Kyle M

Trip: Pickets - Picket High Route (Stettatle -> Wiley) Trip Date: 07/04/2024 Trip Report: Wyatt, Anthony, and I joined forces once again for a 4th of July Epic. We went for the Pickets this year, completing a south to north high route from Stetattle Ridge, through McMillan Cirque, to Luna Col, and out Wiley Ridge over 4 days. We summited Outrigger, Fury, Luna, Big Beaver, and a few other bumps along the way. For those curious, Outrigger is climbable from the south. We couldn't find any real info on this, but we found a bypass of the vertical section, climbing some low 5th around to the right. Wiley Ridge was incredibly pleasant and the bushwhack was short. Highly recommend this route. https://climberkyle.com/2024/07/04/pickets-high-route/ Gear Notes: Gaitered gore-tex trail runners, cycling out waterproof socks. Pink tri-cam for the knife edge on Outrigger. Approach Notes: We took the Pierce Mountain Trail up Sourdough since the main trail is closed due to the fire last year. Wiley to exit. Stay on the ridge between the two gullies on the descent, and it's not too bad with the exception of one cliff band at 4900 ft.

Franklin Falls was good today. Probably on its way out though with the warmth coming.

@Kayleighm AKA "Climber Kayleigh" if those climbs are in, check out the Whitepine Ice (north facing above Whitepine Road) or maybe even Alpine Dropout near Lake Wenatchee. There are some other north facing climbs on Nason Ridge in the WA Ice Guidebook. Probably lots of good stuff in that area right now!

Dirty Harry's was great today! Fat, protectable, great sticks. This climb is just east of Dirty Harry's Balcony. It is south facing about 1000 ft above I90 and is visible briefly from the freeway. After hiking to the balcony, we bushwhacked down the drainage that creates this climb and rapped in. Climb is probably 70-80m long total, mostly WI2-3. It is moderately high volume. Even the forest had fat ice on the way in!

@JasonG still the same old same old. Sony A6000 with 18-135mm lens, or just the kit lens if I'm running. The main improvement has come from using Lightroom.

@JasonG those are all my pictures. Wyatt's would be even better! He had multiple lenses. But I've yet to see all of his supposedly 3,000+ photos from this trip...

Trip: Glacier Peak Wilderness - Glacier Peak via Cascade Pass Trip Date: 07/01/2023 Trip Report: Glacier Peak is already known for its long approach, so Anthony, Wyatt and I decided to make it even longer by starting at Cascade Pass. Over the long Fourth of July weekend, we did the Ptarmigan, over Dome, to Image Lake, Cloudy Pass, over Chiwawa and Fortress, High Pass, Butterfly Pass, Glacier Gap, to the summit and out North Fork Sauk. I've been dreaming of this high route for five years so it was special to finally realize it. https://climberkyle.com/2023/07/01/glacier-peak-high-route/ Sentinel summit views. White Rock Sunset. Dome Summit Image Lake Magic. Lyman Lakes Cirque of the Butterflies Glacier Peak. Summit. Gear Notes: Backpacking gear, glacier gear, trail runners, Randy Sun. Approach Notes: Long car shuttle.

https://www.cascadebackcountryalliance.com/post/mount-rainier-proposed-timed-entry-reservations Mount Rainier National Park is considering a timed entry reservation system. We have a few more weeks to comment. The Cascade Backcountry Alliance has been at meetings with the Park representing backcountry users. This is a great opportunity for us to improve the existing climbing permit system, and we have some thoughts on how that can be done. We put together a post summarizing the proposal and how you can make a difference. Please try to take the time to at least read through this post and comment here, or on the blog post itself, with any thoughts and feedback. Or even make a comment to MRNP yourself. Thank you!

I drove by Exit 38 on Wednesday and was surprised to see a good amount of ice growth on Black Ice Crag (there was nothing there just 4 days ago). So I returned in the dark Thursday evening. It was definitely delaminating and on its last legs (it was 55 degrees in North Bend during the day) but still provided a fun 30m pitch! A determined party can scramble around the right side of the crag and set up a top rope from a tree, as we did. A 70m rope barely reached down. The longer routes would need two ropes to TR.

Congratulations! It is cool to see someone take on that big, complex face. There are certainly so many more variations and hopefully we'll continue to see cutting edge ascents out there! I think this definitely qualifies as an FA, as most of the logical routes join together in the upper face and there is nothing special about the upper slopes. There was one party last April that climbed Superalpine all the way to the summit and descended the SW ledges instead of rapping the route.

@CascadeClimberI drive by Exit 38 all the time and it was actually fatter two weeks ago before it fell apart than right now. It's climbable, definitely on top rope, but would be bold on lead. I've seen it in much better conditions than currently. Also some nice ice little bit west of Exit 38, not sure which crags. But it was sub zero windchill on I90 today, so I didn't see anyone climbing it, and tomorrow it's really warming up and done for.

Ice in the Cache Couloir. Probably 15-20m, pretty fat looking. The other bigger climbs along the east end of Snow Lake are nowhere near in yet.

@Michael Telstadled me up Flow Reversal today. Anything that wasn't vertical was a bit messed up by the snow and rather insecure, but the steep climbing was great and protected well! We spotted this one in the valley on the approach, possibly Not Quite a Plum?

@manninjothat looks awesome! Did you leave the logging roads around 2700 ft and just follow Seymour Creek from there, or did you take more of the regular North Twin approach? Are the climbs around 4700 ft?

Drove out to Vantage today, but things aren't looking too good there. Frenchman is flowing hard, not even close. A little bit of climbable stuff to the right. Think it needs to be colder. Heard Soap Lake and Banks are doing well, but did not have time to make it out there.