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Trip: Ruth, Mineral, and the not so Easy way to Easy Peak - Mineral Mountain High Route Trip Date: 08/12/2023 Trip Report: "This route goes from Hannegan Pass to join the Easy Ridge High Route. It is an arduous approach to the Northern Pickets. The most gruesome moments of green hell and cliffs are at Chilliwack Pass: the rest is alpine nectar." - Routes and Rocks In the Mt. Challenger Quadrangle. Tabor and Crowder. 1968 And so it goes- the yin and yang of North Cascades High routes. I like "alpine nectar" as much as anyone, and so does @BrettS, so we chose to ignore the first part of that description and headed out to find out for ourselves. As expected with a description like that, NOCA permits in Glacier were a breeze. A welcome break from the madness of Saturday mornings in Marblemount. Then ......we went into the hills for three days and walked a lot - sometimes on a trail, sometimes hovering over the ground on brush, sometimes skipping through alpine meadows that would make @rat break out in song. We had nice camps, we had tunes, we had whiskey and too much camera gear. The verdict- either we are getting toughened up, or forgetful, but I don't think either of us found the crux to be much of a "green hell"- more "black flies and heat" hell. Regardless, the trip certainly traverses some of the more scenic ridge lines in the range, and exit out Easy Ridge is especially, well, easy. Same with the entry via Hannegan Pass and Mount Ruth. The middle involves..... some shenanigans, but you knew that. Pretty pictures never tell the full story in the North Cascades. Both our camps near Ruth and on the summit of Easy Peak were highlights, as was the midday swim in the tarn below Easy Peak. Lowlights, as mentioned earlier, were the heat and bugs. But, having the Tom Selleck of the alpine along made it all seem like a breeze. Ruth from Hannegan trail: Alpine nectar! Blum and Icy: Go do the North Ridge of Blum! Slesse, the Haunted House of the Chilliwack: If you see this, you are about to start the shenanigans: The view distracts from the sidehill of green steepness: @BrettS past most of the shenanigans: This summer has been really hard on the glaciers: Crowder and Pioneer in front of the Southern Pickets: Get your autograph pens ready! Rare @JasonG sighting in the wild: Alpine nectar! Summit of Easy Peak: Southern Pickets: Pioneer and the mysterious depths of the Baker River: Late season insanity around Kulshan and Shuksan: Tomyhoi at sunset: I've never seen Challenger looking so grim: Putting in the work on the photos....Now do you see why I carry that yellow pad? The smoke teased, but never fully engulfed us: Looking across the border into Canada, where there is another fire: A tad soft, unfortunately, but the Hozomeens at sunrise: Spickard and the Mox Peaks: Alpine Nectar! fin: Gear Notes: We were able to avoid all ice and didn't need anything other than helmets. No glacier gear needed if you go around on Ruth Approach Notes: Follow Tabor and Crowder. Find yourself a copy of Routes and Rocks!

Trip: [FA] Silver Peak - Ice Cold Zach Daniel's Trip Date: 08/24/2023 Trip Report: Not much to report here but an uneventful new route. Ice Cold Zach Daniel's, 5.9+, 3 pitches, FA Daniel Montgomery and Zach Colburn. The north face of silver peak had kinda always been on our radar as something we felt should be climbed. We hiked a load of bolts to the top last October during our Indian summer (anticipating too many death blocks for any kind of ground up nonsense, which turned out to be accurate). Found a line that seemed like it would go and used up a drill battery. The face was shorter than we hoped (about 80 meters) but seemed worthwhile enough. I went to Utah for about 5 months, came back in April 2023 and waited for the hot days of summer. This basin stays cool and shaded making it nice for the month of August when a lot of the pineapple basin routes are roasting. We hiked up again with more batteries, rapped down and bolted the lower pitches, climbed the route and hiked out. First pitch has 3 bolts and wanders through some choss to a ledge with 2 bolts. This is just so you don't have to link a full 120foot pitch if you don't want to. About 5.7 Second pitch is about 90 feet with some juggy, dirty 5.8 climbing. 3rd pitch (100ft) is quite clean following a line of positive holds diagonally across the face. Fun 80 degree face climbing that requires some thought. It is a little traversy but the rope drag is minimal. To descend make 3 straight 35m raps down from the last anchor. The anchors on the climb dont have rap hardware. It's a pretty short route, approach is only about an hour compared to the tooth though. And it's shaded. There's a ton more potential for similar routes up there, but I don't really care much about bolting any more easy routes. A job for the guides. Gear Notes: 10 draws and a 70m rope Approach Notes: Go to Snoqualmie pass and drive back heading for Mt Catherine/ pct crossing in ollallie meadow. (Fs road 9070) Follow the road back as far as your car will take you then walk it to the end where there's an old fire pit. A trail heads north from here. Follow it to the talus field that sits below the gentle northwest ridge of Silver peak. Then go straight along the talus towards the face/ follow hunter trails along the edge. Pretty easy and doesn't take long. At the base of the face scramble up dirty ledges , the right and traverse back left to the first bolt. (The last rap takes you over the ledges) Zach wrote a more detailed approach beta on mtn project