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Trip: Black Spider on Wy'east - Arachnophobia Trip Date: 01/31/2026 Trip Report: Climbed Arachnophobia the other day. Good ice, a little brittle first thing. Snow is very icy which makes for some tiring front pointing. Not as sun baked as it might appear. Five long pitches does it. L side of schrund went easily. Thanks to G for being a great partner, and Kyle and Matt for going up the route first so I didn't need to leave the family just to have a look-see. Pictures... Luckily sunrise had some cloud cover. Starting up the ice-looking bits, after some snow-looking bits that were still icy Snow-looking icy bits on P2 Starting up P2 Leading P3 Looking down P3 Coming up to the final belay at a rock anchor Descending S Side Hoping we get some snow this winter. But while we wait the sticks are quite good. If you need more beta, please feel free to DM me. -Sam Gear Notes: Single rock rack (small cams and nuts useful, nothing bigger than 0.5), pins, 10 screws Approach Notes: S Side and traverse over White River and around.

Trip: (Ira) Spring Mountain - East Ridge Trip Date: 01/25/2026 Trip Report: This long stretch of grim ski conditions had me casting about for other ideas in the North Cascades and Olympics (Ellinor, maybe I'll do a TR) these past few weeks. This past Sunday I cast off solo up the mountain loop highway from Darrington, aiming to get to the Lost Creek Ridge Trailhead. Surprisingly the MBSNF had a current report that you could drive all the way to the TH and indeed you could. Everything was in great shape, including to the turnoff for Pugh (not sure about the road up, however). 2wd would get you to the LCR trailhead at this time, which was somewhat surprising given the apocalyptic nature of this past December. Unsurprisingly, I was alone at the TH, and set off up the dry trail. It was generally in good shape, though with a good bit of blowdown in the first half mile or so. It had been 29 years since I'd hiked the trail and I had forgotten what large trees there are in this section of the Sauk. Of course, when they fall down, I wish they were a little smaller: Within a couple hours I found myself at Bingley Gap (hitting snow about 500' below gap), where I put on crampons, got out the axe and started up the steepening ridge. Views of Pugh and Sloan teased through the trees as I gained elevation: Within a few hundred feet above the Gap, the east ridge of Spring Mountain narrowed and steepened dramatically and I found myself doing some spicy scrambling in crampons sans helmet. Oops. (Don't worry, I found an easier way down to the north and below the ridge itself). Soon, Dakobed came into view: And then, not long after that, the summit of Spring, which was smaller and more noble than I was expecting: The view from the summit was sublime (about 3.5 hours from the car), extending across Sloan and the Monte Cristo peaks to the Olympics and up north past Darrington into the heart of the North Cascades. It was just me and a lone raven up above, croaking as it rode higher on the thermals. It was a beautiful day in the North Cascades. Out to Hall Peak and the Olympics: I stayed on the summit for about an hour (3 bars 5G service FYI), flinging digital poo at those that couldn't make it out with me that day. But I was a bit uncertain about the descent, since I didn't want to descend the way I had come up and left early enough to give myself some time to figure things out. Impressive views of the east side of Pugh slowed my pace on the way down. I had brought my new telephoto, which came in handy: Breccia Mountain: But I needn't have worried. Straightforward snow slopes (though steep-some facing in) were fairly easily followed from the summit all the way back to Bingley Gap. No sketchy scambling with crampons was required and within an hour I was on the trail bombing back to the car. I arrived early enough for a stop at the NF Sauk Falls (highly recommended), where a nice view of Spring Mountain was also had (summit is that middle rock): I hadn't seen anyone all day, nor a car, since leaving the pavement a bit south of Darrington. This was somewhat surprising to me, given that it was a beautiful Sunday, but then I remembered that there was a Seahawks game on. Too bad for those folks, I guess. I sat for a bit along the road as the sun sank west, admiring Whitechuck Mountain. I never get tired of a good day in the North Cascades. Gear Notes: axe, crampons, helmet Approach Notes: Lost Creek ridge trail to Bingley Gap. The east ridge can be followed, more or less to the summit from the Gap, though it can get spicy in places. An easier route drops a couple hundred feet on the north side of the Gap and then up and left through avy paths to the summit.

Gorgeous gallery and well composed! The Artisan is indeed in.

Some backpacks and sleeping bags I've done in the past couple years. Have also built an ice screw roll, bike bags, and more. Great rainy day activity for the gearheads among us. Also including a quilt extension commission that I just finished up. Open to small projects and have reasonable prices

Yeah pretty much all the info I can find is for the right side too. Thanks for looking. @Tucker_Merrill and I climbed a variation of the line I drew last weekend and are trying to figure out if what we climbed is an existing route or not. Regardless it was super fun and recommend others go take a look if we get another weather window this season. I'll be writing a trip report for it at some point unless Tucker beats me to it.

Sloan and Bedal this past Sunday:

Trip: Guye Peak - South Gully Trip Date: 01/22/2026 Trip Report: My friend Vraj and I climbed the South Gully of Guye Peak during the strong inversion layer on 1/22/26. This was both of our first times up to the peak and we were rewarded with some great views above the low hanging clouds. We left Seattle later than intended due to the usually busy traffic on a Thursday and ended up parking at Summit West Lot W3 right around 0900. We asked one of the Summit employees about the parking and were pleasantly surprised when we learned you do not need a pass to park there on a weekday (non holiday). We then worked our way to the base of the South Gully moving pretty slowly and finally roped up around 11 AM. The conditions at this point were ~32F and cloudy as we were very much still in the inversion. Mixed climbing between loose Class 4 and snow for about 7-8 total pitches. The going was slow as it was both our first time in this type of terrain and found the protection to be limited. We were pleasantly surprised with how much snow remained in the gully due to our own pessimism on the south facing route. We were also looking forward to our friends who had told us to go find snow somewhere else! Some fun climbing through the chock stones (which were completely bare) led us up and out of the gully turning left prior to the end. Vraj took the lead on the last pitch before we decided to unrope and scramble the rest of the way to the south summit. This was ~1630 and the light was starting to fade. We wanted to make it up to the north summit before dark so we had to hustle. After reaching the south summit we traversed to the middle summit easily on a snow band. We were looking around for about five minutes before spotting the correct rappel station off a tree below the summit. We made it to the final ramp up to the north summit which contained the best snow of the trip. Topped out on the north summit at 1750 to a fantastic view of the backlit cascades. Downed some much needed calories we made our way back to the parking lot off the north side and through the Commonwealth getting back around 2000. Gear Notes: 60m rope 1x 0.5 - 3, nuts 2x pickets (did not even think of using) 2x ice screws (why) Approach Notes: Standard South Gully approach (MTN Project)