Its funny, the mtn faces of the PNW are among the biggest in the lower 48 (esp. compared to Colorado chosspiles) yet get bagged on by most - worse access than Colorado/Utah, not as much quality rock as Sierras. YET, large faces of poor rock are what MAKES most alpine hardmen. Look at the Euro dudes like the Poles and Slovenians.
Steve House "What is really needed to get good at hard alpine climbing is lots of terrain in the 5.8, WI4 range to practice moving fast on" {paraphrase} thats exactly what PNW has so much of.
In alpine climbing, choss is good, but you'd never know it from reading the mags. Yosemite has fostetred a mindset in American climbning that good climbing requires good rock, which is total BS.
In fact many of my favorite memories of alpine routes are of dealing with choss. Admittedly I would not want to crag on it but in the mtns it is just one added technical factor.