Wanderlustmd

I'm out here from Maine, and my partner just flaked on me. Would really like to climb on Thursday or Friday. Mostly interested in alpine stuff around Leavenworth (just arrived). Forecast is spotty but I'm really hoping to patch something together. Experienced rock climber of 15 years. Was on Mount Hood earlier this week and had a blast, would love to do shukson, baker or similar as well. PM me! Cheers, Matt

I'll just be happy to climb down in Patagonia. I have ideas, of course, but from what I've read/ben told, the weather dictates what you can climb to a certain extent. In the Cascades, I'll just be looking to log as much time as possible on whatever I can get on. Those sound like good routes, others have mentioned them to me. I don't know much about the Waddington Range, anything specific you can recommend?

The Bugaboos are a great destination for alpine cragging, but if your primary goal is to get time on glaciers there are better choices. The Cascades are the most heavily glaciated range in the contiguous US so they are a natural choice. Mt Baker and Mt Rainer will have the largest and most easily accessible glaciers. Other thoughts are the Boston (North side of Forbidden), Inspiration (Eldorado), Curtis and Suphide (Shuksan). Index Town Walls and Leavenworth areas have great granite cragging. The Stuart Range and Enchantments have great alpine rock routes on the same white grandiorite batholith as Index and Leavenworth. July has the hottest weather, glaciers will still be in reasonable conditions, and alpine rock routes will be a go. Great, thanks for the response. I appreciate it.

I'm an experienced rock/ice (mostly rock) climber of 14 years and I'm taking a leave of absence from my job this coming year to focus on climbing full time and would really like to get down to Patagonia next season for some alpine rock. As an east coaster, we really don't have glaciated terrain, so that's kind of a gaping hole in my skill set. When I first started climbing, I took a glacial travel/crevasse course to learn the systems. I just need to get out and do it, focusing on route finding, hazards, etc. ideally with partners who can show me a trick or two along the way. I'll essentially have mid-June to Sept, of this year, before heading to the valley and desert in the fall to climb, climb, climb. If you were in my shoes, what would you do to get ready for a place like Patagonia in terms of glaciated terrain? Obvious places like the Bugaboos come to mind, which I've never been to and am planning on visiting. What about portions of the Cascades, i.e Baker, Stuart etc.? What are some good routes/destinations that would help me get some solid glacier experience (ideally with several pitches of splitters thrown in) during that time frame? I know a lot of this sort of thing can vary from year to year with snow levels, etc. I'm just looking for some ideas. Cheers!