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Now that is a good use of a photo! So rad, thanks for drawing that up.

Thanks for the kind words. And yeah, it was way more casual than I expected. I figured there was a decent chance we'd climb through the night. But, nothing went wrong (mostly, we didn't blank out and have to pendulum). Also, while I expected decent rock compared to the Pickets reputation, the rock was vastly better than I'd dared hope. Like, legitimately good. I could list a lot of local granite routes with similar or worse rock. I mean, this is obviously an extremely serious route and environment with some loose, wet, and vegetated rock, and a slight deviation from our path could yield a very different experience. Bailing would be spectacularly unpleasant and expensive. But it's also a much more pleasant and, yeah, casual route than I would have ever expected. And right, re: snow on the approach: the 76/86/08 parties encountered substantial difficulties with glaciers/ice blocks. I also know someone that recently tried to traverse under the McMillan cirque North faces from Stettatle Ridge in late spring, and was turned around by some weird messed up crevasse situation with what seems to be a seasonal glacier (following roughly the Volken ski approach). But, I think they were lower than you'd be to approach the buttress, so maybe it's not a big problem these days. These glacial remnants seem to always be gone by Sept, and we just had one short section under some mildly threatening blocks where we felt the need to scoot (similar to approaching Triumph NE ridge). Here's some more detail: Approach: from the Terror basin bivy, walk/scramble up slabs diagonally toward base of Little Mac. There are bivy sites with year-round water around 6400-6700ft below/S of Little Mac. Find a narrow ledge below Little Mac to access the NE trending ridge toward Elephant Butte. Scramble NE along this ridge for 10-20 minutes, finding a slung boulder about 50m before the first low point/col. Make four 45-55m rappels starting from the boulder, at first in the corner. After the second rappel, walk 20m skiers right on a ledge to find another slung boulder. The fourth rappel finishes over a rotten, red overhang. From the base of the rappels, walk/scramble to the base of the buttress, continuing around to the right/W side, and scramble up and back left toward the crest. In late season (Sept) there will likely be no need to cross snow (although plentiful flowing water), with one area below broken up ice blocks where you’ll want to scoot with some urgency. Early season, though, there may be a seasonal glacier with substantial crevassing that could hinder access (a la Slesse). Route: When the buttress steepens to fifth class, simul climb for 200-300m until a ledge where it steepens further and the pitched climbing begins. Looking up, you will see the buttress crest on your left, then to its right a right-facing corner (2008 route, we think, we climbed this), a rotten looking roof, and further right another weakness/corner (1986 route, I think). Belayed pitches range from perhaps 5.8 to 5.10-, and it’s hard to give per-pitch grades, but p3 is the mental and physical crux. p1 (50m): Begin in the corner directly below the rotten roof (to the right of the upper, left-hand R-facing corner that you're aiming for). When the cracks become wet and filled with moss, traverse a couple of meters right to a cleaner corner, and belay just below the rotten roof. Note: this is what we did, but it may be better to take the next corner left, which aims you straight toward the left end of the chossy looking roof, and thus avoid the traversing pitching. p2 (20-30m): Traverse horizontally left, out from under the chossy roof, passing below another crackless roof/overlap, aiming for the solid/clean rock near the crest. Belay near two rusty pins. p3 (45m): From the old pin anchor, go up and left into the solid corner with clean cracks, passing an ominous looking fridge-sized block that, once you reach it, sounds solid enough to (gingerly) climb on. Continue up placing gear behind surprisingly solid flakes to pass a small roof, emerging on a slab that provides entry to the large R-facing corner at which you've been aiming. Climb the slab up and into the corner on solid rock, but at times little gear, until you can step right onto a pedestal belay. p4 (50m): Climb up from the pedestal toward the left side of the mossy, chossy-looking roof; but traverse right just under the roof on solid, clean face holds, using the roof only at its solid right edge. Emerge onto a large grassy ledge, climb up solid blocks/boulders into a steep, splitter thin hand/finger crack leading to another, larger but sloping grassy ledge. Continue up the grass/heather slightly rightwards to belay at the base of a corner. p5 (45m): Go up and right on the face R of the corner. There are numerous options but they all deposit you on a small sloping ledge where the face converges below the main corner. p6 (50m): Climb up cracks and grooves on the right wall of the corner, aiming for the right side of an overlap below a larger roof. After placing gear in the roof, step left above the overlap and continue up to belay in a small sloping alcove. p7 (50m): Climb rightwards out of the alcove, passing a small roof on its right to emerge onto a rightward-sloping ledge. Walking right will lead to bivy sites; but if not bivying, continue straight up into a steeper, shallow corner with several cruxes (one just off the ledge), belay when you find a good stance. p8 (50m): Climb straight up in a slightly easier corner/groove, stopping to belay when the angle eases. You are now in the schist band: rock quality deteriorates. Simul climb for 50-60m, straight up a broad depression, exiting on steeper, splitter cracks slightly rightwards leading to lower angle slopes facing more westward. We continued simuling, aiming for a steeper ramp 30-50m right of the crest, which had a fixed pin, but was the only bad/scary/chossy pitch of the route. Not recommended. Instead, after exiting the steep cracks, stay low and traverse harder right toward the E Mac-W Mac col, until you reach a broad depression leading straight up (3rd class) to the summit. Descent: Downclimb SW toward the E Mac-W Mac col (2nd-3rd, one 4th move at bottom). Continue downclimbing the dirty gully S for 50-100m, looking for where the left wall of the gully becomes less steep/flat (i.e. creates a small shoulder), where you will find a slung boulder. Make four 45-55m rappels roughly straight down off slung horns/boulders to reach lower-angle slopes. And a route line on a gorgeous picture by @JasonG (happy to pass along higher resolution, just ask): And finally views of the upper and lower buttress, and the rappel corner, from a little past the rappel point:

Selling these Scarpa tennies, size 45. Used for one approach/scramble, 9.5/10 condition. Located in Mount Vernon but I’m in Index very often. $80

Winter walk wall is back, 24 years later, no? It is in the latest guidebook.

Now the team is doing well, but imagine the franchise owner suddenly decides he's going to participate in the game, puts on his glove and takes the mound!

They have been disappearing for a number of years. Its a shame. I noticed they started going away around 2005.... I remember signing that Mt. Asa register....I was the first to sign it after 100 years of that register staying there....and then someone took it....same thing on Cloudy/North Star Mountain. After I signed it....then poof. Gone. Someone took it after I was there. Sucks! I have tried placing many registers. But I am not willing to carry the big brass dudes!

I’ve always been curious about this line, thanks for sharing and daring!!

You've been pining over this one for years! Psyched you finally made it happen.

Awesome stuff. Marlin, I'm shocked you'd never been to the Pickets before!

A little bit of pre season self promotion here. We had a new book out: Making Decisions in Avalanche Terrain by Jerry Johnson and Jordy Hendrikx. It is the only book solely focused on the most up to date thinking and research on "human factors". Website is: avalanche-decisions.com There are discounts for avalanche course providers or retailers. Thanks for looking.

Set of Vipers in good condition, aluminum shafts with steel picks; leashes included. 4 BD ice screws are part of the deal. They were professionally sharpened a couple of seasons ago. In Seattle. $300 for the works.

Very impressive, particularly with days so short this time of year. Thanks for the detailed beta. Might have to put this on the list. @dberdinka 'casual' and 'Pickets' have never been found in the same sentence, but if you're rope gunning this sign me up!

That looks absolutely incredible and you certainly make it sound pretty casual(?)! Thanks for the inspiration.

I don't think I could ask for a better 1st trip into the Picket Range! One thing to add is that this late in the season we didn't have to cross any snow/ice on the approach, the traverse to the base of the route or on route. Here are a few more photos. Starting up pitch 1. The main corner system that we followed is up and left of the obvious large roof directly above this corner. Starting up pitch 3. The large detached looking block at top right was more secure than it looks. Starting up pitch 4 towards the roof. Avoid this by traversing right across the face at the roof. Coming up to the belay at the top of pitch 6. Our descent route down the south side. From the col between east and west Mac we followed the gully south along the dotted line then made 4 raps approximately where the 4 dots are to reach the lower angle terrain. Morning sunrise from the bivy.

I would love to read the essay @Otto

Trip Report: September 27-28, 2025 Climbed this route with my brother, Neta. I rarely write trip reports, but some additional beta for this climb might be useful. Peter's trip report is very accurate, and we followed the yellow lines closely for most of the way. Our description builds off of it, rather than being stand-alone. Beta: There is a climber's path from the lower Thornton Lake to above tree line, and from there it is pleasant travel to the saddle just South of Thornton Peak (48.69136, -121.35286). The traversing descent from there to Triumph Pass matched Peter's description. We found the steep side-slope, followed by a brief slide alder crossing, followed by a steep and cliffy forest to a bit miserable (or should I say, despairing?). This section was one of the cruxes of the route, made worse by the knowledge we have to do it in the harder direction on the way back. However, following the yellow line from Peter's photos worked well. Micro-spikes were very helpful in the side-slopes and in the steep forest. Attached are some GPS points that we recorded to help navigate the steeper portion on the way back. (Note that we did not record the slide alder crossing, which was just SE of the first point, or the steep traverses before that). TriumphBasin.gpx The descent from Triumph Pass towards lake below has deteriorated since August 2021. The glacier receded a lot, and the descent now involves loose scree. As expected from recently glaciated area, the rocks seemed to want to roll downhill at the slightest trigger, and getting through this section would have been challenging in a large group. Being only two of us, we went one at a time in the descent (where we rolled dozens of rocks), and on the way up we stayed very close together (and picked a better route with slightly less rockfall). The traverse from the lake below to the pocket lake below Mount Despair was uneventful (albeit tiring with more side-slopes), and it brought us to our camp as it was getting dark. The next morning we left camp at first light (around 6:30 this time a year) and headed towards the summit. We followed Peter's yellow route to the bottom of the Summit pyramid, to a beautiful saddle (~6600') with a great view. From there, we followed ledges and gullies through steep terrain, dry thorny heather, and loose blocks to reach the summit. On the way up we roughly followed the E ridge with some excursions to the SE Face. Unlike Peter's party we never crossed the ridge to the NE Face, which seemed very intimidating whenever we set eyes on it. The last hundred or so vertical feet below the summit were the most exposed, involving a steep gully and an exposed slab. Overall the climb involved sustained class three terrain where falling would be ill-advised, with a couple class four moves. Not finding a rappel anchor to our liking (did we mention that a lot of the blocks were loose?), we down-climbed the most exposed section, and walked to a saddle South of the summit, taking a better descent path than our ascent route. While the better descent part did not bypass the most exposed section, it meant bypassed some of the 3 gullies via slightly easier terrain, making for a less stressful descent. Below is a rough estimate of our routes, along with photos of Neta on the most exposed slab, and in one of the many gullies. From the bottom of the summit pyramid we retraced our steps, making use of the GPS points we recorded to get through the steep section in Triumph basin. While there may have been a better way then the way we took to get there, we had no desire to waste time route-finding with darkness on our tails. Our only mishap was taking a wrong fork on the climber's path above the middle Thornton lakes that lead us to the outlet of the middle lake, which we did not get to on the way up. It would have made for a nice side trip had we not been so tired. However, as it was, we retraced our steps up to the climber path that we came on (Peter's yellow line). Continuing down the creek to the inlet of the lower lake and connecting to the climber's path from there might have also worked, but we preferred to retrace our steps over an additional adventure. Times: Left the car Saturday slightly after 9am, and reached camp at Lake Despair (is it what it's called? 48.72737, -121.37365) around 7:30pm, as it got dark. On the second day we left camp at 6:40am at first light, summited, and got back to camp at 10:50am. We left camp soon after, and reached the trail at the lower Thornton lake just before 7, happy to avoid off-trail travel in the dark. Back to the car by 9pm. Additional Photos Thornton Lakes, lined up from the saddle: Through the Triumph Creek basin: Mount Triumph, from a flattering angle. To it's right is the scree we had to descend, with the remnant of a glacier. And the loooong way back: Is this as classic as it gets for a North Cascades trip? Bushwhacking with Triumph towering over our head: A goat, with Upper Thornton Lake in the background:

Love it!

The trip report for Nature's Way has languished in the North Cascades section without comment. I must bring your attention to what may become a classic NW granite pitch. Also, this "Rock Climbers Forum" needs some bloody content. If you are a crack climber, you may not pay any attention to news from Darrington, the slab paradise. But there is a new crack pitch you should be aware of, Nature's Way pitch 3. On a less-than-vertical wall, the giant flake forms a rising undercling crack of fingers width between .3" and .75" for 20 feet. The wall has been wire-brushed for clean smearing of feet. There is one rest stop halfway along, an edge for feet and a crack for fingers. After that, more pure undercling moves to the top of the flake. The pitch seems burly for this moderate slab climber. It has commitment, unless you enjoy underclinging with one arm while placing pro. It is steep enough to look intimidating at first, but not steep enough to be 5.10. I'd like some crack scholars to go up there and confirm, or not, my grade of solid 5.9. It takes three hours+ to hike up there. Bring sandals or the like for the creek crossing. It can be done in an easy day; I just did the second ascent, with my buddy Yale, yesterday, 10hrs car-to-car. It requires two 60m ropes, as the first two pitches are long, ~55m. Topo and approach details are on Mountain Project. It is restful to stand here and place extra pro: And, after some furious activity, to stand on edges and place some more: On the hike down yesterday, I daydreamed some future essay, "The Controlled Frenzy of Undercling". I hope some of you can plan to spend a day on a new crack climb. Let us know what you think. Bill

Dude, you think you're tired? Just wait!

I really should get on that. Mostly because that fits me more and more each trip.

Hope you don't mind @psathyrella....moved this to the North Cascades. Really great report, thanks for repeating such an incredible line and posting here about it!

Flying Into Washington mid october, Its late in the season but if the weather is allows I planned to go up mt baker or shuksan or even something less technical let me know if someone is interested

Trip: East McMillan Spire - North Buttress Trip Date: 09/24/2025 Trip Report: As Blake seems to speculate in the back of Cascades Rock, this is a legitimately high quality route. While the rock is of course worse than Index or Supercave, it is better than the E ridge of Inspiration or Stoddard Buttress on Terror (and much better than Megalodon). It's also less vegetated than the E face of Triumph or Sloan SW face. There was only one pitch we wouldn't recommend (up high in the schist band), but it can and should be avoided. The steep middle section is characterized by thin parallel cracks, highly textured ripples, and shady climbing with a shocking lack of lichen. When you emerge onto the slightly more West facing schist band for the last few hundred meters, lichen becomes tiresome as the angle eases and rock deteriorates. There are absolutely a couple of serious runouts, but they occur on clean, solid rock. From camp on a small heather patch a few minutes below Little Mac, we approached via a ledge just below Little Mac that accesses the NW trending ridge toward Elephant Butte. We made four rappels beginning at at an old station I had found during a recon trip in October 2020. This seems likely to be the rappel used by the 1986 party, maybe also the 1976 party, and I think @rat has also mentioned climbing the buttress, so perhaps used it as well. The 2008 party (AAJ, NWMJ) approached via Stetattle ridge. After four 45-55m rappels, we walked and scrambled easily to the base of the buttress. We simulclimbed 200-300m on the lower buttress, then belayed eight ~45-50m pitches (5.8 to 5.10-), then simulclimbed (interrupted by one belayed pitch, which we would recommend avoiding) to the summit. For the central, steep section we wanted to climb near but right of the buttress crest, which except for pitch 2 (a horizontal leftward traverse) yielded a logical path almost directly upward. Looking upwards from low on the buttress, two corners right of the crest (separated by a chossy roof) seem to provide the obvious options into the steeper middle section. We aimed for the left corner (which we presumed was the 2008 route), and thought the right corner was probably the 1986 route. We encountered many pieces of fixed gear throughout the route (mostly knifeblades, with a few nuts, a hex, and a rigid stem friend). Since the 2008 party rappelled the face (!!!), presumably close to their line of ascent, we think we followed large portions of their route (Come Over to the Dark Side). That said, I haven't really managed to match the route lines in either the NWMJ or AAJ to our experience (at least at the resolution I can manage to download). From the summit, we downclimbed SW to the col with West McMillan, then continued downclimbing S in the gully for a few minutes. When the gully's left wall flattened, we slung a boulder and made four 45-55m rappels to reach low angle slopes and walked back to camp, arriving about 15 hours after leaving that morning. West McMillan, Inspiration, The Pyramid, Degenhardt, and Terror from high on the route: From left to right: E McMillan, W McMillan, Inspiration, The Pyramid, and Degenhardt. The route goes just right of the sun/shade line on the leftmost peak. The approach rappels start down a relatively solid corner just right of the low point on the left). Photo by Steph Abegg: First rappel into McMillan Creek cirque: Racking up before the first simul block: Marlin starting up the first simul block: Marlin at the top of pitch 1: Looking back partway across the pitch 2 traverse. There was a fixed two-pin anchor at the end of this traverse that may be that in the 2008 NWMJ "Erik starts the crux" photo: Looking down partway up pitch 3. This section had some blocks and flakes that looked ominous from below, but sounded and felt solid on closer inspection: The upper part of pitch 3. This was probably the most runout section of the route: Looking down the start of pitch 4: Marlin at the top of pitch 4: Marlin starting up pitch 5: Marlin starting up pitch 6: And navigating the roof on pitch 6: Starting pitch 7: And pitch 8, which should have been the last belayed pitch: Simuling in the schist band: Marlin leading the very-not-recommended lichen covered, loose pitch in the schist band. Go right before here, toward the E Mac col, to keep it scrambly. There was a fixed pin near his feet here, so we weren't the first to get suckered into it: Belaying on the summit. The buttress crest in this section is stacked, lichenous blocks that seem to overhang the impressively steep East face. You want nothing to do with the crest here: Setting up the first rappel out of the E Mac-W Mac gully: Impressive ambience the next morning, looking toward Azure lake from camp: Hiking out, looking toward Triumph: And a friend from the start of the schist band. It was still solidly placed and easily removed after, probably, 17 years (although could use some lube): Gear Notes: Modern gear made a huge difference on this route, especially microcams (compare the 2008 party's rack in the NWMJ pictures), microtrax simuling, and fix-and-following. We took a 50m lead and 65m tag line (we didn't haul), ~5 kbs/lost arrows, at least triples to fingers with offset aluminum and brass nuts, doubles to #1, single #2 and #3, and four microtraxions. Our smallest cams (purple C3 and green/#0 Z4) were used in several critical placements. Approach Notes: Goodell Creek to Terror Basin, then up slabs toward Little Mac.

Great TR with historic flavor. Such crisp photos. Sixteen cents!!!!

"Might as well win the whole fucking thing!" Gave me chills watching Cal hit #60 to chants of "MVP! MVP!"