Head up Provo Canyon and turn off onto the Squaw Peak road. At the fork in the road turn left towards Hope Campground. At the turn off for Hope Campground (N40°18.274' W111°37.146') the road turns to dirt. Continue 2 ¼ miles down the dirt road to a horseshoe turn. There is a smaller dirt road that goes northeast off the horseshoe turn, park here and follow that road back to an old stone quarry (N40°17.553' W111°36.221') this is the start of the climb.

The gate just before Hope Campground is usually locked until the second weekend in May. (2005 was high snow year and the gate opened the fourth weekend.) If going before the gate is open then you can park at the fork just below the gate and hike down the road. You can also park at the Squaw Peak Overlook (N40°18.071' W111°37.518') and hike the trail that heads south to the Little Rock Canyon Overlook (N40°17.436' W-111°36.836') then follow the road the rest of the way.

Route Description

Spring Snow Variation:
From the stone quarry head Northeast up a four-wheeler trail. After following it for about 100 yards, cut left to the rim of a carved gully. This is the gully that you will be climbing up. Follow game trails along the rim of the gully until you can see the gully turn (almost 90 degrees) then drop down into the gulley. The snow should be consolidated from the slides that have come down in the winter. Follow the gully all the way until it ends which is where the ridge to the north meets up with the west face of Cascade (N40° 17.89' W111° 35.41'). Work your way up the face to a shallow pass on the summit ridge. Then walk along the summit ridge until you reach Cascade Peak (10,908'), which is sometimes marked by a cairn. Return the same way.

Summer Variation:
Upper Pole is the easiest way to climb Cascade Mountain. However, after the gully has melted out it is full with talus, scree, and very steep towards the end. So what you can do is go until you come to a spot where the gully opens up a bit and there are big pine trees and aspens to the left (north). Beyond this the gully gets very steep and has more scree. The summer route heads north up through the trees to the ridge. After you reach the ridge you will be below a large rock buttress, you can hike around either side but the right (south) side is better. Continuing up the ridge you will encounter two more little rock bands which are easy passed on the left (north) ends. Then ridge disappears into the west face of Cascade Mountain. This is the top of the gully variation listed aboue and is the same from here.

WARNING: When coming down the ridge route it is easy to walk down to far into the aspen groves and miss the slope back down into the gully. So pay attention on the way up! A tip is to head down by the large pine trees that are before the Aspens that you encounter on the way down

Essential Gear

Crampons and an ice axe necessary if done as a spring climb.

Miscellaneous Info

Besides the gate by Hope Campground they added a gate this last year down by the shooting range. They did not open this gate until the second week in May this year (2005). If this gate is not open it would add a very long distance to this route. I image in the future they will open this gate sooner and I will update this when I have a better idea.

Typically the best time to do this as a spring snow climb is late April to mid May. The new gate mentioned above may limit the feasibility down to just a weekend or two and may still require an approach in to it. In a high snow year (like 2005) the couloir should be fat into June and should not melt out until late June or July.

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