Ptarmigan Traverse-Day 1
This weeklong trip into the Cascades was indeed a classic. We planned six days for the traverse which included various summits as well and, amazingly, we stuck very close to our itinerary. The Ptarmigan traverse is about a 25-mile north to south direct jaunt from Cascade Pass to the Downey Creek trailhead. The original pioneering party traveled south to north, but the best route is undoubtedly in the opposite direction. This way, you get to look directly at the big, scary, ice-clad north faces of the mountains along the way. This is indeed the most common direction that trekkers take today. We left Monday morning very early and dropped Michael’s car off at Downey Creek, then took my car the long way back and around up to Cascade Pass. The car shuttle is a bit of a drawback but is worth it in the end since you’re on new terrain constantly. We finally started hiking around 10:45. It was a really clear day that promised to be really hot. Our packs were jam packed, mostly with food, but overall were quite light and small.
Big switchbacks on a really popular trail brought us to the pass where there was a very large party (or multiple parties) resting. We took our first break at a spot about 100 feet beyond the pass where an uninhibited deer joined us for a while. We spied several small parties heading up Sahale Peak as well today. This is quite a popular place – and this day was a Monday. From here, we still could not see around to Cache Glacier and the way to Cache Col. Continuing up, we entered a long section of steep and loose scree, but still with a reasonable trail. After crossing a steep snowfield and climbing up some even steeper scree, we were able to see Cache Glacier. We took a break at the base of the glacier and then took out our cups and started the popular tradition of “dipping our cups” in the various snowmelt and falls coming off the glacier. We kept small cups hanging conveniently on our packs. This way, we didn’t have to fill up our water bottles and could save them for when water wasn’t available, and we were able to drink our fill quite confident that the water was pure.
We started up the Cache Glacier and after a couple hundred feet, I realized I’d left my hat back at our rest stop. So I wheeled around and went back for it. A sun hat was a necessary essential on this trip! Michael went on ahead and he headed for the small notch on the left side of the glacier which was indeed Cache Col. As with most glaciers, it felt like a long time before we were at the final steep snow finger that led to a short section of scree at Cache Col. A little bit of ice axe work put us on top and we had our first views of Mount Formidible and the Middle Fork of the Cascade River. We took another break at this grand vista.
Our original plans called for a climb of Hurry-up Peak but we were both actually losing interest in this. Maybe it was a result of gaining all of this elevation with our packs on. We set our sights on getting to Kool Aid Lake, which was just out of view to the left. There was still a decent path heading down to the lake. It turned out that this entire trip featured good treads to follow. The only lengthy spot that I can think of that did not have a path was the area around LeConte Peak. We soon were able to see Kool Aid Lake about 800 feet below us. The path led us through dusty scree and some pleasant heather slopes. Down at the lake we met Peggy Goldman, author of 75 Scrambles in Washington, and her husband who had sustained a calf injury. He wasn’t in any pain, just wasn’t able to walk! They were awaiting a rescue helicopter. The helicopter arrived about 10 minutes after we arrived. In the meantime, they gave us beta on Mount Formidable which they had recently climbed. With that climb, Peggy had finished climbing the hundred highest peaks in Washington.
It was still pretty early in the day but we didn’t want to expend too much energy climbing Hurry-up Peak. It probably would have been pretty easy from this high spot but we decided to press on to some reputed camp sites beyond the Red Ledge in order to get closer to, and save our energy for Mount Formidable which we would try the next day. The snow approach to the Red Ledge was a little steep but not bad. The ledge itself was completely melted out and an easy passage up to higher slopes where we found a sweet campsite above the path near another ice melt stream. We both dipped our cups and drank our fills.
The rest of the late afternoon was spent resting and then preparing our food on a small bluff just below our campsite. This was a great spot to be – looking way down on the lower parts of the glacier and the valley even further below. We turned in as the light waned.
Tags: Cache Col, helicopter, Kool Aid, Peggy Goldman, Ptarmigan Traverse, Red Ledge, Red Ledges, rescue, snoring
