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Trip: Baker to Glacier Peak: - 17 days across the North Cascades Trip Date: 07/20/2025 Trip Report: The result of years of imagination and separate efforts. Perhaps it started after exploring the Ptarmigan Traverse, but wanting more. We started gradually exploring the areas to the north and south. Many of us have noted, with some surprise, that there was not a defined “High Route” for this area, unlike some other spectacular ranges of the American West. A few years ago some mountain runners established a “North Cascades High Route”, starting from Silver Creek and ending along the flanks of Agnes mountain. This was an impressive and inspiring feat. Nevertheless we felt it incomplete and starkly contrasted with the style in which we experience these mountains. Although in the end, our route would include much of the same terrain traversing the heart of the National Park and Cascade Crest. But as we played with the possibilities of this terrain it was hard to ignore the striking aesthetics of the volcanos near each end of the range. With both Baker and Glacier Peak being slightly higher than the peaks of the crest, they act as natural waypoints to assess exactly where one is in the vast sea of Cascade summits. It would be impossible to include every spectacular basin, cirque and summit into a single high route but starting and ending with the volcanos gave us a framework to operate in. The route we eventually completed is actually composed of many different shorter routes, linked together by various less visited terrain. Within reason, our goal was to 1) stay above tree line, 2) avoid trails and 3) keep it only lightly technical. We suspect that climbers with the required stamina, skillsets and schedules will likely choose other exploits in the range, or beyond. Nevertheless we present here some basics of our North Cascades high route. Mount Baker Our route up and down the Park Glacier had some obvious benefits. Most significant was that we could change out proper mountaineering gear for more of a hybrid backpacking kit upon return to the TH (Artist Point). The route itself is pleasant, with a scenic approach and lovely high camp. The day we climbed it the snow was soft enough not to require any belay or rappel applications, though in more firm snow that would not be the case. The upper part of the glacier was fairly broken up considering it was early July. We managed an improbable line between a series of large cracks. This line may not have been viable even a week later in the season. We stood on the summit late morning of July 5th. Shuksan Navigating this terrain presented a few obvious and a few not-so-obvioius options. Perhaps at first glance one would think Fischer Chimneys…and then descending from the Crystal Glacier onto the Nooksack. Unfortunately the bergschrund separating the two was gaping by early July and would have required a substantial amount of extra gear that would become dead weight for the week to follow. Additionally the prospect of immediately starting this traverse by hiking on trail through the forest did not match the criteria we set forth. Looking instead to the North side we scouted various lines contouring high above the deep, alder filled basins. There were definitely viable lines through the majority of the terrain, but we determined them to be too complicated and conditions dependent. The biggest concern being that the time involved would be hard to predict. It could take a few hours, or a few days. Additionally there was a good deal of objective hazard traversing high in this terrain. Ultimately we chose a safer and surer, albeit less appealing line. Hiking the ridge above Chair 8 and eventually descending to meet with the White Salmon approach, we faced our first bushwhack in the hottest part of a very warm day. Once escaping the alder hell we climbed to a ridge above and contoured forest down towards Price Lake. We crossed the outflow and traveled along the approach for the Price Glacier route for a while. There would be some fuckery along the base of Nooksack tower getting down to the glacier. But once down there we continued on part of the Nooksack Traverse until Ruth Mountain. Mineral High Route On a map this looks like comparatively straightforward terrain. We did not have a pre-scouting trip for this zone. And we definitely underestimated it. The bushwhacking before and after Chiliwack pass was steep and complicated. Before we escaped tree line onto Mineral mountain there were a series of steep and improbable gullies that took us far longer to complete than what we imagined. In hindsight I think we started out in the wrong gully and paid the price. Eventually we reached “the route” but by then we really weren’t sure if the terrain would go. Finding some clearing among the multitute of brush-gulleys. Above the forest travel cleared again. Although we soon found an abandoned, and completely full backpack. A startling sight this far into remote territory, we searched around for signs of remains but found none. The pack was probably out there for at least one winter, possibly more. We noted its location and passed a message to the park service before continuing our quest. Mount Challenger via Easy Ridge This terrain was fairly straightforward, although the day we did it was very un-summerlike. With no chance of shortcutting the impasse in these conditions we continued the sog and slog down to the lower bypass. Climbing out above the crossing was fairly sketchy. It is very eroded, hard packed and water running along the surface definitely made it attention worthy. Some of the steeper scrambling between there and Perfect Pass was also potentially consequential in heavy rain. Nevertheless we made it to the pass, but soaking wet and in high winds plus white out conditions. Crossing the Challenger glacier in near hypothermic conditions was very….engaging, to say the least. We were all very relieved to step back to “dry” land an hour later. Northern Pickets Descending into the basin is fairly straightforward, albeit somewhat tedious and extended side hilling. The climb back out through Luna Lake and to the Fury shoulder is pleasant, scenic and fun. Especially given that this day the sun had returned. The lower part of the Fury glacier develops some pretty sketchy moats early in the summer and may require walking on exposed glacier ice around 30 degrees. Rather than spend time with that we found a bypass to the north, which lines up with one of the ways parties may choose to climb Fury. We skipped the summit and instead climbed Outrigger along the way. From the col we ascended a 50 foot 5.0 pitch, followed by some rightward traversing 3rd class terrain to the south ridge. Looking back, there was a way to avoid the initial low 5th entirely by starting a bit further west in the col. Descending Outrigger was one of the highlights of the trip. Easy hiking, with the Southern Picket skyline so close you can almost touch it. There was a 15m rappel, which could certainly be bypassed by down climbing 4th class terrain slightly east of the anchor. A short but exciting and exposed bit led to continued easy hiking. Southern Pickets Getting from Picket Pass to the bottom of the basin was pretty fucked. There is some 4th-ish slab downclimb that some parties have rappelled. Beyond that, some of the beta out there is pretty snow dependent. Our planned line was not viable and it took some time to find another way down. Two of us independently destroyed a trekking pole in this zone. Once at the bottom there is some unavoidable alder to contend with. You ever get through one of these, look back from a higher vantage point and realize oh wow, I could not have possibly taken a worse line. That’s what happened here. We should have stayed closer to the cliff along the SW side of the shwack. Oh well. Climbing out to the east of the McMillan spires was fairly straightforward. We managed to avoid brush entirely. Other than a few deep gullies it was a breeze, and an incredible position. From McMillans to Highway 20 Choose your own adventure, depending on legality. Once the Sourdough trail re opens you can traverse east towards elephant butte and then south along Stettattle ridge. Until then, a legal option would be to find Goodell Creek trail/approach and take that to the highway. I cant remember which of these we took… Highway 20 provides the only on route resupply. You could probably utilize Cascade Pass, or even a trip to Holden. But we did not. Isolation Traverse- much has been written on this. Its awesome Looking back to the Pickets, Redoubt from the Mccallister glacier Eldorado to Cascade Pass- decent travel along a nice ridge and basins. Nothing too complicated. Sahale arm trail for a mile or so is a nice reprieve. If you wanted to add some major style points throw in the Torment-Forbidden Traverse through here, although its likely to add some gear complications. Ptarmigan Traverse- MUCH has been written on this. Its awesome Classic White Rock Lakes shot Dome peak area- leaving the Ptarmigan and finding the Dana then Dome glaciers. We scouted a route along the south side of Dome. It probably would go but on the trip we ultimately took the Chikamin glacier around past the gunsights and onto Kaiwhat Pass Doin’ the bull dance. Feelin’ the flow. Workin’ it. Workin’ it To Canyon Lake- The terrain eases here and may involve some bushwhacking but nothing crazy. We abandoned our map, and rationality…instead navigating on vibes alone. Our line to Totem pass was awesome and on paper probably shouldn’t have worked. Between the pass and Canyon Lake there may be a way to avoid significant brush but we did not find it. Still it went quick (downhill) Canyon Lake trail- Seems decomissioned. It’s overgrown and washed out in different places, but still a comparatively decent 5 miles. Image Lake to Lyman Lakes- We looked hard how to avoid such an extended on trail section but there really weren’t any viable alpine options. When we came to this section we were exhausted and very calorie deficient. The easy miles were welcomed. The trail itself is well maintained and incredibly scenic (cloudy pass in particular). Just a hop, skip and a “fuck!” away... Lyman Lakes and beyond- We climbed over Chiwawa mountain without much difficulty. Although the last few hundred feet were steep, slimy, scree covered slab when approached from a direct north line. Pretty gross. It would be better to find the main ridge further east and continue to the summit from there. It started to rain when we were on the summit, so we schemed a bypass for the exposed scrambling awaiting on Fortress. We found a line of weakness that allowed us to bypass to the south. It didn’t take long from there to find the pass no pass trail and follow it towards High Pass (another really scenic on trail moment). Bypassing Fortress For Napeequa we took a path of least resistance well south of the summit, descended to another saddle and then back up and around Hoof. Eventually we had to traverse below the north side of Ten Peak. It took a while but overall it was straightforward. The Honeycomb and Suiattle glaciers brought us to Glacier Gap, along the standard walk up for GP. We were greeted by friends with treats. The next morning we jaunted up the last couple miles. It was a busy weekend on the peak. Spirits were high, despite the suicide gestures Standing on the summit felt surreal. It wasn’t necessarily a positive emotion. Spending the last few summers obsessed and the past few weeks starving made this moment feel like a weird dream. The hike out from there is long, but we crushed it in hopes of making it to Olive Garden in time. Which we did. All the pasta…dipping donuts in wine…it was finally over… By the numbers: 17 days 175.2 miles (73% off trail) 86k vertical gain (86% off trail), 88k lost Average vertical change per mile: 993 feet Average time from camp to camp each day: 14 hours Average calories/day ~3800 Body weight lost- 18lbs (9.6% total lost) Pizza consumed- nowhere near enough Gear Notes: a picket, 2 screws, 3 cams, 4 nuts Approach Notes: the whole thing was an approach...

Trip: North Cascades, Arches Peak aka Little J-berg - North Face Central Buttress, 10 pitches plus soloing, ~1,600 vertical feet, 5.6/7ish Trip Date: 08/03/2025 Trip Report: A couple of weeks ago, Rolf Larson and I climbed a probable* new route on this peak. Anyone cresting Easy Pass has been greeted by the big north face of this peak. There is one reported route on the face from the late 1970s; the party climbed the left-hand "Plumb Line Buttress" 2,700' from the valley floor to the summit, which clocks in at 7,945'. They reported loose rock. (See photo of register page in the album linked below, the AAJ, or Beckey guide.) Of three relatively prominent buttresses, our route climbs to the western false summit (circa 200' west of true summit) via the central buttress -- the most prominent one lit up (furthest left) in the photo below. We believe the 1977 line appears in this photo as a nondescript buttress in the shade further off to the left. Our route wends up the gneissly-featured buttress on pretty good, pretty clean Skagit rock--we began climbing behind the third snow-patch from the right on that prominent shelf, directly below the toe of the sunlit buttress. (Also available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BV3itCHmqcoo7qL38) We had fun on this route, which thankfully was in shade while we climbed. Didn't take many climbing photos, but snippets of conversation went like this: "How'd you like that section of hand crack?" "I preferred my section of laser-cut finger crack." "Yeah, I went Squamish style and laid it back." Here's Rolf putting in a piece at perhaps mid-height on the face (the rope is out of view, off to the right): The first pitch was probably the steepest and most sustained, fwiw, and had a 5.6 or maybe .7 move. A couple of steep mini-headwalls were also climbed in that range of difficulty, but a person could avoid these if willing to take looser rock. We unroped for a few hundred feet of mellow scrambling after the first pitch or two, but some steeper terrain compelled us to again rope up and resort to pitching and simul-climbing on fourth and low-fifth terrain. The climbing is moderate, but generally solid and fun, with adequate protection. *As you will see in the summit register pics, Roger Jung soloed a route on the north face, but it's hard to say if he took our route -- there is certainly latitude to wander on that big north face. The photo album, which includes some pages from the register: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4JU83LgK6XKFdbSA7 We descended via a walk off to the south and east--no crampons required. The short-ish approach, moderate and generally solid climbing, and straightforward descent (not to mention the blueberries!!) might make this climb more appealing than some of Rolf's and my other routes. I'll wait for Rolf to correct me on any details (which are already fuzzy), downgrade the level of difficulty (as is his crusty wont), etc. etc. Here's an early musing about Arches from the cc.com archives: Gear Notes: Standard rack with emphasis in finger-sized pieces; tri-cams were useful Approach Notes: Via Easy Pass, drop to and cross Fisher Creek, find your way up through the lower cliff bands, wiggle-chimney between moat and rock to the start

From July 25-27, Lani Chapko and I climbed the SW ridge of Whatcom peak. This is the large, two-tiered ridge that, at its toe forms the imperfect impass. The ridge gains 2400' with 3000' of roped travel. The ridge is generally not very sustained with the upper half being mostly low fifth class. We did it in 14 pitches or simul blocks. The route climbed on generally very low quality shist and required care and deliberate, slow movement the whole time. Protection was surprisingly good through the lower, challenging climbing, but non-existent at times higher up, forcing very long simul blocks to locate anchors. The route follows the skyline Day 1 We left the Hannegan Pass TH around 2pm and hiked to a camp on the summit of easy peak. Day 2 Finish the easy ridge traverse and drop down to the toe of the ridge. We started just left and uphill of the toe on an obvious ledge. Climb then return via easy pass/imperfect impass back to a camp on the summit of easy peak. NOTE: I bolstered the rap anchor above the second pitch of the impasse and added new tat. There is now a small nut and good KB in addition to the sketchy horn that people had been using. Please do not clean this anchor, this section is about 5.5 and often seeps for long after rains. So it can be nice to have the option to rap. Day 3 Wake up late, and hike out, eating copious berries and taking longer than the approach 😅. Here's some photos of the climb Lani starting up the first real pitch Climbing on one of the lower 5.9 pitches Short overhanging crack crux The broad notch halfway up Easy scrambling above the notch Some cool ridge climbing up high A near gendarme towards the top Another view One more view of the ridge, following the skyline. Gear; Single Rack .1 to 3, doubles .3 to .5; small set of nuts and 3 KB's (used extensively). As always, here are my pitch notes, though id hardly recommend this route. In all seriousness, Castle in the Sky is a bonefide modern classic Cascades alpine route, so if you want to do something technical on Whatcom, you should really just do that! P1 100' 5.3 Climb water polished slabs and grooves to a massive ledge (easy solo). Move (or establish) belay to far right end of the ledge P2 200' 5.8 climb a runout mossy dike to a poor belay stance. P3 200' 5.6 Continue up the moss dike to a big ledge system. Traverse the ledge to the right anc belay just before the massive cleft. P4 100' 5.9 Traverse into the gully, climb the sometimes chossy gully and belay below an overhanging OW in a forming cave. P5 100' 5.10a Steep moves to the right exit the gully. Then steep chossy, but well protected climbing gains a ramp then a ledge to belay. P6 100' 5.10+ Trend up cracks to a tree. Awk moves through the tree gain a small ledge. The crux crack lies above. Steep pumpy climbing with barely ok gear leads to a sloping ledge to belay. P7 200' 5.9 Surprisingly techy climbing above the belay relents to chossy low fifth class on the ridge. Stretch your rope and find a belay. P8 200' low fifth Scramble the ridge to some trees. Scramble a few hundred feet to the base of a gendarme P9 250' 5.5 Scramble up a grassy ramp on the right of the gendarme. Belay at a small saddle. A few hundred feet of 4th class through a massive notch in the ridge. This is a possible bivy site or bail point. Several hundred more feet of scrambling up to low fifth leads to a small notch. P10 300' low fifth Scramble a loose gully to where you can find gear to belay. P11 200' 5.5 Continue up the gully to where the ridge knife edges out. P12 200' 5.4 Climb the knife edge ridge to the next notch. P13 600' 5.5 Continue along the ridge to the base of the summit headwall. P14 200' 5.7 Climb the left side of the headwall to a spot just below the summit, then scramble to the summit.

On July 8th at 1:20am, Felipe Guarderas and I began walking up the Goodell Creek drainage with the intention of traversing across the Picket Fence skyline. We ended up climbing just a few peaks shy of the “proper” traverse but had a wonderful time moving through a ton of incredible terrain and we are very content with our execution and style of the traverse. By the time we began to walk out, we had already begun to scheme when our next trip into the range will be. We had about 56 hours of high pressure and we knew that the traverse would be an uphill battle to complete before the rain arrived. We opted to climb in a stripped down, lightweight style carrying a small bivy kit and tarp to maximize our ability to move in the terrain. We carried two dinners and two breakfasts just in case we would need to bivy a second night and we both carried about 3000 calories/person per day. Approaching the Southern Pickets in the early morning of Day 1. We had a rack and a half of cams, aluminum semi auto crampons, 70m 8.5mm rope and shared a single Petzl gully. We both had 40L packs and carried a small puffy, vest, wind jacket and hardshell rain jacket. We hoped that we wouldn’t have to deal with any rain but wanted to be prepared if the weather arrived a bit early. The approach went smooth with lots of snow above 6000’ and we arrived at the base of Little Mac at 7:30am. We enjoyed a long break on the warm rock and attempted to dry out our approach shoes and socks from the long snowy walk above the tree line. Soloing over to the base of Little Mac. We scrambled the exposed heather ledges to the base of the 5th class climbing on Little Mac and then launched up into the 5.7 terrain above. After a bit of terrain confusion, my pace started to increase and I began to find the flow through the exposed face climbing on the upper panel of Little Mac. We continued climbing up to the summit and continued up and over the three Macmillan spires. East Face of East MacMillan. Summit of East MacMillan. I had attempted the traverse last August with Dan May, and we had made it to the backside of Terror before pulling the plug and retracing our steps back over the East Face and down into Crescent Creek Basin. This go around I felt more familiar with the terrain and moved a bit quicker through some of the confusing 5th class terrain that Dan and I struggled to read last year. We continued simuling and soloing across the skyline until we reached the base of East Tower #5, where we broke the rope out and Felipe fired the stiff 5.8 pitch to the summit. We rapped into the familiar gully of Inspiration Peak and soon after found ourselves at the base of the East Face of Inspiration. Felipe led up the impeccable pitches on the East Face of Inspiration before we rappelled down to the Inspiration-Pyramid Col and continued racing towards our hopeful bivy at the base of Mount Terror. P1 on the East Face of Inspiration Peak. P2 on the East Face of Inspiration Peak. Pyramid and Degenhardt went quickly and we reached the base of Terror at around 7pm. Tired but very psyched on all the terrain we had travelled. There were minimal bivy options and the wind had increased throughout the day out of the south. Pyramid's 5.8 Chimney Pitch. Instead of enduring a lumpy dirt bivouac in the wind, we opted to utilize a large snow moat beside a large boulder that marks the start of the East Face of Mount Terror. We spent an hour kicking in a suitable flat spot large enough for the both of us and settled into a heavy night of sleep before an early wake up the next day. Our snow moat bivy at the base of Mount Terror. We awoke at 3:30am and were well into our first simul block when the sun began to paint the east face at around 5am. We continued up and over Terror, onto the Rake’s extensive ridgeline and over the Blob and the Blip. Felipe on top of Mount Terror. One of the highlight pitches of the traverse was the knife edge ridge climbing of the East Twin Needle. It was a superb pitch of climbing in a very wild position. We hit the summit of East Twin Needle right around noon and the increase in winds made it obvious that a low pressure system was on its way. Felipe cruising the wild climbing on the East Twin Needle. On top of West Twin Needle. We reached the base of the Himmelhorn at 1:45pm and Felipe hiked the crux pitch of the traverse in good time. One more pitch brought us to the top of the Himmelhorn and we high fived and kept moving over to the rappels. Six total rappels brought us to the Himmel-Otto Col and by then it was about 3:30pm and fairly windy. With the Ottohorn and Frenzelspitz still ahead of us, we discussd the pros and cons of traversing the ominous choss gully over to Frenzelspitz, climbing the last peak and then retracing our steps. It seemed as though the loose terrain would eat up a ton of time and with inclement weather on the horizon it seemed like a death march out of Stump Hollow would be inevitable if we choose to complete the traverse by the book. Base of the Himmelhorn. P2 of the Himmelhorn. Looking back at P2 of the Himmelhorn. Instead, we left our gear at the Himmel-Otto Col, soloed the Ottohorn and then descended back to the col. We felt okay with our decision to leave out Frenzelspitz and began our long descent back down to the car. On top of the Ottohorn, looking back at the West Face of the Himmelhorn. One overhanging rappel brought us to snow in the gully and we moved quickly down to the heather benches of the Crescent Creek Drainage. We hit the Barrier Col at 7pm and were able to quickly find the trail down into Stump Hollow. The Himmel-Otto Couloir. I stupidly got us lost as we began our last descent to Terror Creek and we spent the next few hours making slow progress bushwhacking down to Terror Creek, across the river and back up to the Goodell Creek Trail we had approached on. Goats on top of the Barrier Col. By the time we both reached the cars it was 1am on July 9th. Just under 48 hours since we began walking uphill. Although we didn’t complete the full traverse, we are content with our style and timing. At around 7am, it began to rain down in Newhalem and we were psyched to be sleeping in our cars rather than high up in the mountains. We also figure this likely won’t be the last time we’ll be in the Pickets and it’s nice to have a few peaks to come back to… A huge thanks is in order for Wayne Wallace, Mark Bunker and Colin Haley for their initial vision for the traverse and to Jeff and Priti Wright who’s beta was invaluable throughout the trip. Additionally, Jens Holsten, Sol Werkin, Chad Kellogg and Dan Hilden’s vision for a full enchainment of the Picket Range inspired us immensely and we are pretty mind blown at what those guys were able to do over 8 days! https://sam-marjerison.blogspot.com/2025/07/picket-fence-traverse-attempt.html Gear Notes: 70m 8.5mm rope Singles .2-3, Doubles .4-2, Small Rack of Stoppers 6x Single Length Slings, 4x Double Length Slings, 2x UL Quickdraws Aluminum Crampons & Shared Petzl Gully Windburner Stove + 2x 4oz fuel cans (only used one) Rab SilTarp 2 Small Repair Kit: Repair Tape, Ductape, 30’ 3mm cord, 3x AAA batteries, bundle of bailing wire 2x 2L Soft Flasks Feathered Friends Tanager 20 Thermarest NeoAir Small Portable Battery, Inreach, Headlamp and chargers Approach Notes: Up Goodell Creek, down Stump Hollow (don’t get lost like us!)

Howdy friends, it's my pleasure to present you all with the newest Washington classic - Negligence located off the Hannegan pass trail. This is a stellar line that links up several crack systems to access a shield about halfway up the large buttress seen across the valley. We spent most of the spring/summer of 2025 developing and cleaning this line and would like nothing more than people to get out there and climb the thing. Approach - From the Hannegan Pass Trailhead, hike Hannegan Pass Trail past the first two switchbacks about halfway to the campsites. Shortly after the second switchback, drop down the open talus field on your right. Continue down the talus almost to the creek, cut right into the woods, then make your way down to the creek from there. Jump from a large log across the first narrow creek band and you’ve found the tunnel through the slide alder. Be bear aware here, we found multiple fresh signs of them (probably due to the golfball sized salmon berries). Follow this until the major creek crossing, then cross the creek. After crossing, head through the trees directly towards the nose of the buttress, hopping another small creek braid before entering into the talus for the final approach. Follow cairns up the talus, then follow the path (likely overgrown) through the underbrush to the base of the wall. The route is located a couple hundred feet to the right of the nose. In total, the approach is around 2 miles, but tends to take around 45 minutes, give or take. Climb - This route takes a series of remarkable crack systems 400 feet up the Hannegan Buttress over four pitches. Protection is traditional, styles vary from off-width to tips, and all anchors are bolted for ease of descent (316SS all around). Each pitch ends at a conferable belay ledge. Pitch 1 - Depending on snowpack, either hop right into the offwidth start, or cross a deep snowfield to dig right into the rest of the pitch. A long continuous crack system varies from tight fingers to the wide stuff, favoring tight hands and good feet. This pitch reminds me of a steeper version of the Apron with lots of flared hands, sustained 5.9 climbing with several good rests. The bottom wide bit is a little dirty and will probably remain so since it gets buried under the snow pack, but it quickly cleans up. This pitch would be a classic all on its own. (5.9+) Pitch 2 - Amble up from the belay towards a notch gully in the leftward wall, clipping in a pin down low, then placing a bit of gear before firing a few fun moves to gain the gully. Make your way up the 4th class to a great ledge to top out this short pitch. (5.8) Pitch 3 - Step left from the belay and begin climbing up a wide box. Tread lightly on the red stone before pulling into the right-facing dihedral towards the alcove. Exit the alcove on thin tips, and continue upwards until bomber hands placements allow you the confidence to trend left in the flake system. Follow the flakes until the roof, then brace yourself for a thin, thoughtful, arching crux protected by small gear as you pull out onto the Shield. Save a .2 and your smallest cam for the business. The crux of this pitch is short and sweet. Its probably easier for folks with thin fingers or long arms and can easily be pulled through on gear. (5.10d) Pitch 4 - This one's in the money for best pitch in all of Washington! Climb the stupendous splitter to the top of the Shield. It is as good as it looks. Some finger crack moves will take you past a loose book size rock (never fear, that thing isn't coming out) to glorious hand jams. It gets a little steeper at the top so be sure to take in the scenery and catch your breath a bit. Top out on a large ledge. (5.10b) Descent: Rap with a single 70m rope. Use the intermediate anchor on the ledge climbers left between the P1 anchor and the ground. Otherwise, just rap the route. Gear - 70m rope Double rack .2 - 3. Singles of 4, .1, and a purple c3 (or equivalent tiny cam, or trango gold ballnut… the best option) to protect the crux. Wires, all sizes. Consider triples in .4 and .5 for the long first pitch and a 5 if offwidths make you shake. Background - The vision and much of the labor for this route came from Nate Fearer with additional help from myself, Neil Miller, Spencer Moore and Alex Pederson. The route name comes from the fact that Nate started this project while on paternity leave and completed it within the first four months of his son's life (he really is a good father and loving husband). The route was established ground up as an aid line, then dug, cleaned, and scrubbed. Then scrubbed, then scrubbed, then scrubbed. Further ascents will clean it even more. Also, we found some evidence of prior development out there including a bolted (2 pitch?) line left of the nose. If anyone has information on this route please let me know.

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

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

Background: This is a trip report for the frostbite ridge of glacier peak. WHo was there? Me (the slab doctor), the anchorman, and capt. Kirk himself. In yearly tradition we go climb something every summer. Unfortunately the final disciple (Professor Science) was unable to make the trip due to life choices outside of his own comprehension. Day 1: after getting to the North Fork Sauk trailhead somewhat late in the afternoon, the disciples hiked up to the PCT and then down slightly to camp in the large bowl just below the ridge. stats: 11.5 miles and 4.8k gain Day 2: We slept in and hauled butt down to the Kennedy creek crossing. we had heard that you must actually wade to get across this but it was no issue for us to cross on logs. We then started the climb up to glacier creek and left the PCT there. Shortly after leaving the PCT we were at the toe of the kennedy glacier (3:45 pm?). There is a nice bivvy site here. We decided to attempt to make it up to the bivvy at 8.8k. Going up the side of the Kennedy was horrendous work. Large patches of glacial till/mud, exposed blue ice, and loose gravel made for tedious going. We made it to 8.8k camp at 7:30/8pm ish and were all pretty kicked in at this point. The bivvy was one of the best I have had, a beautiful inversion left us above the clouds with stunning views of Baker, Shuksan, and the North Cascades. Unfortunately the anchorman had the piles & was shitting a lot over the last 2 days. There are 2 flat spots for tents at the 8.8k site, but only 1 of them has a substantial rock circle. I would highly recommend not sharing this route with other parties for this reason, and for the significant choss hazards on the ridge that arise late season. stats: 12 miles and 5k gain Day 3: We were going by 7:30/8am up towards the rabbit penis on what I can only describe as some of the worst choss of my life. We were kicking down serious amounts of rockfall, I'm talking 4 or 5 basketball sized rocks at a time that would not stop and continue off the ridge until they were out of sight. Again I would really not want to be behind another party on this route, unless there was significantly more snow. After going tucking around to climbers right the rabbit peen we got on a short section of steep snow and then a cool sidewalk with significant exposure above the upper kennedy. We gained the ridge again after the sidewalk and crossed over to the other side. Here we went almost between the rabbit ears, and after spotting a cairn on the other side of the ridge we down climbed and began the short up and down section before the final ice pitches.IMG_3263.HEIC The ice was pretty trivial and we probably could have soloed all of it but out of an abundance of caution we pitched out the lower section. We then de-roped and simul soloed the final 100 ft of snice / steep snow. If you stay to the right side you will put out exactly below the summit rock jumble. After shmoozing it on the summit with a cool party of climbers from Kerala who offered us whiskey & cigs, we began our mad dash out. Our goal was to make it to the (former) Mackinaw shelter camp site which would leave us with a cool 5 miles to complete monday morning --some of our disciples had work the next day >: ) . We again busted serious ass and were at the shelter by 7pm ish that day?? 15 miles and 3k gain Day 4: an early wake up allowed us to do the 5.5 miles back in about an hour and a half and everyone got to work on time. 5.5 miles and 500ft gain.

Thanks for JasonG for the great overview photo! This route has been on my list for a while. The quality is so-so, and it's kind of dangerous with all the loose rock, but it sure was a grand adventure. https://spokalpine.com/2025/07/30/eldorado-peak-west-arete-iv-5-8/

Trip: Johannesburg - NE Rib Trip Date: 07/24/2025 Trip Report: Another Johannesburg NE rib trip report is something the world likely doesn’t need but I’m in a bit of beta happy mood lately. Certain kinds of climbers might find the endless scrambling pretty enjoyable. And with perfect route finding the route doesn’t have to be especially sketchy, though as I found, navigation errors might be punished severely. The steep dirt embankment right off the road is a heads up rude awakening that foreshadows what lies ahead. And for such a short approach the bushwhacking is not insignificant. Steph Abegg has a good photo of the start of the route but the snow fan cuts off the very bottom of the slab and the elevation is wrong. You gain the rock more like 4100’. This confused me back in early June when I came to try the route. I got spooked off the slabs at the start. Thinking I may have missed something due to the “4400’” annotation, I climbed snow higher, but found only sheer cliffs above. On my way back down I saw from Steph’s picture that I had been in the right place after all but it turned out to just be really hard instead of easy class 4. During my second attempt I began by trying to follow blocky terrain on the left side of the slab. It started out good but when it came time to move right, a drip formed an impossibly slimy 10 foot wide barrier to passage. I retreated nearly back to the bottom and instead headed up to a right facing corner left of a roof with a wet slab below it. I went this way on my first attempt before bailing. It starts with a bit of lieback on a jug and a high reach to another jug, after which you can pull up to easier ground. Right after I took this photo my feet blew on slime. It’s a low angle stance, so fortunately I didn’t go far. Humbly I reapplied and was accepted on the second try. This short sequence felt like 5th class though as my fall demonstrated, maybe not exposed enough to count as true 5th. Though I’ve spent more than my fair share of time on that slab by now, I still have no idea where the path of least resistance is. Having failed to find the “easy class 4” I also failed to find the “sketchy 5th”. At the top of the slab next to the waterfall I found good solid rock and was on my way. Worse was yet to come in the jungle section. From the stream below I noticed some tall cedars and guessed that it wouldn’t be too crowded at their bases. This was true, I was able to move between them and the rock buttress without any real entanglement (18L pack with ax and tool covered in socks and just barely stuffed inside). However I was getting further and further west and not gaining enough elevation. Finally I saw something I was hoping to find, a steep, rocky and mostly dry bed. But guarding access was minor cliff band maybe 15’ tall. Overly committed, I explored three fairly terrifying options at 5.forest and managed to get through, relying far more on good fortune than I’d like. The episode left a bitter taste on an otherwise umami day. I definitely prefer my climbs not avoidably harrowing. Above that section I tended to stay in or just to the right of the gully between the two ribs, with a wider diversion to the right just above the last major snowfield. Where the vegetation finally gives way to solid, polished rock beginning around 6K’ was the highlight of the route for me, both because this was the best quality rock for the day, and because of the sense of relief for escaping what was just below. At about 6450’ I found a promontory with a great view of the northeast face. Beyond this point the rock quality declined some (but not terrible) and the route complexity increased. I saw that I needed to move diagonally up and right to get to where the snow was on my map. I found reasonable ramps and ledges cut with interesting quartz bands. There was one more section of minor drama with steep, exposed choss to get around the corner. Then I could see the snow and ice spilling down from Johannesburg’s north face. I gained the snow at 7200’, maybe missing the famous bivy, though I noticed one small one at 7000’ with good but not panoramic views. The snow arete was AWOL. My guess is the high heat has melted it down to a boring broad shape. Passage on the left was a little narrow but in good shape. There were no real difficulties with shrunds and crevasses and no mandatory hard ice. At the upper face especially the snow was steep enough that I was glad to have sharp things on each limb. Unlike my first time here, I couldn’t locate the summit register. Before long I began the descent to the east. It was helpful to have been up and down this way before. I had forgotten how much griffin shit is in this zone. I seemed to take a long time descending. Probably I was mentally fatigued from all the no fall terrain. It was a lovely afternoon as I traversed the basin over to the ridge off of Mixup, pierced with many marmot cries dying off with slow haunting decay. Industrious workers of the underworld, unite! More mental fatigue descending the slabs coming down from that notch, then a long overdue water break below the snow (though somehow I didn’t get dehydrated despite running out shortly after the summit). Pretty straightforward and gratuitously beautiful from there back to the trailhead. It took me slightly less time than going up and down Doug’s direct had, a little under 15 hours. I think I lost at least an hour with the slab and forest cliff navigation fiascos. Many reports say this climb is best done once. I think that’s not untrue but if you really like scrambling this could be a good one, because the scrambling goes on and on hypnotically. That said, it’s a slippery one. Gear Notes: Approach shoes, steel strap-on crampons, one tool, one light ax. Approach Notes: Last hair pin before the Cascade pass trailhead. Don’t fall down the very steep hard dirt.

Trip: Johannesburg mountain - Northeast buttress ‘51 rib Trip Date: 07/26/2025 Trip Report: I drove to the parking lot Friday night, threw my sleeping bag in the back of the truck, and fell asleep staring at Johannesburg. About an hour after sunrise I locked the truck and started walking down the road with just a hipbelt loaded with microspikes, ul rain jacket, ice axe, garmin, work gloves, 6 gu’s, and 500 ml of water. Getting to the snow was quite straight forward. I stayed on talus, just climbers left of the moraine for as long as I could, and then traversed straight across the moraine to where I could step onto the initial slabs to gain the rib. Figuring out these initial first pitches before the brush was slightly tricky, perhaps requiring the most thoughtful climbing of the whole route. Just above the slabs was a large patch of snow. I drank some water and filled up here and then started tree climbing. I was elated to not have a pack on for this section. The work gloves and trailspikes also made life much easier through this part of the route. Once I made it to the steep heather section I was able to mostly stay on the ridge crest with semi decent rock. I did not end up joining the 1957 route near the top like I’ve read in some trip reports, and instead continued up the 51 rib. This section contained the highest quality rock and climbing of the entire route. The crux of this section was probably a bomber near vertical handcrack(5.6) that lasted a couple body lengths. Suddenly, I was on snow. The glacier and snow conditions were nearly perfect, firm but not icy. I transitioned to rock close to the top of the glacier where it became too steep for 1 axe and microspikes. Moments later I was on the summit, 3h 40m from the car. I snapped some photos, and then started down the east ridge. The cairns were quite nice to have for encouragement. Less than an hour later I was at the C-J col. The heather up to Mixup was quite unstable, frustrating, and exhausting, but it was over soon enough. Meeting up to the Ptarmigan “trail” was mostly straight forward. I feel I could have found a slightly better way, but what I did worked just fine. Just above Cascade Pass, I emptied the rocks from my shoes, downed the rest of my water and a GU, and battened down the hatches before running down to the lot. The parade of hikers were true obstacles, but it was pretty fun blasting past them. Made it to the lot 6h 49m after leaving the truck. A very good day. Gear Notes: Work gloves, microspikes, axe Approach Notes: Short and sweet

A few days ago Lani and I did a fun link up on forbidden. We climbed the East ridge North Ridge and West Ridge. This is a rad way to move through a lot of scrambling terrain. Uncertain weather before the atmospheric river gave us a pretty narrow window to work with, so we headed up the evening before and bivied at the base of the East ridge. We left the B basin trail around 5pm and set up camp around 8 for an early night. The cloud ceiling quickly raised up, putting us in a thick,misty whiteout for the whole of the night. We woke up to even more whiteout and low confidence, expecting to bail we went back to sleep for a few hours. We ended up leaving the bivy around 8am. We climbed up the East ridge, then down climbed the north ridge. Down climbing the North Ridge was surprisingly mellow, we didn't end up needing to rappel. And the route finding was almost easier on the way down than the way up. There is only one 20' section of 5.5 at the very bottom, otherwise it's all sustained 4th class and secure low fifth. Once at the low bivy of the north ridge, the clouds again threatened us. So we sat and weighed our options. We ended up watching the clouds for an hour before deciding our fate. Our original idea was to traverse the glacier and climb the NW face/rib. But whiteout and impending rain steered our decision to "bail" back up the north ridge. Though the north ridge is such a fun knife edge it's hard to complain. We then down climbed the West Ridge. We hit the base of the West ridge 6 hours after starting up the East ridge and made it to the car just before 5, almost 24hrs after we left. The epic rains to come that night validated our decision to limit our time in the mountains on this one. For those who don't know yet, you no longer need to touch snow to climb either the west or east ridges. The glacier below the cat scratches is more or less completely gone. While sad, it does mean you can do this whole link up in approach shoes without carrying axe/crampons. Starting up the East Ridge Headed down the North Ridge, with clouds threatening to spill in from the west. Headed back up.

This past Saturday, Trey and I made an 18hr C2C ascent of the NW face (ridge). Neither of us had been to the area before and were keen to check it out. Here's a little write up about two rock climbers going glacier walking and getting gripped. We left the car at 3:30am, enjoying good trail and crisp morning air. Passing several nice groups of folks on their way to climb Sahale (apparently the route of the weekend but we missed the memo). We soon arrived to Boston Basin and made our way up to Sharkfin col. Here we made a route finding error, assuming it would be the obvious snow gully to notch with a beaten in path. Both of us glazed over this part in researching the route. Whoops. Eventually realizing we were too far east, we descended to the correct gully. (Boston Glacier view from the wrong notch) Two raps brought us onto the snow. We snacked and rested for a bit, soaking in the enormity of the Boston glacier & Mt. Logan across the valley. We roped up and set off. As I led us through the maze of the glacier I came to accept two things: 1) I will fall into a bottomless pit at any moment, without warning. 2) I will never understand why people like glacier travel. (Boston Glacier - Sharkfin Col directly above Trey) We arrived at the North ridge notch and started up. I am really soft and this was one of the most fucked up bits of climbing I have ever done. It's quite steep dirt, but has too much gravel in it to create steps or just slam a crampon into. It just crumbles away as your try to make a step, also providing nearly nothing you can hold onto. So to climb it you are more or less kicking in an insecure feeling front-point into the muddy gravel with no hands, then standing up onto this single point, trusting your life to it. Rinse and repeat. I would suggest future parties climbing this in mid july climb over rock a bit further south on the N ridge and do a rap or two on the other side to the glacier. It would at least be protectable. Walking down the forbidden glacier to the toe of the NW face was very pleasant and served up incredible views. (Starting up what would be the Crux of the day. Looking back at N ridge notch) We took a lunch break at a nice flat spot and sized up the steepest bit of glacier yet to access to rock. It was quite a lot more broken up, with more ice exposed than expected. Armed with approach shoes, aluminum 'pons, an ultralight axe and no snow/ice pro this last section proved to be the most daunting. (Looking up at NW face. Route access from the right) I led us up, finding a narrow sliver of passable snow between the ice and crevasses to level with the access at ~7200ft. It was a mess of glacial chunder. Looking up, we spotted a ramp of snow at ~7500ft that would potentially provide access and we committed to continuing up. At several points there was only an inch of snow over ice which provided some quite puckering travel. Eventually we reached the snow ramp. It turned out to be at most 4 inches thick so we did a traversing lower off a bollard and finally onto the rock. A wave of relief came over us once on the rock. Back to my happy place. After hanging out on a ledge for a while, we headed up. The rock was much better than expected and provided excellent ridge climbing. We solo'd the route in 2 hours & downclimbed the West Ridge + cat scratch in another 2 hours, stopping at the bottom of the ridge to chat with some kind people who attempted the West ridge. (NW Face) "You can tell we're at the top because of the views" -Trey (Downclimbing the W ridge) Once down & off the snow, we rested on some nice slabs then chatted at high camp with some folks about their climbs the next day before leisurely hiked out of Boston basin in incredible evening light. While not quite on par with the CNR of Stu, The NW face + W ridge is a very high quality & fun ridge outing. If not for the price of admission, this would be one of the most popular climbs in the state. Don't be like us and sandbag yourself in late July on a low snow year. I'll do anything to not wear boots but having light boots and proper crampons would have made things much faster & more safe. Gear: We brought singles 0.2-#2 & some nuts (didn't use it but it was nice insurance), 7.8mm 60m rope, approach shoes, aluminum crampons, UL axe, some glacier kit.

Trip: Darrington - Gardening on Salvia (5.7 A2+) (A Ground Up Scary Darry Adventure!) Trip Date: 09/05/2024 Trip Report: WARNING! LOW QUALITY PHOTOS AND FEET PICS! Back in September of 2024, I teamed up with my homie Ethan @macropipette to go on a ground-up adventure in Darrington. We set our sights on the NE face of Mt Ulalach, an 800-foot slabby face on a granite dome. As far as we knew, the face hadn’t seen a lot of climbing activity, and we later found out some pretty good reasons why. Ulalach from Squire Creek Wall (Nathan P, Mountain Project) We departed the car with our packs loaded with the kitchen sink, eventually finding a “good” spot to turn left and begin our shwack up the forest slope. Immediately, we started post-holing in the spongy mixture of thick moss, decaying wood, and tangled roots. After about 150’ of this, I started to realize that this approach was going to suck big time. Fresh off a week and a half bout with Covid, I was drenched and wheezing as we slogged upward through dense brush and ankle-snapping blowdowns. All smiles for the most mellow bushwhacking of the whole approach! I have to applaud Ethan for sticking with it with no guarantee of any quality climbing ahead. A final push through brutal slide alder led to a welcome respite, easy travel on a boulder field. While my body was thoroughly worked, I could let my mind relax as we trudged up the final 1000’ to our campsite. We dropped packs and began surveying the face, and decided that tomorrow we would start our ascent up a flaky left-facing corner/arch and then aim for the steepest, square-shaped part of the face we dubbed “The Box”. "The Box" After a few puffs on a spliff and a guide’s ration of some gas station vino, Ethan and I called it a night. The Climb: Ethan sorts gear in preparation for our excellent adventure P1: 5.7 C0 We scrambled up a low-angle ramp to a small ledge, where Ethan took the lead. After moving up some easy terrain into the left-facing corner, he found his way up a right-trending crack that petered out quickly. After questing 20ft up the increasingly blank slab, he was forced to retreat and perform a heady downclimb. After regaining the corner system, he followed it up the loose, flaky arch and pulled the final mossy undercling moves to a well-placed stance for two. P2: 5.6 C0 I took the lead, pulling a couple of fun moves up and right to exit the arch. A slabby, dirty, and vegetated ramp led to a short but splitter finger crack, then to a gently sloping ledge. I spent probably 15 minutes throwing clumps of dirt and grass down the face, looking for gear to no avail. 15 feet above the nice ledge, I dug out a good cam placement and got a decent pin. I fixed the rope and descended to the ledge for a snack break. P3: 5.6 A1 R I pushed through a dense clump of bushes just above the anchor, then started up a slab with good edges but no gear. I finally reached the bottom of “The Box”, where the wall started to steepen. I decided to aim for a right-facing corner with a thin crack in the back. Still without options for protection, I slung a small shrub and had a quick laugh. Between me and the corner was a precarious stack of flakes. I looked down and determined that they would miss Ethan and the rope if they fell. I traversed under the stack and was rewarded with a perfect #2 C4 that granted me access to the bottom of the corner. From here, I made good time on cam hooks and pulled up to a roomy stance, the best belay on the route. Me reaching the bottom of "The Box" P4: 5.7 A1 This pitch held the best climbing on the route. After moving leftward up flakes, I reached a sequence of free moves on thin, incut holds. This bit was only about 5.7 but so fun, and well-protected with a downward pin behind a flake. Directly above me lay another right-facing corner that I shuttled up with cam hooks. Exiting the corner and wrestling with some bushes, I stepped left to what would have been a 10/10 belay stance if it wasn’t built out of loose flakes with only small gear available between them. In hindsight, the anchor I built was sketchy, and I really should have taken the time to drill a bolt. Pitch 4 P5: A gumby gets gripped on moderate aid: 5.5 A2+ I stepped left around the large flakes and got established in a hand crack, which led to easy climbing with lots of big loose flakes and blocks. I tiptoed around bushes and looseness before reaching some slab moves below a roof (barely any good gear to this point). I found a good inverted cam hook and poked my head over the top of the roof. My heart sank as I saw a broad, featureless slab. It seemed our relatively moderate line had come to a dead end. Hanging from the hook, I looked around for other options. 6 meters to my right, I saw a pair of thin cracks splitting a slab above, but I would have to nail the thin, dirty seam under the roof to get there. The seam was packed with moss and grit, and the rock looked crumbly. My last okay piece was now well below my feet. I composed myself and started placing a beak, chips of rotten granite fracturing from the seam with each blow. I tried to block all thoughts of zippering the traverse and taking the big, ugly swing as I put in a foul string of upward-driven blades and beaks. I gingerly inched closer and closer to a shallow 0.3 placement and finally breathed a sigh of relief as I clipped. At this point, I was nearly to the end of the rope, and the drag was so bad I could barely stand up in my aiders. Yelling curses, I pulled on the rope as hard as I could to gain the last bit of slack the rope would yield, then pulled the last few moves up and over the roof. The cracks were too flaring to accept cams or nuts and too shallow to give a solid pin. I decided it would be stupid not to place a bolt, which took the last bit of physical and mental fortitude I had in the tank. I fixed the rope and yelled down to Ethan, then sat at the hanging belay sideways, my left cheek resting against the cool, gritty granite. The sun was just kissing the horizon next to Whitehorse, and I felt a surge of gratitude for Ulalach for teaching us, humbling us, and allowing us safe passage on its steepest flank. There was another pitch of densely vegetated slab between us and the summit, but I knew our push was over. Ulalach had won. Ethan: After finally hearing JT yell that he had made a belay, I was pretty overjoyed. It was starting to get dusky, and we both knew we were looking at a lengthy descent in the dark. Cleaning the pitch with my large pack was not an easy feat, and after jugging up hundreds of meters of slab, I was pretty spent. I was thoroughly impressed by the work JT had put in to lead the last pitch, as the roof traverse seemed like quite a piece of work. Once I reached JT, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and were promptly in the dark on the wall. Ethan's thoughts about descending in the dark Bonus Reel: The next morning, I was boiling water in camp. I dropped the Fritos bag I was eating from onto the cook pot, which promptly tipped over and poured boiling water onto my shoe. I started yelling and ripping the shoe and sock off my foot, but I’d already received some gnarly burns. Just my luck! Free foot pics. Can you guess which approach shoe I was wearing from the burn pattern? Not too far from the car, we ran into local legend Bill Enger, fresh off completing another fantastic-looking new route (Miracle Ramps 5.8+) on the South Face of the Squire Creek Wall. I sprayed about our GNARLY NEW AID ROUTE… How embarrassing. This isn’t an FA of the NE face or even remotely close to being a good route, but we named it anyway. Suck it! Any of you old-timers climb this thing? Tell us about it! Gear Notes: Too much junk! Approach Notes: Approach to the base of the Squire Creek Wall and climb an actually good route.

As if you stepped out of a time machine into the hallroom of the Darrington hardmen of yore.

Thanks for the foot pictures btw. Normally we have to pay for those.

Gardening on Salvia is definitely some other best that YouTube has to offer. But naming something up in Darrington after it is next level. Traditional is made alive or revived or made new whatever. Thank you for this contribution to the zeitgeist.

I did this climb a few weeks ago and my friend did a write up that I thought I’d post here (source https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2902617). There wasn’t a ton of information on it, but overall a fun way to get up the mountain. Jack Mountain (East Ridge) & Crater Mountain Team: Damon, Jon, Chris Dates: July 11-13, 2025 Short Version: A successful 3-day trip to the seldom-climbed East Ridge of Jack Mountain with Jon. The three of us climb Crater Mountain on the way out. Jack's East Ridge is a long, serious, and committing route with sustained exposure and multiple pitches of 5th-class climbing. It should not be taken lightly. Crater Mountain provided one of the most spectacular summit panoramas in the state, a perfect reward for the intensity of Jack and a supremely appealing scramble objective by itself. Statistics: Total Mileage: ~25 miles Total Elevation Gain: ~12,500 ft Day 1 (Approach to Jerry Lakes Basin): 9 miles, +5400' / -1400', 7h 30m Day 2 (Jack Mtn): 5.8 miles, +/- 4660', 13h 08m Day 3 (Crater Mtn & Exit): 9.7 miles, +2390' / -6420' Full Report Day 1: The Approach Our trip began at the Canyon Creek Trailhead. A quarter-mile in, we hit the ford of Canyon Creek. I was glad to have brought Crocs, which I cached on the far side. From there, the trail winds its way up and up. We left trail at 6400' to ascend towards the 7200' col. We made steady progress under warm skies. After crossing the pass, we descended snow below the Jerry glacier into the beautiful Jerry Lakes basin. We camped near the outlet of the biggest lake, opting to bivy to enjoy the clear night. The area was scenic but quite buggy. Day 2: Jack Mountain - The East Ridge Jon and I set off for Jack early, moving by 4:30, climbing a goat path to exit the Jerry Lakes basin. As we reached the col, we saw Jack partially shrouded in a high cloud around 8,000 ft. From there, our route involved descending 800 feet into the adjacent basin before beginning the ascent up the SE arm of Jack. We then traversed over to the snowfield below the glacier, which led to a few hundred feet of scrambling to gain the East Ridge proper at 7,200 ft. The East Ridge itself is a magnificent and fiercely serious undertaking. This is not a casual scramble. The route involved three distinct pitches of 5th-class climbing: one up a gully early on, a memorable and wildly exposed 5.0 crux in the middle of the ridge, and another section to gain the summit. Jon, whose extensive experience was essential to our success, led these pitches and found ok placements. The true character of the ridge, however, lies in the terrain between the technical pitches. We spent hours moving together on exposed Class 3 and 4 rock, requiring sustained concentration. The summit, while somewhat cloudy, still offered stellar views of Baker, Shuksan, the Pickets, Ross Lake, Hozomeen, and the massive Nohokomeen Glacier sprawling below. We also took a moment to look down at the upper part of the South Face route; it looked unappealing, reinforcing our choice of the East Ridge. The descent was a mirror of the ascent: a long, mentally taxing exercise in precision. For the 5.0 crux, Jon employed a protected downclimbing system, providing a crucial safety margin. The opening move where I had to blindly face-in downclimb over a bulge to find footholds to enter a solid crack system, with 1000' of air down to snow far below, was totally insane even with a few pieces of protection that Jon placed below me. We made one rappel lower down off an established tat anchor. We were so happy to be off the East Ridge, but proud that we made it work. We tried to stay on snow to cross the glacial basin. As we walked over, a 20-foot snow finger near the glacier toe collapsed in front of us onto the rock. It was a powerful reminder of objective hazards and the unknowable elements of alpinism that defy simple analysis. We turned and went back the scramble way The 13-hour day was a testament to the route's length and complexity. We made it to camp by late afternoon. The East Ridge is a route for self-reliant parties with a deep well of experience in technical rock, rope systems, and managing risk in a remote, high-consequence environment. Day 3: Crater Mountain & The Exit We awoke to a beautiful morning with interesting cloud formations. All three of us made the climb up Crater Mountain. The route involved fun Class 3 scrambling with some light exposure and a single, unexposed Class 4 move. The rock was loose in places, so I was happy to have a helmet. The summit of Crater Mountain is, without exaggeration, one of the finest viewpoints in Washington State—perhaps even better than Jack's. The 360-degree panorama under clear skies was staggering. It offered the same incredible views of the major Cascade peaks, but with the added bonus of a stunning perspective of Jack's massive South Face and the beautiful Jerry Lakes basin below. After soaking in the views for an hour, we descended and began the long hike out. The descent went quickly as we talked about Star Wars and the Matterhorn. The river crossing was downright enjoyable in the heat. A challenging, humbling, and ultimately magnificent trip to a wild corner of the Cascades.

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!

Hi all; Just came across this and joining the conversation 24 years later, lol. The name came from the fact that a Falcon swooped us on the exposed summit ridge. Essentially the last pitch. I am a bit surprised to hear about the less than stellar rock report. I found the rock to be pretty good, but then again, I had a great capacity of kidding myself regarding rock quality at the time. But seriously... What I do remember for sure is that the line was a nice plum line to the top and that the camping the Summit Chief Valley was really amazing. Below is a link to the few photos I was able to find. Jeff Hansel might have some more. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cec_PLE8JFHNmJdzzIyb3to_9tNYGgdA

Dan Mcnerthney and I climbed the Stoddard buttress exactly 10 years ago in mid July and here is my few cents. 1. The approach from the Crescent creek basin to the base of Stoddard buttress IS long. It took us 9! hours which included climbing the snow/ice couloir plus dry rock to the col, 2 rappels into a moat, ice climbing out of the moat (steel crampons and boots were highly appreciated here), followed by traversing Mustard glacier on cl. 4 - low cl. 5 ledges and more ice climbing to get on to the buttress. 2. The climb itself to the true summit of Terror IS much longer and more complex than most descriptions make it sound. Simul climbing was feasible on the bottom half of the route but climbing becomes harder higher up.

uh. DAMN. You basically compressed most of my north cascades 25 year career into one trip. I should take up knitting.

My hands are still cold! https://spokalpine.com/2025/07/21/dakobed-glacier-peak-frostbite-ridge-ii-ai2/

I am the buddy and I do not own a drone. buttshots only, this is real alpinism.

Trip: Markhor and Needle Peak - Traverse Trip Date: 07/07/2025 Trip Report: I am too behind on everything right now to write much, but I figured some of you may be interested in a lesser known romp across the valley from Yak Peak off the Coquihalla. It is quite the scenic and reasonable outing for the mature mountaineer, but I think most would enjoy the lovely ridgeline between Markhor and Needle Peaks. It starts with a steep grunt up the climber's trail up Markhor, with expanding views of Yak Peak across the way: Within an hour or two, the summit of Markhor comes into view, with nothing more challenging than some exposed class 3 standing between the car and the summit: The view expand greatly, with the shapely Needle peak beckoning across a kilometer (we're in Canada, eh) or two of ridgeline: The bugs were a bit on the bad side so I didn't waste much time picking my way down Markhor to a rap station and fixed line which greatly aided the descent down a slabby section. I wrapped a prusik around the thin line which was a nice hand hold as I slid it down and scrambled lower. Here's looking up at the slabby bit below the summit of Markhor after clearing it: And then the really good stuff lay ahead. Always scenic, often exposed, sometimes a bit on the kitty litter side, it was nonetheless "distinctly alpine and a pure joy" to quote Fred from some peak or other in the North Cascades (Logan?). It was usually pretty easy, although a few sections edged into exposed 4th class where a fall would end very badly: I caught a glimpse of another couple behind me as I scrambled along: And soon was on the summit of Needle, alone with the festive summit register: The bugs here were terrible as well so I didn't stay long, mosying down the well trod Needle Peak trail that was very scenic the entire way. Yak Peak on the left and Markhor on the right: Partway down there was a nice viewpoint where I could take in the entirety of the Markhor to Needle ridge traverse: And soon was spit out at the well marked Needle Peak trailhead: I think it took me about 5-6 hours for the loop, including stops, which was a bit longer than the drive, thankfully. The only bummer is that it isn't longer! Gear Notes: helmet and approach shoes. Brought a 30m RAD line to rap but fixed line in place on slab downclimb Approach Notes: Park at Needle Peak Trailhead and find flagged route up Markhor to the east, starting in pipeline swath. Descend well marked Needle Peak trail after traverse

Nice line, especially the side view. Naming history: Little J-Berg. 7945’ on map. P745 (now Lidar P790). This was the original (August 23, 1968) name for this summit since from Easy Pass its shape resembles that of massive Johannesburg Mountain near Cascade Pass. (A "berg" is a mountain; a "burg" is a town.) Fred Beckey was lukewarm about this name for his guidebook, so Legends Peak came to mind to honor Indian legends and legendary climbers. The alternate name was Arches Peak for its arcing shape and for a blocky arch low on its north slope and was so recorded in green Fred CAG. I still like Little J-Berg best.

Boom! Just look at that proud face! (at least I hope that is your buttress on the skyline)

I’m trying el cap soon after last climbing it 40 years ago! Also hoping to repeat an fa called solid gold on prussik 37 years later

If anyone sees this and is looking for West Ridge Terror beta, here's what the couloir looked like last Saturday 7/19: There is a bail rap station near a moat not too far up on climber's left You'll see it as soon as you get up a little bit. Getting down into Crescent Creek Basin and making the traverse was pretty chill: Snow was in EXCELLENT climbing conditions, even for aluminum pons on Altras! The left-side snow finger at the Y in the gully felt exposed with the moats, but the step into the dry gully was chill. Crossing Terror Creek was very chill. There is a thimbleberry bush that offered us an abundance of amazingly perfect thimble berries. Last, there was a family of goats (mom, auntie, other auntie, and BABY) at the bivy which is very important beta. If you're as lucky as I was, you'll see a baby goat and a pika hanging out -- at the same time!! No, we didn't summit.

Thanks for the TR! Once I read that the pencil was missing from the summit register on Degenhardt I raced back up there to replace the pencil! Went up there last weekend and climbed Pyramid Degenhardt, Ottohorn and Frenzelspitz. Thanks for the stoke and the TR!

In case you haven't seen it yet:

EMS looks awesome! Nice work!

rad!

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!

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 : )

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.

Nice! Link to my report below - cool to see the conditions change throughout the season. https://spokalpine.com/2025/07/21/dakobed-glacier-peak-frostbite-ridge-ii-ai2/

🤣 Great TR. Cool seeing the north side of the mountain get more visitors lately

Awesome work! Been curious about rock in the marble creek drainage for a while and glad to see some climbing out there!

Amazing! Great work

Trip: Terror - N buttress (attempt), Himmelhorn - Wild hair crack, Degenhardt NW+E route, Pyramid - W route Trip Date: 07/04/2025 Trip Report: Drawbridged again in the pickets for the second time in a week. After the standard rap into the couloir north of Otto-Himmel col my partner @aikidjoe encountered a moat that appeared impassable. He ascended back to the station and I took a look down the next gully skiers left. From lower down I could see it would have been no good to try the moat (which would have required an absurd running leap) because another moat was not far below that one. I kept descending adjacent to the couloir, finding mostly solid, even fun, exposed class 4. There was a short low fifth corner with a lemon cake sized block that kept it secure. I passed a slung block with old webbing. Where things cliffed out I found some good .1-.2 cam sized cracks that could be used for a rap anchor. My 60m rope easily reached continuous snow from there (maybe 20m rap). Last year at exactly the same time of year I downclimbed continuous snow down this couloir without even needing the first rap. And last year was a low snow year too. So I was pretty surprised at the state of the couloir. This workaround skiers left seems viable to me. Posting it here in case it helps anyone. The false start and exploration ate up enough time that we decided to bail on our plans for the Stoddard route and head back up to climb WHC instead. My partner was bemused because he expected a crack climb The day had started clear. On our way back down from O-H dark gray clouds moved in to block the ridge. I was glad we weren’t somewhere high on the north buttress of Terror. Next day was quite socked in. We headed off for Degenhardt, accidentally heading up from the south before correcting course for our intended NW route from near Terror’s east col. To gain the couloir there was short choke that steepened at the end to maybe 80 degree snow. We underestimated the angle from below. Odd, usually it’s the opposite. We were able to bypass this on slabs on our return. The foreboding weather and lack of visibility gave the climb a serious feeling. As it gradually cleared on the way back the route started to feel easier. There is plenty of choss on Degenhardt but I recall the scramble being pretty fun. While extracting the summit register I dropped its pencil down some hole. Sorry. From there we groped our way slowly toward Pyramid. The route finding in the clouds was trickiest near Degenhardt. Was glad to carry ax/whippet all the way due to about ten steps through a narrow and steep snow couloir to get to Pyramid’s rock pyramid. We had peek a boo views into McMillan cirque but could see nothing at all to the east. By the time we passed back west of Degenhardt the clouds were lifting and it was a relief to see where we were going. The weather kept improving and the sunset was a real mind melter. UFOs came out in force. Next morning greeted us with more clear weather but having had our fill we bid adieu to the goats and our impeccable camp. After the bruising descent we enjoyed copious berries south of terror creek. Gear Notes: 60m rope and light rack, crampons, ax or whippet Approach Notes: Goodell

Holy cow!!!

Messaged

Trip: Seahpo / Cloudcap Peak - NE Ridge Trip Date: 07/05/2025 Trip Report: After much discussion and planning and two planned weekends that didn't happen due to weather, and even a scouting trip with binoculars, me Fred and Dylan finally climbed Seahpo / Cloudcap on July 4th and 5th. I had been on a mission the last few years to climb Dallas Kloke’s Difficult 10 peaks and completed the list this past winter with Lincoln. Now as part of my midlife crisis alpinist proving I'm after the self declared Difficult 10 Bonus Peaks. Basically anything that the consensus says ought to be on the list but since it's Dallas's list it doesn't change (much like the bulgers). I consider these so far to be Gunsight and Seahpo. We hiked up through the crowds on the 4th of July with heavy packs loaded with all kinds of climbing gear since we didn't actually know much about the route. We passed a lot of day hikers and Ruth climbers that all asked us where we were going with all of the gear on our packs, I grew somewhat tired and only half jokingly suggested we tell people either Shuksan or Icy just to make it simple. Bizarrely then we met somebody who replied that they had climbed Seahpo!! We went up and over Ruth, then Icy just for fun and made camp near the northeast ridge of Seahpo, making camp in just about 8 hours. We had plenty of time to study the route as it came in and out of the clouds and were pleased with what we saw. On a scouting trip a month earlier the route had ample snow on the ridge which we weren't prepared to deal with. On the 5th we were up at 5:00 and hiking just after 6:00, thus allowing for plenty of sleep to make up for a week of extremely early mornings for work for me. No one argued with that concept. We took the Beckey variation of getting on the northeast ridge at the first opportunity instead of the glacier which we assumed would be in rough shape this far into the 21st century. The scrambling on the lower ridge was excellent class 3 with some easy snow walking, then we got to the top of a tower before a major notch. This notch was the main unknown of the entire route since there's not really any good way to scout it and we had no beta at all. It proved to be troublesome. Naturally we assumed we would just be able to rappel into the notch and climb out the other side, but it took us about an hour to discuss, scout for a descent, and then eventually build an adequate repel anchor. You repelled into the notch, over a moat, down some easy snow, and into the moat on the far side. The moats were deep but not wide at this time. We huddled in the upper moat a little ways down from (south of) the top of the notch, where we had scouted the only fusible way out of the notch. There was a groove/gully that looked feasible to climb up and regain the ridge beyond. The plan was for Dylan to rope gun the rock in his approach shoes and me or Fred to kick steps in any snow in our boots. Nobody wanted to bring boots, shoes, and rock shoes. Tom Sjolseth mentioned in the comments of his Jagged Ridge TR that the northeast ridge of Seahpo was 5.6 or 5.7, so we figured we needed to be able to do that at least. Dylan was confident that he could lead up the groove, but I stated not so subtly that I wasn't confident I could follow it. He made it look hard but doable, and got a good belay 55m above at a rap station. I'm not sure I have ever climbed on a single rope cow tail style until now, and me and Fred were very very concerned with how little rope we had left, hollering constantly as Dylan finished out to the anchor. (Naturally as in most of the Cascades pro was very sparse and anchor opportunities more so). There was exactly enough rope left for me to stand at the last stance while Fred made it through the most difficult part that the receding glacier had just vacated before I had to step on to the wall and make the hard moves. It was extremely doable on second but I'm glad I didn't have to lead it. Definitely 5.7R. We all made it up to the belay and determined that it looks solo-able above, so we put away all the gear, never to use it again. The rest of the route above was no more than class 4 if you made the right choices, a couple of times just for ease/fun we maybe made it 5.2. Jim Nelson’s book Classic Cascade Climbs must have forgotten about this first pitch, Tom gets a Redding credit in the book so Dylan is convinced that he intentionally sandbagged the route old school alpinist style, not sure, but the first pitch is definitively mid 5th. The book calls the whole route 4th class. We encountered some pretty solid rock on the ridge, easy steep heather on the south side, and a short cruddy gully crossing per Beckey. As I have discovered on most of the more difficult routes Fred Beckey usually pretty reliable. We crossed the gully on a ledge and followed some heather slopes to a short rock finish to the summit. We launch it around for a while hoping the mistwood break and we would get some views but it was not to be. The route finance straightforward enough that it wasn't a big deal in fog but it's always nice to have a good look around. I found out later that we would have been able to holler across to Tim Halder on Nooksack Tower if we could have seen it. The climbing was easy enough that we downclimbed everything to the belay station then made a double 60m rappel to a horn above the moat, south of the initial groove pitch. From here we made another double rope rappel down to the top of continuous snow at the top of the glacier. The upper randkluft it was melted down to where we could land on rock and simply walk out onto the glacier. This rap was long and extremely steep, overhung over sock and then transferring to overhung over snow, pretty wild! I went first and was collecting myself at the bottom of the rap until I thought about the 30+ feet of more than vertical snow directly over my head, so I skedaddled a ways back to the top of the glacier. We all gathered back at the bottom, stowed the ropes and cruised down the glacier, and back along the ridge to camp. The glacier was chill with just a couple of moat cracks to walk around, nothing I would call a proper crevasse, in fact I would hesitate to call it a real glacier anymore; still potentially dangerous though. We took some time packing up camp and congratulating and thanking each other, caught a few last minute views and then headed back up the slog over the shoulder of Icy, back over Ruth, then cruised down the very familiar route to the car. We hit the car about 8:30 for just over a 14 hour day. More congratulations (real this time since we made it back properly), thanks all around, then back to civilization and “reality”. The holiday weekend made it so I could lounge around and nap the next day feeling glad to have pulled off another very challenging mountain. This one definitely ranks in the difficult 10 peaks in Washington in my book, when taken as a whole. I would rate the mountain above the first pitch as pretty enjoyable scruffy fourth class rock and heather, similar to other Cascade peaks; Jberg, Triumph, Klawatti, etc. I think if there wasn't the tough first pitch it would be a pretty enjoyable mountaineering route in a remote location, to me at least, 5.7 ads a level up. The approach was extremely enjoyable and pleasant, better than any of the Difficult 10. We pretty thoroughly scouted the pitch out of the notch both on the way up and down the route and determined that the way we climbed it seems to be the most doable line. If you want to do this mountain you need to be sure you can climb someone insecure 5.7R for half a rope length. If I had to do it again and it was up to me to lead I would take rock shoes. Gear Notes: Half rack, 2x 60m ropes, light MTN boots or approach shoes and wet feet, axe, helmet, others wore crampons, not I, extra axe and pickets for steep snow we didn't need. Approach Notes: Trail to Ruth, over west Icy (the truth summit now thanks to lidar BTW), down the other side. Follow the ridge the whole way. Dylan ascending to heaven on Ruth: The whole deal with my partners looking badass: Seahpo: From camp: Camping in an awesome setting: Morning. Clouds rose up to greet us: Approaching the line: Atmospheric weather: The lower route calls to us: Fred on rap: First pitch from the notch, Dylan for scale: On route: Easy: Break time on the summit: Part of the register. The pencil crumbled in my hands as I signed us in, so take a new one: Fred on the last rap: Descent of the glacier: Strolling out beyond Ruth:

Where's the "love" button? Thanks for the time you spent conveying all the pieces of your journey!

I respect Jeffs knowledge and experience, I think many know that him and Priti have accomplished quite a lot and, presumably, know what they are talking about - but I strongly disagree with this post and think it could be somewhat dangerous to leave it here for people who are looking for info on the route and considering onsight soloing. I actually just solo'd Triple Couloirs two days ago, and I saw this comment before I went. I already disagreed with it, but now that I have been up the route I can speak from experience. For reference on my background - for about 5 years ice climbing has been my main interest and I typically spend every winter in Hyalite. In Hyalite my limit I have climbed up to WI6 and maybe M6. I also recently climbed the Polish Route on Colfax. So not the best but enough that my opinion has some credibility. I also come from a mountaineering background before that and work as a guide on some of the volcanoes and have many years of experience using and teaching self arrest techniques. I arrived at the base of the runnels, and there was a thin smear of ice that appeared to lead to where I should be able to safely get into the second couloir (though I could not see the whole line from the base). I started up and eventually ended up somewhere that was not visible from the base of the runnels, and the ice disappeared. I relied on small thin patches of consolidated snow and blank rock to finish the section which was not terribly hard but quite insecure and low percentage holds. After this came another section that was steeper, and fortunately had just enough ice in it to get up, using very delicate thin technique, but had those few marginal patches of ice not been there I would have been a little screwed. Several times while soloing the technical section I looked down and thought about Jeffs comment that "a fall would not be high up enough to result in fatality or injury, and you could self arrest..." by the top of the runnels where the climbing got insecure I could only look down and laugh at the thought of hitting the snow safely and self arresting. I think my head would have tomahawk bashed into the rock that creates the corner system about 6 times and who knows where my body would have landed. That said, I did have fun and probably would solo it again, but be warned that even if you carry bail gear theres was seldom opportunity for pro in between pre existing anchors, so youll have to make it to one before you could bail down if the route is out. The rock that is under the ice is quite blank and makes dry tooling it to get to your next patch of climbable terrain pretty insecure. Also, I see that Jeff posted that in 2022, not sure the last time he climbed it but I know 2016/2017/2019 the route used to come in very fat, and Jeff may referencing times when the route used to see conditions that made it a much more secure climb, and perhaps what you saw at the base of the runnels continued consistently throughout. Also, I think back then the Couloirs tended to be a bit more neve, where both times I've been in the route it seems to be more soft snow filled which would be futile to self arrest. Just wanted to add this to balance out the perspective.

I hope Instagram dies a swift and fiery death..... Until then, you all will be subject to my obsession with publicly posting images. Sorry! Kulshan last Saturday afternoon:

So cool, great to see this repeated! Thanks for the TR! Now you ought to go check out the Needles traverse up the Dungeness next!