Basic Glacier Climb - Sahale Peak/Quien Sabe Glacier

With a cold front passing nearby, forecasts were varied with some calling for slight rain which would be a risk when climbing the summit block. Fortunately weather held and it turned out to be a perfect day with scattered, low-lying clouds that kept us cool. 

Pro-tip: leave some cars parked at Cascade Pass trailhead and you'll save 0.6 miles of road back to the start.

We departed Boston Basin trailhead at 3 am estimating 14 hours for the climb. The trail was still the same unmaintained, bushwacking mess with low-lying branches every 30 feet that caught your axe on your pack. Plenty of stream crossings this time of year.

We reached the basin and refilled water at the first major runoff creek, just below low camp.  We arrived at low camp at +3 hours (= 1130'/hour pace), 30 minutes ahead of schedule, and took a break, appreciating the spectacular view from the toilet. 

Departing at 620 am, we reached the base of the glacier at 830 am, 7240', and roped up. There were crevasses of all sizes from bergschrunds to cracks across the Quien Sabe but easily navigable. We climbed high towards the basin wall in order to gain a vantage point allowing us to survey all the crevasses. While there were no active rock slides, there were two clear old slides near the gully to the col; we crossed the middle of one slide remnant.  We reached the col at 10 am, traversed across a small snowfield, and rigged a handline for the short summit block climb which had some exposure on a short 5th class patch. Just before the summit, we paused and took some time to work free an abandoned cam, levering the rock slightly with an ice axe - climb loot!

There was already traffic at the summit so we waited about 20 mins to rap using two 30m ropes which took us to a good landing spot from which we downclimbed to the Sahale glacier. The Cascade Pass side was packed with day hikers compared to the isolated Boston Basin side. The descent was uneventful and we finished at 14 hours 5 mins due to my world-class navigation planning ...and a lot of luck.

Looking NNW back towards the start of the Quien Sabe, threading crevasses:

Looking NW towards slide remnants from the gully before the Boston-Sahale col:

Route track https://www.gaiagps.com/public/ZYOJb5QoLAhAfqNmBHrS4Pjw/