Nick Sweeney

The guidebook is by Thaddeus Laird. Can’t recall the name right now but it’s worth picking up.

No reference, I just love calling people nerds ironically. Nerd.

This is really really cool!

Trip: Cabinets Mountains/Ojibway Peak - SW Face Standard Route (III 5.7) Trip Date: 09/04/2021 Trip Report: Listen up nerds, climbing in the Cascades is just too easy. Good trails, tons of beta, and the routefinding decisions typically come down to "follow the clean rock" or "ascend the obvious gully." Western Montana has some REAL adventure climbing. Alright, I'm being somewhat facetious, but the Cabinets are RAD. It's incredibly rugged up there and the vertical relief is impressive. Even a scramble route in this area is going to feel like a massive adventure. Not that these peaks are super tall (the giants of the range are around 8000 feet) but the valleys are so deep that the scale is similar to that of larger, higher ranges. I finally made the trip and in case you haven't noticed, I'm PSYCHED and the trailheads for this range are only three hours from my front door. Anyone want to get back there for a big adventure in the next couple of weeks before the season closes? I have my eyes on a few things. Check out my TR for Ojibway on my site: SPOKALPINE Gear Notes: A single rack .2-3 works great for the standard route. 70m rope recommended but a 60m will do you just fine. Approach Notes: Easy, until it's not. But still easy...

Trip: Dragtontail Peak - Backbone Ridge Trip Date: 08/28/2021 Trip Report: Had a great time on Backbone last weekend! Quality aventure route. We did the rappel descent - not much beta out there for this, but they are easy to find following Blake's beta in Cascades Rock. Full report with photos: SPOKALPINE Gear Notes: Doubles to 2, single 3, 4, 6 Approach Notes: Pooper at the South shore of the lake!!

That makes sense. Good job sticking it out and getting down safely.

Oooooof. I’ve been there…. Shiver bivies aren’t fun, but you know you’re trying hard when they happen! What do you think went wrong for you on this one? Hard to imagine that upper face taking more than a couple of hours.

Right on Marlin, that’s some fantastic beta about that approach.

Trip: Chimney Rock - Free Friends Trip Date: 07/06/2021 Trip Report: God damn! This route is incredibly high quality and STOUT at the supposed pitch ratings of 5.9+, 5.10c, and 5.8+. It was a real pleasure getting up to Chimney again... better than I remembered. Full report with photos: SPOKALPINE Gear Notes: Doubles .2-4, triples .75-2. We used it all. Approach Notes: Sounds like the Western approach is the fastest option, and I've heard tales of being able to cross over to the East Face on the south of chimney rather than hiking around the North side. For this trip, we took the Eastern (Pack River) approach to enjoy the scenic hiking and try something new,

Trip: Lion's Head - East Buttress Trip Date: 07/17/2021 Trip Report: Idaho is amazing! You can have legit mountain adventures in the Selkirks on impeccable stone. I recently returned to Chimney Rock and thought I'd share my trip report here: SPOKALPINE Gear Notes: Singles .3-3, doubles .5-1 Approach Notes: Bushwhack for your life!!!!

Trip: Mt Drum (Wrangell Mountains) - Southwest / Hurricane Ridge Trip Date: 05/03/2021 Trip Report: Benny Lieber and I attempted Mt Drum from May 3-8, 2021. While we didn't summit, this was still an amazing trip. It was really memorable to be visiting the Wrangells on my first trip to Alaska - a range which is pretty far off the beaten path to say the least. TR with photos: SPOKALPINE Gear Notes: Screws, pickets Approach Notes: It's hard to get flights in here. Finding a friendly private pilot is your best bet.

For those interested, I posted up a trip report with lots of photos here: Spokalpine

Wow. Nice send! Thanks for the great blog post too.

Thanks for posting, I appreciated that you reflected on your decision making in the blog post. Rad photos too!

Wow! Strong work. Great report and photos.