All Activity

New never used or opened BD Eldorado tent and new vestibule. Bought for a trip that never materialized and now just being stored. $750

EMS looks awesome! Nice work!

Way to get after it Lucas! Thanks for the report!

There are few Grizzlies out there and you're much more likely to see a Black Bear with brown fur. I've seen a bunch. Thanks for the trip report, pretty active five days!

rad!

Well done getting all that done solo, and safely, in a few days!

Wait. There were THREE parties on the West Arete of Eldorado in one day??! I would be surprised if it got climbed 3 times in one year. Interesting. That is a crazy fast amount of climbing in a few days!

Trip: Cascade River Road - Forbidden, Spider, Boston, and many more solo Trip Date: 08/11/2025 Trip Report: Went up to Cascade River Road for the past couple days to take advantage of the good weather. Didn’t have a partner so just decided to mess around for a while. Apparently my adult friends do this thing called work. Who does that! Summits were: Forbidden, Boston, Sahale, Magic, Arts, Formidable, Spider, Little Devil, Devil Benchmark, Teebone Ridge. Thursday 8/7 Dropped my mom off at work before heading north, got there around 11. Pretty cloudy and had big plans for the next few days so I just ran up to little devil peak and copy climber kyle. Bagged Teebone ridge and Devil benchmark along the way. Enjoyed some perfect huckleberries on the way up. Startled a large bear on the way down, only 25 feet from me. The fur was brown but I don’t think there are any grizzlies out there so who knows. Friday 8/8 Arose at sunrise and moving at 6am up to Cascade pass with 3 days of food, went over the cache glacier and saw a black bear on the other side of the col. This time we saw each other and maintained distance. Slogged it over to the other side of the middle cascade glacier where I got to the bottom of that South-facing gully around 1. Went up Spider mountain using the left gully at first before gaining the rib between the two. Got back to the ptarmigan traverse trail around 5 where I worked my way over to the access col to formidable for a nice night. Saturday 8/9 Arose once again at sunrise and climbed formidable in the morning in 4 hours camp to camp. Saw another party coming up as I headed down from the col. Slogged it back up to the middle cascade and felt pretty pooped by the time I got to the red ledges. Dropped the pack and scurried up Art’s Knoll. After that headed over to kool-aid lakes where I stashed a lot of gear before going up Spider. Made it back down around 6 or 7 before more slogging up to cache col for a sweet bivy site. Spilled my pad thai all over myself which I was unhappy about. Sunday 8/10 Another sunrise wakeup got me moving at 6, down to cascade pass, and up to Sahale where I summited around 11:30. Stashed overnight gear on my way up to the arm. Always fun passing people in trailrunning vests. Simply buying an vest and some poles won’t make you kilian jornet, still need cardio. Anyways, over to Boston where I topped out around 12 or 12:15? Explored the summit register before rappelling down. Yes I did carry a 60m purline all that way for 2 rappels. Training weight or something. Cruised it back to the car. Monday 8/11 Had to meet a neighbor in the evening to talk about watering his plants but nothing else going on. Also had a dentist on Tuesday preventing me from staying another day. Soloed up W. ridge Forbidden in 4:15 car to summit. Topped out around 7:15 before heading down at 8 with another soloist from Montana. Rope was nice for rappels. Back at the car by 12:30, home around 3:30. I guess I could’ve waken up later. Don’t see myself becoming some big free-soloist but the route seemed like a good option for it. Sure is nice to not fuss with ropes through easy terrain. Gear Notes: Approach shoes and Crampons would work for everything. I carried boots because I like carrying things I regret carrying later. Rapping boston feels good and a purline doesnt weigh much. Approach Notes: Forbidden can be reached without touching any snow

Nice, it made a believer of me. High five!

Fixed the photos

Great writeup Jon, so nice getting to climb together this weekend!

Cool trip and nice pics! EMS looks like particularly good rock -- still on the list.

Trip: Eldorado zone tour, with EMS - South and west ridges of Eldorado, SW face of Early Morning Spire Trip Date: 08/08/2025 Trip Report: Got to do some routes in the Eldorado neighborhood from a base camp last weekend. This was another trip I’ve been meaning to do for a long time where the pieces finally fell into place. Climbed with Ben who has learned quickly in the three years since he started climbing. Solid partner, his only real error was leaving glasses back at the car. On the first day this was mitigated with some tmnt Inuit tech. Cowabunga! Luckily at camp there was a climber who elected to stay there while his guided team climbed the E ridge. Heard the guide had extra shades and we arranged to borrow them for the weekend. Sky harp We set off for the south ridge. I love knife edges so found the route just barely in the worth doing once category. If you don’t particularly enjoy knife edges there’s no reason to do this climb. Unincorporated choss county Some fun atmospherics helped make it somewhat enjoyable despite some of the worst quality rock I’ve climbed. We counted it as good mental prep for W arete the next day. At the end of our three hour tour camp to camp we arrived to find the guide-lended glasses waiting for us. Most of the rock climbing in the next two days was in the shade, but this was still quite the score. Got up early the next day for the W arete and kind of raced another party departing camp right after us. There turned out to be a third party on the route that day too (!) Below Dorado Needle col we saw tracks through a snow bench above and left of the tarn, and followed these around to slabs near the sit start of the route. We misjudged the heathery path from below. What looked fine turned out to be dirty, crumbly, overly narrow and exposed, with mostly down sloping rock and dirt. This was a bit of a traverse coming from the NW to the ridge around 6700-6800’. Not at all recommended, there must be a better way, maybe more directly from the west? The other two parties took the considerably higher entrance from snow that bypasses all the green stuff, which seems more appealing in retrospect, though it looks like it has a bit of hazard too (steep, bad runouts). We were glad to be in front. There was one particularly thunderous episode of rock fall accompanied by muffled shouts and we were relieved to eventually see all 5 climbers back at camp that evening. After pulling through some legitimately scary terrain we soloed up briefly sound rock before it got questionable again. Then we started to simul. I think two blocks got us into the gendarmes. We had climbed up a chimney to a piton, but it didn’t look anything like photos of the crux traverse. After some confusion we saw another piton down below and realized we were above that crux. We rapped past it. It looks exciting, kinda wish we climbed it. Unintentionally mimicking the rocks’ posture From there two more blocks got us past the snow into lower angle terrain where we unroped. I found mostly pretty good stuff to the summit. The path of least resistance isn’t always the best path. It was so early I proposed heading back down for the SW buttress of Dorado Needle but we elected to rest up for EMS instead. With the south ridge the day before, the west arete completed the Eldorado compass for me (north and of course east ridges climbed before). South ridge! meh I enjoyed solitude on the summit for a while and left as a large group of sunburned youth neared the top. The hours drifted lazily by. We chatted with various day trippers throughout the afternoon. Next morning another early start had us retracing our steps to Dorado col. Celestial choss, earthly choss This time we passed by the tarn and its outlet stream. One slope looked inviting but it cliffed out on the other side. Proceeding lower we found a nice path through trees to cross the ridge with friendly heather downclimbing. EMS presents quite the striking mien all along the approach. We met someone at camp the night before who had his own route beta for EMS which he shared with us. Compared to Nelson’s it had a direct start, and above that, more of a diversion to the right and back left, rather than straight up. Both of these variations turned out to be good calls. The start was a little tricky in terms of climbing and pro. First piece The climbing quickly got to be really fun. After about 70m I took the lead. After scoping a more direct line I tried the shallow right facing corner diversion to the right, and was pretty delighted with this section. I think this wide low angle splitter was in this pitch. I stopped about 70m later just below the ledge below the crux roof. Ben took over again and dispatched the slightly wet moves and drifted out of sight. This pitch ended up maybe 80m with a little simuling to the slab under to the roof. As I followed pitch 3 the rope hung over some excellent mid 5th friction slabs, where Ben had fortunately not placed pro. I took these optional sections (easier ledges around) to make the pitch even better (out of frame right of this photo). Pitch 4 was another rope stretcher with quality stone and low-mid 5th climbing. Ben took off again and neared the ridge crest. He selected a scruffy 5.10 chimney to get us to the slab and stopped there. I got to lead the finger traverse above this slab, another route highlight. I crossed the crest and continued up it, placing hardly anything, mostly focused on keeping the trailing rope from crossing the abundant choss that now sadly replaced the excellent rock. A seventh rope stretcher got us near to the summit ridge. We did one more short pitch that turned out to be unnecessary, should have unroped after 7. Tempered expectations may have been a factor, but we reveled in how good this route turned out to be. It’s not Stuart range classic quality but I think it’s up there with some three-four star WA pass routes, with an obviously much more engaging approach and return than you can find there. Our descent began with sandy goat ledges on the south side of the ridge. When this cliffed out we crossed back north. It was very exposed here with a deep moat below, but with bomber easy staircase rock leading down. There was one low 5th body length, an awkward long step and then we were at the moat. The gap was significant but absolutely doable. Still got high dive butterflies before finally making the leap. When Ben’s turn came he sprang from both feet, launching far beyond the gap and came skating into me lol. The hypothetical descent to the south had looked atrocious during the approach, and there is at least one epic going that way documented here on cc. We instead followed the advice to climb snow to the choss saddle north of marble peak. At the crest we saw rather steep snow to the east, so followed the snow up and south to get a look around. This passed so close to the summit we thought we might as well tag it. Took rock down here to bypass the steep snow. I scouted south while Ben scouted north. We never found existing anchors, so when a good crack on the north end below the steep snow presented itself we set an anchor and rapped down. 70m easily made it, might have been 25m or so. Next we crossed the McAllister, almost exactly matching my track from 3 years ago (snow levels early August this year look even lower than early September 2022). Having decided to skip our last night out, we zipped over to camp where we packed up, ate dinner, and quickly hiked down, getting past the boulders and close to the bottom before pulling the head lamps out. The dip in the creek at the end was extremely necessary and welcome in a dumbfounding sort of way. Gear Notes: Doubles 0.3 to 1, single 2 and 3. Some C3s and nuts. Ax and crampons. 70m rope. Radios were very useful for our long pitch strategy on EMS. Approach Notes: Counter clockwise

Nice, sounds like a good adventure. I like the single antenna look.

Way to go you two! Each time passing by there, I have wondered about climbing straight up from that spot. Thanks for the illumination, glad you got it done. And Sam, that perspective is valuable in our home range--exploration and freedom are the primary drivers, but you gotta stomach some bad with the good.

I have Caltopo premium which offers high def satellite photos every 48 hours. Happy to share some photos as you get closer to your objective.

Hi Nick, we followed your TR pretty closely (ty!), I think the conditions probably changed a significant amount in the time between Also thank you korengalois : )

Personally I like it with snow. Definitely go North to South. I wore BD aluminum strap-on pons on Altras when I did it in June one year. Worked well enough but obviously you should test it first. This will give you a good idea of how much snow to expect... https://www.mtbachelor.com/the-mountain/webcams/

I love it. Congrats dude! Keep em going.

Figured I'd update this thread. Once our second was born last summer it was way harder to get the older sibling out by herself. This summer things have gotten back to "normal" (whatever that is). Some local highlights include TR sessions on the kid slab below Aggro Gully, climbing a rock "summit" on Misery Ridge, and self-selecting and topping out boulder problems at Widgi boulders. We also just did a trip to Washington where a quiet morning scramble up the back side of Castle Rock made for a great mini-summit, I short roped her up the scrambly bits with 20ft of cord. She also hiked Cutthroat Lake the next day and up to Heather Pass (Black Peak approach) and down under her own power on day 3. Took her backpacking for the first time in the Oregon Cascades this week (just one night, 1 mile hike in) and she loved it. Going bouldering with friends again this weekend and she literally screamed with joy and did a dance when I told her. How I lucked into this situation I have no idea. Oh, and her little sister is even more stoked at 18 months... climbs everything... but lacks the danger assessment of her older sibling... maybe destined for sport climbing rather than alpinism?

Trying to run the sisters traverse standard route (or reverse) here in a few weeks and wondering what things look like up high. Too much snow on north? Better to start on south or north? Recommendations for crampons for trail running shoes? Any information is much apprecated.

Helping my father in law sell his very large collection of glacier mountaineering gear - he used to rent to scout and church groups. 13 sets of personal glacier climbing kits INCLUDES: 13 ice axes (12 BD raven with slinger leashes, 1 petzl glacier with leash) 14 pairs of crampons (9 BD Serac Pro, 1 BD Serac semi auto, 4 BD Contact semi auto) 12 helmets (10 BD Half Dome, 2 Petzl Panga) 13 pickets with cable runners and locking carabiners (MSR & SMC) 13 harnesses (Petzl Pandion) each with 2 lockers, 3 non lockers, prussic slings, 2 double length runners, belay device and pulley, 4 8mmX30M dry ropes, 3 8mmX50M dry ropes 36 pairs of double plastic mountaineering boots, sizes 4.5-14.0 (Koflac, Scarpa, Asolo, Lowa, Vasquez) FYI : note there's only 12 helmets, only thing needed to purchase is one additional helmet to have 13 complete sets Photos show: One set helmet, ice axe, crampons, picket with cable runners and locking carabiner, harness with 2 lockers, 3 non lockers, belay device, pulley, 2 double length runners, set of prussic slings 4- 8mm X 30 M dry glacier ropes & 3- 8mm X 50M dry glacier ropes 3- 37 gal. tubs with gear, ice axes, crampons, harnesses, ropes, pickets, helmets 5- 37 gal. tubs with 36 pairs of mountaineering boots sizes 4.5- 14.0 13 pickets with cable runners and 13 harnesses with gear 13 ice axes with leashes, 14 pairs of crampons with standard and long bars able to fit all boots Harness and close up of belay loop lockers, 3-non lockers with belay device, pulley, double length runners, prussic sets Selling as an entire collection - not interested in selling al la carte Asking $4,000 total + tax for all of it - value is approximately $8400 so this is a great deal Average price per kit $252 Approximate MSRP per kit $640 Stored in 8 separate 37-gallon Rubbermaid tubs (5 for boots & 3 for gear) Willing to meet within a reasonable distance in Snohomish or King Counties Can transport all 8 tubs to meet up Send a message to toevlugsoord at hotmail dot com if interested and I can put you in touch with my father in law! He is anxious to sell ASAP!

Nice work Sam and Lani!

Sperry Peak – NE Ridge On August 3 Gabe and I climbed the NE ridge of Sperry Peak. Due to low clouds, we had about ~100ft of visibility until we reached 5000ft. As a result, we generally stayed near the crest of the ridge, being unable to see if moving left or right would be advantageous. Given that, our experience of the route could be substantially different from prior or future parties. We suspect that some (but not all) of the more unsavory portions of the route we climbed could be avoided with better route finding. The upper half of the route has some of the best ridge scrambling I have done in the cascades, including a spectacular section of knife edge ridge on good rock with great gear. However, on the bottom half of the route, gear is sparse and it is advisable to make an offering to the veggie gods before your ascent as many pitches are vertical bushwhacking requiring the climber to put full faith into a wide array of plant species to make upward progress. On one particularly memorable pitch I took a breather while standing on a curved cedar branch hanging several feet out from the rock before lay backing up the rest of the branch to reach a belay. For the route we climbed, a modern grade of 5.8R seems about right. Car to car we took approximately 16 hours. Overall, the rock was surprisingly solid (when you were touching it) and we didn’t experience any runout hard moves. For climbers interested in getting a bit off the beaten path with a tolerance for schwacking (both horizontally and vertically), I recommend the route. Approach: Following Beckey we took the Sunrise Mine trail to ~3100 feet and then started contouring north. After a too short and pleasant section of fern bashing, we quickly dove into steep dense jungle. Several cliff bands pushed us downhill toward the top of the slabs with the waterfall you see from the trail. Unfortunately this way doesn’t go, so we turned around and followed a cliff band uphill until finding a short class 3-4 gully which allowed passage. Continuing to contour we crossed several steep gullies (requiring a bit of luck to find reasonable scrambles to get into the gullies) with running water and a couple sections of class 3-low 5th slab before accessing the ridge from its east side at ~3500ft. If we attempted this route again late in the summer (so the water levels are low) we would consider approaching directly from the car. From satellite images it looks like it would be possible to follow relatively open stream beds to almost the bottom of the ridge. Of course we haven’t tried this approach so no guarantees! In the below picture I marked our approximate ( I cannot emphasize enough how approximate this is) approach in green and the possible alternative approaches mentioned above in red. The parking lot is for the sunrise mine trail is circled with blue. Climb: Hit the ridge and follow your nose. Many options are possible. Descent: Descend the standard Sperry scramble route. Gear Notes: We brought doubles in .4-1, a single .3, 2,3, and one set of nuts. For slings we brought 12 Singles, 4 Doubles. We used a 60M rope. Bring a nut tool to clean out placements. If we were to do the route again, we would bring 6-8 doubles and fewer singles. Lower down on the ridge the larger cams were surprisingly useful. Two 3’s and a 4 would not go unused, though they are not necessary. Final Thoughts: We found a couple pieces of fixed gear. Any of them yours? I would be stoked to hear about other people’s experiences on the route. Has anyone done the northwest ridge? The upper portion of it looks interesting! Pictures: The Fixed Gear: The access gulley on the approach. Many of lower pitches on the ridge were similar to this: Some pictures on the lower half of the ridge: Unbeknownst to me, I picked up a stick while following a pitch: And now some upper ridge pictures!

I feel like my primary motivation for fa's is exploration and freedom. If ya can't enjoy the turds ya step in you probably won't stick around in the game very long.