|
Dave and his antique bicycle near the end of the road.
|
|
We followed the somewhat sketchy and brushy trail around the left side of the lake and soon reached the other end. Here we immediately lost the trail, or none existed, and the most unpleasant bushwhacking experience of all time was to be had. We slowly worked our way through a sea of slide alder heading to our right towards the opposite side of the valley where we could see large boulders. We hiked up, down and around the moss-covered boulders, followed a creek bed, and eventually reached open terrain again.
|
|
Dave flips the bird at the slide alder boscage. We had wasted a large portion of the day bushwhacking and there simply wasn't enough time to climb Cadet Peak anymore. Now what?! We decided to check out the snow remnant tucked away at the very end of the valley.
|
|
As we approched the snow we began to see large ice caves and huge vertical ice walls. I just happened to bring a secondary ice tool with me and suggested to Dave that we do some ice climbing.
|
|
We chose a relatively small face without an overhang. I placed a couple of screws on the initial ascent and bumbled my way up to the crest. I set up a top rope, walked down the backside, and belayed Dave on his first attempt.
|
|
Dave reaches the top, with an ice hammer and a ski touring axe.
|
|
The "ice barrel".
|
|
A frozen North Shore barrel lost somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
The hike back out through the slide alder was about as bad as the hike in. Adding insult to injury, I also later found out that I had lost my gear bag somewhere in the heart of the slide alder boscage. I couldn't justify going back and looking for my lost gear.
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)