Cashmere Mountain

As I drove up Icicle Creek from Leavenworth, I was surprised at the extent of the forest fires that have burned on the lower portions of the Icicle and Mountaineer Creek canyon walls since my last visit. Large portions of the forest along Trail 1552 to Eightmile Lake and Trail 1554 to Lake Caroline have burned as well. The snags (dead or dying standing trees) left by the fire are not as resistant to wind-induced toppling as living trees. About 40 downed logs were across the trails.

Fire is a part of the natural order of forests. The trees will grow back. I was more disappointed to see the many vacation homes that have been built over the last 25 years in the lower end of the Icicle Creek valley. Such development is more difficult to prevent than forest fires, and has a more enduring impact on the landscape.

But I digress. On May 30, 2002, I camped at 6300' near Lake Caroline on the south flank of Cashmere Mtn. (8 miles west of Leavenworth). I'd planned to stay two nights and climb Cashmere Mtn. (8501') on Friday. However, it wasn't until I started to set up my camp that I realized that I'd neglected to bring my insulating foam and air mattress. Camping on snow, I didn't anticipate hypothermia, but I didn't expect to get much sleep either with only the minimal insulation of my poly pullover, nylon pants and rain parka between my sleeping bag and the snow. Surprisingly, I slept quite a bit, but not so well as to wish to spend another night out in a similar manner. Consequently, I settled for an ascent of an unnamed 7438' summit thereby avoiding the 5100' single day descent from the summit of Cashmere Mountain to my car.

I believe that I ascended Cashmere Mtn. with a companion on Memorial Day weekend in 1975. I have a photograph from that trip that was taken above 8300'. If that were not the case, I might have been more strongly motivated to reach the summit of Cashmere Mtn. on this trip.

Much of the forest on the north slopes of the western Enchantment Peaks (8480+') and the ridge between Mountaineer and Eightmile Creeks (foreground) burned in 1994.

Dragontail Peak (8840+', center) is flanked by the Enchantment Peaks (left) and Colchuck Peak (8705', right, behind tree). The western route to the Enchantment Lakes from Colchuck Lake is over Aasgard Pass (7800+') between Enchantment and Dragontail Peaks. (Inexplicably, this is labeled Colchuck Pass on the 1989 USGS 7.5' map.) Snow covered Little Annapurna (8440+') is visible over the pass. This and the previous image were taken at about 5800' about 1000' east of the trail to Lake Caroline.

The glaciers on the north face of Mt. Stuart (9415') are the Sherpa, Ice Cliff, and Stuart (l to r). The long North Ridge climbing route is between the Ice Cliff and Stuart glaciers and leads directly to the summit.

Snow cornices, such as this 10 to 15' high example, may collapse under the weight of the unwary mountaineer. This and the previous image are from near the summit of unnamed point 7438' northwest of Little Caroline Lake.

Averaged over 1 hour, my peak ascent (descent) rates were 990 ft/hr (-1130 ft/hr) at 5:30PM (10:45AM). These data were logged by an altimeter watch.

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