Yet another failed summit, and yet another visually outstanding and fantastic day out. So far, 2004 has not been kind to us in terms of making it to the summits of mountains - 12 trips and only 4 summits achieved. However, between Big Beehive, Shark, Nestor, Narao, Narao II and now Cascade, we have enjoyed some scenery and spectacular views that are second-to-none....and the four-letter word that is responsible for it all.... "SNOW"! Well....that and a two-word phrase.... "GREAT WEATHER". Of course, "snow" is a double-edged sword, as it is not only responsible for the phenomenal scenery, but has also prevented us from making it to the top of the aforementioned mountains (with the exception of Big Beehive, which is not really a significant summit in itself).  

The almost 7 km hike/snowshoe to the Cascade Amphitheatre was long, tiring, and relatively boring and took us just over 2 hours. The half hour of elevation loss right at the beginning was particularly frustrating, as we knew ascending this terrain at the tail-end of the 10+ hour day would be undesirable, to say the least. Things improved dramatically upon reaching the Amphitheatre, however. The snow-covered landscape, back-dropped by striking Cascade Mountain, was stunning. We snowshoed across the Amphitheatre and then up to the ridge. The snow, at this point, was quite deep and even with snowshoes, we would often sink passed our knees, making travel slow and exhausting. 

Ascending right along the edge of the ridge was fantastic - shapely cornices, the beauty of the Amphitheatre below, and another day of great weather. Eventually, we made to a highpoint, where the remainder of the route came into view. Things didn't look promising here - heavy snow-cover with avalanche potential - and so we ditched everything except some mountaineering equipment (rope, slings, ice-axe, and our new mini-crampons - another great MEC purchase!). We descended a small slope to the snow below, where, as expected, we found it to be knee-to-waist deep. After a failed attempt at traversing a very steep snow slope (the avalanche potential on the slope was huge), we decided that the safest route would be right along the cornice-laced ridge. This required us to set up anchors on the few rocks that were sticking out of the snow and belay each other across each section. With the risk of starting an avalanche and the uncertainty of where the cornices started, this was the safest way to traverse the terrain.

Other than a couple of narrow sections and a huge "whumpf" near of top of one slope, that certainly lit a fire under my $@# to get to the top of it, the ascent was thrilling and very scenic. Unfortunately, it was also fairly slow and time was starting to become a factor. At 3:15 pm, 6 hours and 20 minutes after leaving, we came to a very exposed and narrow section on the ridge. Without snow, I'm sure it would have been easy to get by, however, the snow was piled up high, completely obscuring where solid ground might be. On the left, was a severe drop-off that led straight down to the Amphitheatre and on the right a steep snow slope, again with severe avalanche potential. We decided we had traversed enough risky terrain for the day and would definitely be pushing our luck by attempting this section. By now the skies had clouded over, making our decision to call it a day even easier. Nevertheless, the surrounding scenery, even approximately 250 vertical metres from the summit was beautiful.

The descent was fairly rapid and getting by the more exposed and dangerous sections was actually quite easy. Unfortunately, as anticipated, the 2 km of uphill hiking to finish the day was sheer misery. At that point, as Mark accurately put it, "the tank was empty" and it took us a good hour to make it back to the car. Overall, another great day - the scenery was terrific and we made it much further than we thought would be possible in the present condition of the mountain. We've decide that late May or June would be a good time to try again.   

    
Arriving at the Cascade Amphitheatre

    
On the ridge, with the Amphitheatre below; the summit can be seen in the center

    
Snowy terrain a little further up the ridge

           
Looking at the summit and false summit from the first highpoint; the ascent route goes down and then up along the edge of the ridge; eventually you must traverse right to get around the false summit

      
The same as above

     
Traversing snowy and corniced terrain with the highpoint behind; we used the rocks that are visible as anchors to belay each other across in case of avalanche

      
More fun terrain; the pointed mountain at the left is Mount Louis, well-known for its challenging climbing routes

     
Yet more fun terrain and great winter scenery!

      
Approaching the point where we called it a day; our ascent route is behind and Norquay ski hill can be seen at the left

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