Dakobed Ski Traverse - Heart of the Cascades
The Dakobed Traverse. 50 miles around the Glacier Peak Wilderness during May provided an unforgettable experience. It’s not often in Washington that you get to go five days without seeing another soul. A volcano, bushwhacking, and great views. A very Cascadian style traverse.
Overview:
Location: Glacier Peak Wilderness, Washington
Route: The Dakobed Traverse, planned off of the traverse in the Volken Guide Book
Dates: 13-17 May, 2023
Team: Shannon, Trask
Gear: Glacier travel gear, enough food and fuel to stretch 6 days, BD Megalight tent.
Start/Finish: White River Trailhead
Shannon and I had been talking about a traverse since the beginning of winter. The Dakobed came up again and again on our list, and I was going to have a bit of time between a busy work schedule in mid May, also known as traverse season. We had some good days in the backcountry leading up to it, including an epic day skiing the Canon Mountain Couloir in powder. As May drew closer, the snowpack was holding up decently and a good weather window was lining up, and we headed out.
Day 1
A pretty simple day that almost turned into an abandoned trip. Starting out from the trailhead, there was intermittent snow for a few miles until we started going up. The south facing slope was snow free, but after a couple hours of hiking we reached the highlight of spring skiing; getting the skis off your back and onto your feet.
Skinning up the valley, we eventually had to find a stream crossing in order to get into the alpine and our camp for the night. We were hoping this would be easy, and that there would be plenty of snow to cross, but this was not the case. We went up and down a few times trying to find a location, but the best we could get was a wet log a couple of feet above a raging river.
We switched over to our trail runners for the crossing. I threw my skis and boots across, trying to launch them far enough so they would not slide back down into the river. After they were across, I carefully made my way across the log. The water was pretty deep, and with how fast it was moving it would not have been a fun river ride. After making it across, I prepared to help secure Shannon’s skis and boots for her toss. One ski made it, another did as well, as I played the part of making sure nothing accidently slid back down. Shannon geared up for the boot toss, displaying the confidence of an MLB pitcher. Going for the underhand throw, her arm circled around moving faster to the point of release, and the boot was airborne. The boot went up, and up, and up…but gained no distance. It was like watching someone fire a mortar at their own doorstep. The boot got higher and higher and with a whistle came crashing down into the middle of the river, disappearing into the flowing water.
We stood aghast. Just like that, the boot was gone. After some moments, she made sure to get the throw better for the next boot and it made it across safely. We started scouring down stream, looking for any sign of the boot. After 30 minutes or so, we had nearly given up, realizing that our plans of epic adventure may have just ended. But suddenly a sight caught our eyes. Floating in the river, stopped by a rogue branch and pushed up near the snow bank, there it was. It was probably a good 50 yards downstream from the crossing. I gave a quick belay to Shannon as she went down the steep snow bank and retrieved the boot - wet but intact.
The rest of the day was uneventful, we made our way up to tree line and made camp right at sunset in a little bowl by Boulder Pass. Day 1 was over.
Day 2
Day 2 would bring us up and around and onto the first glacier of the trip, the Clark Glacier. Making our way up, it become very apparent what our next enemy was going to be for the trip - the heat. Already things were quite warm, and although we were in more mellow terrain, there would be some steeper terrain up by Luahna and Chalangin Peak later in the day. Making our way up to Clark Mountain, we started to set off some small wet loose. We dropped overnight gear and made a quick jaunt up to Clark mountain and came down, deciding to wait till evening time as the sun was setting before we made the traverse around Clark Mountain. It looked like the north side of Clark would be as far as we made it today.
After some afternoon rest, we went around to the north side of Clark as the sun was getting low in the sky. The north slopes were a little less loose, but the cornices hanging over the north side of Clark gave us motivation to move quickly. Getting to the other side of Clark, we found a nice flat spot for camp. After setting up camp, we basked in one of the best sunsets I’ve seen. It felt like we had the whole Cascades to ourselves. We also had great views of Glacier Peak, where we would hopefully be soon enough.
Day 3
Since nothing seemed to be getting much of a re-freeze, we got an early pre-dawn start. Our original plan was to stay high around Luahna, but with the lack of re-freeze and increased possibility of wet slides, we decided to ski down the Richardson glacier into the valley and loop around to the Butterfly and Moth Glacier.
Despite being 4am, we actually had great corn as we made our a way down a few thousand feet into the valley. I realized my ice axe fell off my pack, and backtracked to where we had stopped at the toe of the glacier to see if I had dropped it. With no luck, I skied back, only to find it 30 feet from where I had noticed it missing.
We were hoping the valley would be plenty filled with snow and easy travel. Luckily, it was, and we made our way up and back into the alpine. A short drop to an almost frozen alpine lake allowed us to fill up on water before we made the long traverse around the north side of Tenpeak. While at the lake, we had a F18 Fighter Jet buzz us in an inverted roll up and over the mountain headed south. Being a Top Gun, and Tom Cruise fan, I knew this was the exact location and spot that they used to film the intense inverted bomb run scene from Top Gun: Maverick. If you freeze the movie, you can see Glacier Peak, and almost the exact same view that we had.
We looped around a short rocky section and started a long traverse around the northside of Tenpeak and onto the Honeycomb Glacier. This was objectively one of the most hazardous parts of the whole traverse. With steep side hilling and cliffs below, as well as threat of rockfall from above, it was a balance of moving quickly but being sure footed. Before getting onto the Honeycomb Glacier we could watch as some good sized rocks fell past our path. We switched to downhill mode and got through quickly without any close calls. Roping up, we started a long slog up the Honeycomb to our campsite.
Day 4
Glacier Peak day! It was great leaving overnight gear and having light packs for the day. We started up underneath headlamp crossing over the Suiattle Glacier and soon joined up on the regular Gerdine-Cool Route. We were greeted to another beautiful sunrise and clear day. The snow had firmed up finally and provided easy skinning. We made out way up the Cool Glacier and joined the rocky ridgline that would take us to the final summit slope.
Booting up the final slopes, we hit the summit. This was both of our final of Washington’s 5 volcanos to summit and ski, and we enjoyed clicking in at the top. Firm snow brought us back to the rock ridgeline. Dropping onto the the Cool and Gerdine Glaciers we found great corn on mellow slopes, the best and most continuous skiing we had the whole trip! It was stretching into evening as we made it back to our camp, a little speck of blue contrasted against the dark rock and featureless glacier.
The days were catching up to us, and we were starting to feel the miles on our legs. As we settled down for the evening, we knew we only had downhill to go. It was going to be a nice day back to the car, right?
Day 5
Another pre-dawn start due to the heat, we packed up camp and skinned across the glacier for our final ski descent down to Lightning Creek, which would join with the White River and take us back to the car. The ski down was great, starting at around 7,800’, enjoing a few thousand feet of early morning corn. Eventually progress slowed as trees got thicker and we made it down to the creek, finding a crossing to the east side around 4,800’.
The snow started disappearing and we switched to booting, post holing through snow and rocks that turned into steep and slippery bushwhacking down towards the White River. Through vegetation belays and muddy slabs, we finally got down to the river, hoping that would be the worst of our troubles. The map showed a trail that lead along the river that would join back up with the first few miles we started on 5 days earlier.
The following 5 miles were some of the most frustrating and annoying travel I have ever done. Thick slide alder littered the riverbank, with skis getting caught on everything. Whiplashes across the face became common. At times, I would do my best defensive lineman attempt and try to bullrush through, only to be thrown back and attempt to get around. At one point, a mile long section took almost 90 minutes to get through. It just would not end. After a few hours, we came across a heavy stream that joined the White River, adding some time trying to find a good crossing, but at least it meant I wasn’t getting caught in branches!
Despite frustrations, there was really nothing we could do. We just kept moving, one foot at a time. What had started as type 2 fun shifted to type 3, and you just had to embrace it. Looking at the gps, I knew we were close to familiar territory from day 1, where it was nice and clear. A nice thick section finally gave way, and we were back in less overgrown terrain. A few more miles and we were at the car, 13 hours after we had set out that morning. So much for an easy day.
Key Takeaways
-The last day was some of the worst bushwhacking I’ve done. It was worse than the tree blow down-post hole hell from the Northern Picket’s traverse. If I were to do it again, I would consider the alternate exit(map below), which although is longer, goes *supposedly* on an actual maintained trail. The trail along White River not too far past the turn off to go up to Clark Mountain does, or at least did not, exist in May 2023, and no signs of a trail were present.
-It’s remote, we didn’t see another person the entire time. You may run into people doing Glacier Peak from the west, but it’s unlikely you’ll see people the rest of the time.
-It was great weather the whole time, but very hot, which required early starts every day. There wasn’t a good refreeze until the 4th day. We missed out on some good skiing and alpine terrain the third day due to dropping down into the valley because of this.
-Final stats were * roughly * 55 miles, 18,000’ elevation gain.
