Last weekend, in oder to celebrate the reopening of the Cascade River Road, Adam and I headed up to take a look at Mixup Peak, a mountain which has long intrigued my but I have never attempted. Although Mixup is often climbed car to car, we opted for a relaxed two day trip as I was excited about camping somewhere pretty. We ended up bailing after the weather on Sunday was worse than forecasted, but had a sleeper stunning sunset on Saturday as a consolation prize, and still had a great time on our twins trip.
Dramatic light on Three Fingers and Whitehorse.
We left the trailhead in the mid afternoon and cruised up the obnoxiously gentle trail to Cascade Pass under overcast skies. The fall foliage was gorgeous, and we had nice views down the valley to Eldorado and its neighbors. I couldn’t see any signs of the Pincer Two fire which kept the North Fork Cascade River off limits for much of the summer.
Adam heading up Mixup Arm above Cascade Pass, with nice fall foliage.
From Cascade Pass, we left the crowds behind as we headed up the climbers’ trail up Mixup Arm. We met another party that had bailed on Mixup after running out of time - they hadn’t even made it to the Cache Glacier - but perhaps this was an omen? We made pretty efficient time up the ridge, and filled up water at the edge of the glacier for a dry camp at Cache Col.
Adam crossing some “vertical” dirt on Mixup Arm, with Booker in the distance.
Cool ice patterns on the Cache Glacier.
The Cache Glacier is melted down to the bare ice this time of year, revealing cool patterns in the ice. We threw our crampons on and headed towards the col, taking a look at the Gunsight Notch which provides access to the climbing route on Mixup. We knew that in the late season, crossing the moat and accessing the notch can be challenging, so we had come prepared for battle, with ice screws, extra pro, and some extra rope in case we needed to leave a fixed line. However, the moat didn’t look too bad, although the rock below the notch(es) certainly looked dirty. Either way, I thought we could make it go - I’ll have to come back to verify, though!
The Cache Glacier moat and Gunsight Notch(es) on the route up Mixup. We’ll have to come back to see how hard it is to climb off the glacier and up to the notch!
Adam heading up the Cache Glacier. Mixup’s summit is to the left, with Forbidden and Sahale on the far side of Cascade Pass.
Adam playing in the moat at the top of the Cache Glacier, just below Cache Col.
We cruised up the glacier to Cache Col, where we were greeted with a hearty breeze. We dropped our camping gear and headed a short ways up the ridge towards Magic to watch the sunset, although with how overcast it was, I wasn’t expecting much. However, expectations be damned, a few minutes before sunset, the sun dropped below the clouds to the west, casting epic beams of light down into the Middle Fork valley, and illuminating Kool Aid lake below us. We also noticed some nice light on the Boulder River Wilderness summits to the south, glowing between pockets of rain and virga. It was really a magical moment that ended as quickly as it started, leaving only some lingering pink light on the clouds as it got properly dark.
Sunbeams in the Cascade River Valley below Mount Tommy Thompson.
Short-lived evening light on the west slopes of Magic Mountain and Kool Aid Lake, with Spider and Formidable on either side of the Middle Cascade Glacier beyond.
Some golden light on the lower flanks of Eldorado, Torment, and Forbidden, despite their summits being in the clouds.
The wind also picked up a bit, and it was a bit chilly, which motivated us to head back to our tent site and start setting up Adam’s fancy new tent. This motivation was further increased by a splattering of rain drops, but after a bit of fidgeting with the guylines, soon we were cozy in our sleeping bags in the tent, listening to the rain and wind on the fly, and thinking how much more pleasant it was inside than out. After making dinner, we drifted off to sleep, comforted with the knowledge that the National Weather Service had forecasted Mostly Sunny skies for our summit attempt on Sunday.
Unfortunately, the forecast didn’t pan out. At some point in the middle of the night, the “pttpttptt” of rain on the tent turned to the “pshpshpsh” of snow, with the deteriorating weather further punctuated by the 4:30am failure of a guyline anchor, which sent Adam out into the storm to fix while I stayed cozy in my sleeping bag. When my alarm went off just before sunrise, I poked my head outside to assess the scene: we were in a total whiteout, and every exposed surface was coated with rime ice and a few centimeters of fresh snow, with more still falling. It was pretty evident that the day wasn’t right for rock climbing, so we indulged in two more hours of snoozing before enjoying some cocoa and packing up.
Adam and I at camp in a whiteout, after testing out the stormworthiness of Adam’s new tent.
We headed down the Cache Glacier in a whiteout, waved goodbye to Mixup (hidden in the mist), and retraced our steps down to Cascade Pass, which felt properly frigid with strong wind blasting from the west.
Adam descending the Cache Glacier in a whiteout.
Until next time, Mixup!