Snow, Rock, and Rainbows

We felt fortunate for one of those rare auspicious good weather days in The Cascades. Johannesburg Mountain stood as an imposing sentinel across from our destination. Notable for its immense, dramatic Northeast Face, which drops 5,000 feet, it presented a visually arresting sight. We couldn’t look away, now hiking through the halls of the mythic mountain kings.

We finally broke out to the lower section of the basin. The expansive view revealed an enormous icy amphitheater, Boston Glacier. It hosted a continuous parade of high spiky granite peaks. Prominent on the skyline, the sharp angular, glacier-carved form of Forbidden Peak, accompanied by a host of other sharp peaks, Mt. Buckner, Ripsaw Ridge, Sharkfin Tower, Boston Peak, and Sahale Mountain. The immense Boston Glacier was the parade ground that spread before them, a foil for their rugged beauty.

We paused for a break after the arduous steep trail, picked an open rocky spot at the foot of the Quien Sabe Glacier, and had a picnic lunch. Looking back at Mount Johannesburg, riven with its hanging glaciers and steep snowfields that populated the couloirs between its steep ridges, we could not have previously imagined such drama.

After our lunch break, we hiked higher up onto the lower apron of the Quien Sabe Glacier and found a flat spot on the crest of a snowfield, a snowfield with a view, and made camp with our small 2-person Light Dimension tent. We pulled our new Marmot rainbow sleeping bags from their stuff sacks and ceremoniously unfurled them into the tent.

The sunlight that filtered through the walls of our golden tent showered the bags with a warm light that made their colors seem even more saturated and radiant. We paused there and were content to hang out and relish the view, soaking up the ambiance. On that day, we and the aura of the mountains were both alive and vibrant.

Even then, in one of the most popular climbing areas in the North Cascades, we were alone. We had the alpine cirque all to ourselves because this was 1977. Two years later, Steve Roper and Allen Steck would publish a seminal mountain history and climbing guidebook that would change all that. They titled it Fifty Classic Climbs in North America. It quickly became the bible for many climbers who aspired to complete one or several of the fifty climbs.

One of the six climbs featured in the Pacific Northwest was the West Ridge of Forbidden Peak. With that name, that airy route, and now the knowledge of it compellingly broadcast, aspiring climbers began flocking to it. Boston Basin has since become overwhelmed with alpinists seeking to climb that and other daring routes in one of the most spectacular alpine environments in the United States.

That day we brought no ropes, harnesses, or ice axes, or any other climbing gear. There was no grand, fearsome and coveted alpine objective to be climbed. We had not come for that. We had come to savor the brilliance of the expansive place. That evening we looked up the basin in the fading light and agreed that we had a room with a view, a most incredible alpine view. Our new Marmot bags served us well in the frigid cold, under the starry stormless sky. We snuggled together, in the comfort of our rainbow bags, pleased with the day and with each other.

We awoke the next day to the presence of an immense glacier that sparkled in the early morning light. After a leisurely campsite breakfast and a good deal of simple procrastination, we loaded our packs and began our descent.  It was with some regret that we hiked down the trail and back toward the structures of the civilized world. We had that strong desire to stay, that pull that we all feel, when we want to linger and appreciate the summit a bit longer or to soak up a more of a special place. As always, the mountains would be a place of joy and regrets. And on this day, the small regrets of goodbyes.

This is an excerpt from ‘Snow. Rock, and Rainbows,’ an adventure story from my recently released memoir, Banquet of the Infinite, which is now available as an eBook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.