Awesome! I hope the video gave you some idea of what you're about to tackle! Have a safe trip, a successful summit and let us know how it went when you're done! 👍
Nice video. Tired to climb Cascade twice, first time it was the first mountain me and my friends climbed we were confused on where the trail was when we were above the tree line. 2nd time many years later, we were making our way to the peak and it started to rain and we had to retreat as the wildfire smoke made us not see the rain clouds.
Hey Dean..thanks for the feedback! Haha, I hear you about losing the trail above the treeline..it definitely becomes a mishmash of paths to follow. Luckily, I was with a friend who had already summited once before and he was leading but we still had to keep a constant watch where we were going. Good to hear you retreated the second time when the rain showed up..you don't want to be that high up with the potential for lightning but the rain would be bad enough...some of that rock can get slippery when wet! Here's hoping that your 3rd attempt will finally be the one that puts you on top...the views are unreal and worth all the effort...cheers!
Hey Cass! Unfortunately I don't have exact times as my GPS tracking crapped out on the hike so all I can give you are approximate amounts. We started at 9 am and summited at about 3:00 pm but we detoured into the Amphitheater and goofed around there for about an hour, having lunch and checking it out. BIG MISTAKE!! We should have stuck to making the summit our main focus as we wasted a lot of energy in the Amphitheater. So I would say it took about 5 hours (not counting the hour at the Amphitheater) to get to the summit with small breaks along the way to snack, catch our breath, route find, etc. We spend 30 minutes on the summit and headed down at approx. 3:30 pm. Taking small breaks on the way down, we got back to the parking lot at approx. 8:30 pm so 5 hours to descend. Total hiking time is approx. 10 hours but all our breaks probably added up to at least an hour so, in my rough estimate, total non stop hiking time would be approx 9 hours. We didn't go very fast (we wanted to enjoy the day and not just "bag the summit") and your own pace may be faster. Your physical conditioning will also play a factor in how long it takes you. We left the parking lot at the same time as another couple of hikers and they summited and were on the way down when we past them and we were only about half way up but they looked very conditioned! Heads up that you may encounter snow as it's been a slow melt this year so be prepared for that when you attempt the summit and be cautious if you do encounter any. If things look dicey, you might have to try later in the season so listen to your gut and come back down if it isn't safe. The summit is optional, getting home is mandatory! Hopefully you'll have no issues and it will be an amazing experience for you...best of luck!
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I'm doing Cascade in one week. Hopefully all goes smoothly.
Awesome! I hope the video gave you some idea of what you're about to tackle! Have a safe trip, a successful summit and let us know how it went when you're done! 👍
Nice video. Tired to climb Cascade twice, first time it was the first mountain me and my friends climbed we were confused on where the trail was when we were above the tree line. 2nd time many years later, we were making our way to the peak and it started to rain and we had to retreat as the wildfire smoke made us not see the rain clouds.
Hey Dean..thanks for the feedback! Haha, I hear you about losing the trail above the treeline..it definitely becomes a mishmash of paths to follow. Luckily, I was with a friend who had already summited once before and he was leading but we still had to keep a constant watch where we were going. Good to hear you retreated the second time when the rain showed up..you don't want to be that high up with the potential for lightning but the rain would be bad enough...some of that rock can get slippery when wet! Here's hoping that your 3rd attempt will finally be the one that puts you on top...the views are unreal and worth all the effort...cheers!
What time did you guys start this hike? Planning to do in a month! Also, what would you say was your total non stop hike time minus breaks?
Hey Cass! Unfortunately I don't have exact times as my GPS tracking crapped out on the hike so all I can give you are approximate amounts. We started at 9 am and summited at about 3:00 pm but we detoured into the Amphitheater and goofed around there for about an hour, having lunch and checking it out. BIG MISTAKE!! We should have stuck to making the summit our main focus as we wasted a lot of energy in the Amphitheater. So I would say it took about 5 hours (not counting the hour at the Amphitheater) to get to the summit with small breaks along the way to snack, catch our breath, route find, etc.
We spend 30 minutes on the summit and headed down at approx. 3:30 pm. Taking small breaks on the way down, we got back to the parking lot at approx. 8:30 pm so 5 hours to descend. Total hiking time is approx. 10 hours but all our breaks probably added up to at least an hour so, in my rough estimate, total non stop hiking time would be approx 9 hours. We didn't go very fast (we wanted to enjoy the day and not just "bag the summit") and your own pace may be faster. Your physical conditioning will also play a factor in how long it takes you. We left the parking lot at the same time as another couple of hikers and they summited and were on the way down when we past them and we were only about half way up but they looked very conditioned!
Heads up that you may encounter snow as it's been a slow melt this year so be prepared for that when you attempt the summit and be cautious if you do encounter any. If things look dicey, you might have to try later in the season so listen to your gut and come back down if it isn't safe. The summit is optional, getting home is mandatory!
Hopefully you'll have no issues and it will be an amazing experience for you...best of luck!