Despite living in Washington State my entire life, I've never had the opportunity to visit the North Cascades.
Our climb to Mt Sahale, finally corrected that! Boston Basin is one of the most beautiful locations I've been to.
The first day of our climb was a rugged hike involving
bushwacking, numerous switchbacks and creek crossings
with heavy packs. It was a nice break the following day,
where we refreshed our basic climbing skills.
Both Katy and I felt great, having been through these techniques before.
Neither of us had the chance to practice rappelling in quite a while -
very fun to experience that again!
That evening saw a bit of cloud cover coming in, making our early morning "alpine" start time uncertain;
we ended heading out around 7:00am as conditions cleared.
The overcast was actually nice - keeping temperatures cool and comfortable. Qiene Sabe Glacier starts off
moderately, then steepens! At the top of the glacier we stepped onto a steep rock ridge. Traversing that
got us to the summit pyramid. Our guide Luke quickly setup a belay and we found ourselves on the summit!