Pelton/Cache/C-Pass

June 18, 2006 Phil, Greg, and I squeezed into Phil's truck and drove to Cascade Pass. We spent the night next to the car. In the morning the others pushed their bikes and I walked up to the summer parking lot, where we switched to boots and started hiking up the snow. The direct route to Cascade Pass was melted out, necessitating some thought-provoking traversing. Once at C-Pass, we ran into a group who had an injured party member. They had sufficient numbers to evacuate themselves, so we took a quick break at the Pass before dropping down toward Pelton Creek. I discovered that during the night some mice had invaded my pack, eaten half my bagels (my only food for the day), and left me two mouse turds as souvenirs. Damn hanta-virus-ridden pesky bastards. We took a high traverse towards the Yawning Glacier. It was a bit cold in the basin, so we went up. We rapidly kicked steps up the glacier and were soon at the col between Magic and the other peak that I'm too lazy to look up. The 'S' Glacier on Hurry-Up sure looked great. The couloir on Magic was way melted out, as we had figured, so we took a nice break at the col. Then we heard voices. That's weird, we hadn't seen anybody. Turned out to be some of the usual miscreants; Sky had dispensed with sleep and convinced Hannah to come along as well. A quick run from the schrund of the melted-out couloir was nice; then we absolutely hauled ass down into Pelton Basin. I didn't take any photos, I was too busy skiing a bit too fast. I'm not sure what the hurry was, but we made a remarkably rapid descent. As soon as we were in the valley the race was on to the next objective: the couloir from Cache Col down into Pelton Basin. I can't remember how we chose this line, but we climbed the chute as quickly as possible. A bit of an annoying slog up the flat part of the Cache Glacier, and we got to Cache Col, where we ditched the skis and scrambled to a local maximum. The clouds obscured some of the mountains, but it was still really nice. After a sizeable break it was time to race each other to the bottom again, so we launched off the vertical lip of the melted cornice and, again, hauled ass to the bottom. The quality of the snow matched the quality of the line; it was great! Though again, I failed to take many photos. A very slow slog back to the Pass ensued. Greg, Phil and I enjoyed a nap at the pass while the others continued up to Sahale Arm for some extra skiing. Or at least, that's what we assumed. A quick thrash back to the bikes and the cars, and during the drive home talk turned to Rainier....