Winter ascent of Cascade and Porter

Feb 28, 2010

After being defeated by armpit deep snow during an attempt on Sawteeth the day before, Katharina, Andy, and I decided on an easier objective. The Sunday morning was clear and warm, so we decided on a nice outing of Cascade prior to driving back to Ottawa. We started at the upper trailhead, which saves lots of elevation gain compared to doing the full traverse. The ascent went fairly quickly as the snow was well packed from countless numbers of hikers from the day before. Within a couple of hours we reached the summit, which despite hiking all the way under clear sunny sky, was fogged in. After a short lunch break we headed back down and out of the fog and decided to head over to Porter for a better view. The trail here was harder going as it was less packed down and the snow depth put most of the tree branches at waist height. Several spots had to be crawled through. In the summer the trees would be above your head. The trees were very interesting with the snow cover, and looked like a field of white clad soldiers wearing white caps. The view from Porter were clear, and looking back at Cascade we observed a wisp of cloud surrounding the summit, perpetually obscurring the view for those that stood on top of that peak. After another brief break we made our way back down. It got warm now, above freezing but we made good time as sliding down the snowy trail was quick on the snowshoes. We met quite a few people bare booting in the softening snow who seemed to be having a lot of difficulty. Returned to the trailhead about four hours after starting.

Sunrise over the Cascade Range.