortunately it was socked in with clouds.

Past the lake I continued hiking up to Windy Pass, and was in the middle of the clouds with limited visibility. At the pass I turned right and followed the ridge. This route wasn’t the most direct, but would be the easiest to follow in low visibility. I continued on the ridge, skirting around a few gendarms to the right following cairns, until I made it to the base of Cashmere.

I had previously climbed Cashmere in the winter in 2016, and that time I had scrambled directly up the 4^th class ridge to the summit. However, on the return I had traversed across the north face, and that seemed like a much less sketchy route.

Colchuck Lake, with Colchuck Peak in the background

At the ridge I turned left and traversed the north face, angling up when possible, until I reached the north ridge. I scrambled up the ridge and made it to the summit. The entire route was 3^rd class. Unfortunately there was no summit register, so I retraced my route back through the fog. As I neared Windy Pass the cloud level increased and I started getting views. Another hiker passed by on his way to Cashmere.

I took a shortcut before Windy Pass, dropping down to the trail, then hiked back to the trailhead. It was around noon, and I quickly ate a half of a chocolate cake that I had stashed in the car. I needed to climb Colchuck Peak also to tighten my Bulger time finishing clock, so drove up the road to the Colchuck Lake trailhead to get started. However, the trailhead was completely packed, and the cars were actually lining the shoulder of the road almost the entire way back to the eightmile creek trailhead! I guess a weekend in September is a popular time to hike in the enchantments.

I drove about a mile down the road and found a spot on the shoulder, then started hiking. My plan was to climb the Colchuck Glacier route, and I suspected it would be icy in the late season conditions. Thus I packed my mountaineering boots and steel crampons in my pack and hiked with my whippet. I felt like I was on fire after eating that cake, and basically ran all the way up to Colchuck Lake, passing tons of other hikers

The sketchy late-season conditions on the Colchuck Glacier

I hiked around the lake, then scrambled up the talus slopes to the base of the glacier. I cramponed a few hundred feet up the glacier, but then encountered ice that was steep and hard enough that I really needed two ice tools to proceed safely. I could maybe make it up with just the whippet, but it would be pretty sketchy to downclimb. I really don’t like turning around, but couldn’t justify the risk, so I bailed out. I knew it would probably be possible to go up and over Dragontail via the standard route and scramble across the ridge to Colchuck, but I’d told Katie I’d be home for dinner that night, and couldn’t really afford to add all those extra miles without needing to sleep at the trailhead. It would still be a 30+ mile day since I’d already done Cashmere that morning.

I decided to come back a few days later and bushwhack up the south side of Colchuck, which I knew did not have any glaciers. Reluctantly I scrambled back down to Colchuck Lake and hiked back to the car, then drove back to Seattle that evening.