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I was coming down the Baker River yesterday afternoon and passed by the slab feature shown in the photograph. I've seen it many times before but this time decided to grab a quick snap of it. It's located on the north side of the river at approximately 48.82863, -121.43918 if you want to google earth it. I'm sorry to say that it would be a hellish ~seven miles of vicious travel up the river from the trail end at Sulphide Creek. The view looks to the north. This is on the south-southeasterly trending ridge that extends from Mineral Mountain to the Baker River. Has anyone heard of anyone visiting or otherwise investigating it? From the air it looks much like something you'd see in Darrington. The photograph was taken from 48.80671, -121.43873, while at an altitude of about 6400'. The slab extends below the bottom of the frame, but not all the way to the valley bottom.

Wow, quite the adventure!! Did you just plunge in and cross with your footwear or did you make changes for each crossing?

Hi yall, I'm currently a sophomore at Montana state, and I spend my summers and winter breaks in Oregon. I have multiple years of general mountaineering experience, comfortable leading ice up to wi4/m4, and trad up to 5.8. Looking for someone who I can push myself with ideally similar skill level or better, and lives in Oregon, Bozeman area, or both. A few goals I got this winter are the Reid headwall or something off illumination rock and just climb some ice up in Washington or off the Elliot glacier moraine If anybody is interested don't hesitate to shoot me a PM! Super stoked to climb ice this winter up in hyalite!!!!

Good luck with that. That FA was put up by a badass.

They really should deploy the military to do this selective enforcement of the law. I believe that is what the American people wanted when they elected a convicted felon and gave him a mandate to prohibit self expression on free time.

Different people! Not to say anything of Mr Ng’s ability or potential. Maybe we all want to spot the next jeans wearing Cheamclimber, but I think it best just to encourage and help out the youth who clamor for the hills in our little community here. No sense in saddling expectations or projecting where someone is going. He will find his own way, and I hope his motivations are always his own. I do enjoy the TRs! Thanks Lucas!

Does Lucas remind any of the Cascade Climbers elders of Colin when he was young?

That looks great. Always wanted to get back up there for something like this. Way to make it happen and thanks for the notes on logistics!

You can arrive the night before and pull a number.... but everyone knows this and more and more people do it. More and more people are now camping outside the ranger station in the parking lot, or in a turnout nearby. The NCNP should join the 21st century and allow more permits to be made on line and not need to stop in to the ranger station. The Olympic NP has their shit together - you can call in a permit request - something I recently did for camping at Lake of the Angels for an over night trip to climb Skokomish and Stone.

You Gorge climbers are just a different breed!!

Has the great Wayne Wallace never climbed Backbone Ridge? !🤔

"Sahale Arm please. Well if not there, can we go to a nice alpine lake, that's not to far from the car, and has lots of solitude with some amazing views?"

Sometimes it’s hard to make it to marblemount before they close. So we will drive in the evening before. You can go to the station and get your number for the next morning, even if they’re already closed. That can help expedite the morning after….because yes it can take a while even on random week days

Selling a Western Mountaineering -25 Puma gore 6' sleeping bag. Has 2 nights of use. Great bag for Denali, Everest, all kinds of other cold (broken) dreams etc. Right zip. $1300 new. Warmest, lightest bags available, made in the USA. Comes with with a nice compression stuff sack and storage bag. $750.

There’s a mandatory 50 yard band right along the top of the ridge but that’s it, steep enough that you’d like crampons though. Towards the base of spire point it becomes snow-free, was able to go from summit to white rocks without touching snow. Glaciers are going quick, lots n lots of dry glacier. Dome was the only one I crossed that wasn’t just a melting sheet of ice.

Nice work, really great effort solo. So is there no glacier anymore just NE of Spire Point? Like on the main Traverse route? I've only been there in spring when it was all snow.

@danLeskosky We used our 70. If I remember correctly, Kurt tied in midway and tied the bag to the end of the rope. The pitch was less than 35 m so hauling was no big deal with our single rope.

Trip: Porcupine Peak - Salad Days 5.11a Trip Date: 08/23/2025 Trip Report: Climbing and Crowds on a Newish Classic Liza, Kurt, Marc, and I headed out over the weekend to climb the newish @dberdinka and @lunger route, hoping for some fun, remote climbing in one of our favorite zones. After a solid week in the Sawtooths earlier this month, Marc and Liza were feeling strong and psyched to push their grade. A climb with bolted anchors, mostly in the 5.8–5.9 range with a single splitter 5.11- pitch sounded like just the ticket. We left Easy Pass trailhead around 8:30 a.m. and made quick time along the PCT before turning off on the climber’s trail toward the base. Following the approach line on Mountain Project’s map turned out to be super helpful. The first 400 feet of trail were a bit schwacky, but we soon hit a more established path. Liza and Kurt had climbed Arrested Development (5.10-) the year before and found the climber’s trail felt way more "developed" than last season. The approach took us about 1.5 hours. When we arrived at the base, two parties were already on route with one finishing P2, the other starting P1. As we snacked and racked up, three more teams arrived behind us. We were expecting maybe one other group… not SEVEN! But everyone was friendly and in good spirits. Liza and Kurt headed up first, with Marc and me climbing behind. Some highlights from the day: P1 (5.8) starts with a fun, heady mantle protected by a bomber cam just below—great start. P2 (5.9) was a blast: good jams, a wide layback crack, a delicate face move, and then a bolted jug haul to the anchor. Super varied and enjoyable. P3 (5.11-/10+?) was the crux: Liza and Marc led it and totally crushed it, especially considering it was their first 5.11- trad pitch. Liza took a quick rest for finger pain and Marc got the onsight. Tape on the left pinky was nice beta. This pitch gobbles up nuts and will take all the 0.2s and 0.3s you’ve got. P4-6 (5.8/5.9) The next three pitches served up moderate jamming, laybacking, stemming, and some delicate bolt-protected face moves between crack systems. By then, four of the teams (including us) were stacked on top of each other, climbing around and over each other. Fortunately, everyone was having a great time and the vibe stayed positive and chatty. After a quick scramble pitch, four teams topped out at the false summit together, took one look at the awkward mantle to the true summit, and collectively said “nah.” Instead, took some photos and all combined our 70m ropes for a mega party rappel down the route using all the techniques (carabiner block, simul rappel, gri-gris, ATCs, single-strand, double-strand)! The rappels were straightforward. Though it’s unclear whether the party-rappel saved us time or cost us some, but it sure was fun. Unfortunately, one of the ropes got a coreshot on the final rappel…. We packed up and made it back to the cars by 7 p.m., tired and happy. Final thoughts: The climbing was well protected throughout. The rock was a bit slipperier than expected. A great route for pushing into the low 5.11 range in an alpine setting. Thanks to Darin and Eric for putting up this route and all the work to clean and bolt it! Party climbing! Summit selfie! Gear Notes: We brought triples 0.3-0.5, doubles 0.2 and 0.75-1, singles 2-4, and a set of nuts (many sm-med). An ideal rack would be doubles 0.4-1, single 2-3, set of nuts (many sm-med), and as many 0.2-0.3 cams as you want to carry (triples or quad). Approach Notes: Follow PCT until

Trip: Dragtooth - North Buttress / The Dragway Trip Date: 08/19/2025 Trip Report: Got to sneak in a quick 24hr mission with my friend Miles while visiting family in Reno. We climbed the Dragway on the Dragtooth of Sawtooth Ridge because it was a short drive for High Sierra climbing, a "short" approach, and a short route. We failed to factor in the ridge traverse and descent as significant factors and it took a little longer than anticipated. Sawtooth Ridge is the NE boundary of Yosemite NP but this route is approached from Twin Lakes on the E side of the range, so you are in FS and Hoover Wilderness the entire day unless you drop off the ridge line to the W. The rock quality is good by N Cascades standards but poor by Sierra standards, as is apparently the case on much of Sawtooth Ridge. This route felt quite a bit harder than other 5.10s I've done down there, but if you like 5.10 OW and fists with the occasional thin stemming move you will have a good time. The descent has several options, none of which are great. We traversed the summit ridge for quite a while but didn't like how it looked so dropped down a gully to the W to some sandy slopes and reascended to the Matterhorn/Dragtooth Col. In retrospect continuing the ridge traverse just below the crest on the W side appears to go easily. The couloir from the col back to the E was pretty atrocious scree/dirt/ice. We opted for the skiers R couloir after the initial rappel, which appeared better than the L, but was quite awful by any standard, even Canadian Rockies! Maybe bring crampons? Or climb Matterhorn on the 400' of shattered 4th class ledges and descend the 3rd class dog route on that peak, which would add some mileage but would be way faster than waiting for a helicopter rescue after getting pounded in the couloir. Here are the pictures... Approach, Dragtooth with the route and the Matterhorn visible. Head up and R to the Tarn after the scree at the head of the valley. Creek next to the tarn. Horse Creek Tower on the R. Saddle to it's L is way to route. View of the route following obvious dihedral, note ice on the water. Sawtooth Ridge N of the Dragtooth. Route up close. 3rd pitch, 1st dihedral pitch Fun anchor shenanigans. Rest above Crux on Pitch 4. Sawtooth Ridge to N Last hard pitch, amazing splitter crack from fingers to wide hands. Looking over to Tuolumne. Miles on the summit. Ridge traverse shenanigans. Matterhorn is the prominent peak. Miles in the col, starting down the gully of choss. Yummy choss gully. Negotiating firm snow once out of the couloir. Matterhorn in the sun. Back in the meadow by the tarn. Route not visible from here. Just 3k' hike down to the car and a 2.5 hr drive home! Gear Notes: Doubles to 4 Approach Notes: Free day parking at Annett's Mono Village, Horse Creek Trail to the top of the scree field then climbers trail to the tarn and cross country to the route.

Just saw this. You arrive and draw a number and wait your turn. Depending on how much the gods hate you that day you may be subjected to people ahead of you who have done no research about what they want to do and take up 15 min or more time chatting with the ranger on duty. My last visit was a few weeks ago to get a cross country zone permit for Arriva. We waited quite a bit, even though we got there around 9 when the 7 am crowd should have been and gone. The people in front of us wanted to "backpack somewhere" but didn't know where. The ranger walked them through options, asked questions. It was swell.

That is so sad about the snow. I can't even imagine doing this peak without snow...I also think I was last in this area about 20 years ago....

Sha na na na. Sha na na na. Hey hey....

Lucas...you are starting to make yourself known around these parts....

Now that is a traverse!!!