Lucas Ng

Trip: Mount Index - North Face Trip Date: 06/29/2025 Trip Report: Kinda tired but figure I should write some stuff down while it’s fresh in my mind. I’ll split this into two parts, the story and the beta. The Story is pretty simple, me and a partner decided to go for the Index traverse on Sunday and Monday. We had extra time on saturday so we hiked into lake serene to make for an easier morning. Without light on Saturday night, we made the mistake of trying to bivy at the flatter spot in the topo on the north of lake serene. This is very schwacky. Don’t do it. It wasted a lot of time. Anyways, Sunday am we worked our way up the talus and then up to the ridge. It was still a little wet and loose so we decided to rope up. Halfway up, my partner bonked and our pace slowed considerably. We made it to the summit late and decided that in his condition it wouldn’t be safe to commit ourselves to the rest of the traverse. A nice summit bivy ensued and then 16 rappels + downclimbing the next day. We chilled in by the lake and hiked out at a reasonable time. In the descent we also realized it was prolly a good idea we didn’t commit ourselves to the traverse. It fingers were beat and the rock was so warm that touching the rock was truly painful. Wouldn’t be fun to be forced to climb in that. My partner has a brain and realized this blue collar suffer climbing aint for him, but if anybody wants to get on something suffery with me, let me know. I got a lot of time this summer and like to put my head down and work. Anyways on for the beta Beta: Approach via Lake Serene. Take the trail around the lake to the talus field. Follow the talus field up, eventually getting near the cliffs on the left but not on them. Eventually you will be forced into the bush to the right of the cliffs where there is a faint climbers trail. At times it can be decent but often, its only marked by the fact that you can see the ground every once in a while. Bushwack 4th class up onto the NE Ridge, pulling on lots of branches. Eventually you’ll get out of the schwack and onto the ridge. Take the easiest looking route up, roping up if you feel necessary. Climb this until you reach a slab with two pitons under a roof. Once here take the leftward brush filled ramp for about 50ish meters until you reach a short E facing exposed rock rib. This is a great pitch with exposure above lake serene. It will quickly ease up into a nicer gully below an open book feature. Climb to the treed ledge on the left side below this open book where you’ll find the crux pitch of the route. Start up on left side of the open book before traversing right on smaller holds to get to the easier gully above the open book. Here you’ll find a block with a lots of slings for a nice belay. At the block, climb hard right out of the gully and then climb straight up the steep trees and brush until it gets too steep. Here you should see a small hidden ledge going around right. Take the narrow, exposed ledge around the right skyline where you’ll finally see the North Bowl. Traverse, pulling steep brush, to get into the open bowl. Once in the bowl, the route goes up the steeper long gully on the left. Work your way up this thing, staying on the right side of it for most of the time. Eventually, before the gully turns right, you’ll find yourself on a nice ledge to the right of the gully with a slung tree and a piton + nut anchor above it. Climb up here and then to the left back into the gully. From here(when the gully turns right) it is 60 meters of steep bushwacking up to the toe of the North Rib. The North Rib is the highlight of the route. Stay right on top or barely(a few feet) to the right the entire time. This can be led in 2-3 pitches or one easy simul. It is exposed, but the holds are great unlike the rest of the route, and the location is amazing. Once at the top of the ridge, quickly climb up the small slabs onto the summit ridgeline. Scramble this, along, or slightly to the right for most of it until you reach the summit. slab with pins below roof. Ramp off to the left great exposure on E facing rib topping out of open book looking down rightwards turn at end of gully filled with steep branches. Taken from toe of N. Rib ig I'll have to come back for these guys summit bivy summit ridge scrambling(taken on way back) Gear Notes: Double rack to #2 but a single would probably be fine. Bring lots of double length slings, you'll be slinging a lot of shtuff. Approach Notes: Lake Serene -> boulder field -> Shwack

Props for following that approach in the dark. Was tricky even with light. How was the traverse between bottom of Argo raps and the Colchuck glacier? I Remember it seemed like a slog so we quit and descended back into the Argo basin.

Trip: Mixup Peak - East route Trip Date: 06/10/2025 Trip Report: First day of summer break was yesterday for me. What I’ve learned from summer breaks is they pass fast, can’t just sit around. I’ve got a lot of things to get to but figured I’d set myself a standard by getting out the first day, even if my partners were busy. Spent Monday night at graduation for the old seniors and the mounties gear grab so got home at 9:30 and talked to my parents. Originally wanted to do an overnighter and bag magic too but couldn’t take a car on wednesday so I settled on just mix-up. Slept through my alarm by 30 minutes but was driving by 3:30 and and at the TH by 6. Later than I would’ve liked but wasn’t gonna do anything better with my day so figured I may as well give it a shot. Biked up the road in an hour and tossed it in the alder. 2 hours later I was at cascade pass with a lot of cobwebs in my face. Followed some goat tracks on the traverse over the cliffs and was soon moving up towards the U notch. There was one old track continuing to cache col but nothing super fresh. The gully towards the U notch was more melted out than I’d seen in any photos. Brought two ice axes and was glad to have em. Very doable with one tbh but if snow conditions were harder I would’ve definitely wanted both. Traversed around to the V notch and made a few 5th class moves before being on steep 4th class until I gained the hump. Was glad I brought a rope to rappel that. From here I was onto the slabby ledges and had a fun time working my way up. The summit was intimidating but I found a low 5th path onto the ridge. The final move pulling onto the ridge was steep and airy but I felt confident in my holds so took a lil breath and everything was okay. Summited around 12:30 and was very glad to see some rappel anchors with fresh-ish tat. Summit register was full but of the few random pages I flicked through, I found Jeff Wright, Fred Beckey, Martin Volken, and most notably, my freshman science teacher. Took a photo and he was pleased to see my find. Enjoyed the summit until 1 and then figured It was time to get off that god forsaken rock. Ooh but the views were pretty cool. First time looking at the middle cascade glacier, I could even see all the way out to dome. Gotta do the ptarmigan this summer I guess. Anyways, a couple rappels brought me off the summit block, then a lot of down scrambling, then 1 more to the V notch by 2:00. Wrapped around to the U notch and made a rappel down through the top section since there was an anchor already there. Was also this insane cornice thingy that seemed to be precariously balanced. Tried to stay off to the side because I didn’t wanna get killed by some goofy looking snow glob. Once at the bottom of the gully, it was a nice stroll with good views back to cascade pass. Saw a group of four goats at cascade pass which kinda scared me. 1 idiot teenager vs 4 mountain goats, I don't think the odds were in my favor. Lucky for me they ran up towards Sahale as I was taking off my crampons so it was a nice pleasant walk to the pass, where I arrived around 3:30. Saw my first humans of the day as a party was finishing the hike towards cascade pass and headed towards Glacier camp on Sahale. A nice stroll down the trail got me to my bike at 5, and by 5:15 I was at my car. I buzzed a hiker too fast on my bike which he was very unhappy about at first but then we made up and he turned out to be a reasonable guy. A bell on my bike might not hurt. Usually its cars buzzing bikers so was funny to be bikers buzzing hikers. Anyways, Twas’ my bad and we seemed to make up for it. I learned from it. Heres da photos for the populace Gear Notes: Rope nice for rappels. Crampons 'n axe ofc Approach Notes: aint so bad. Just walk n keep walking

Transition between glaciers was just a steep lil snow step. Doable, just annoying. Had to take ski's off for it but still snow-covered when we did it. klawatti wasn't fully skiable(photo below)

Trip: Austera & Klawatti - Scramble routes Trip Date: 05/24/2025 Trip Report: Went out to Cascade River Road over the weekend. The goal was to bag Klawatti, Austera, Primus, and Tricouni, then return back to the Eldorado Trailhead. With a late sunset, we got a relaxed 6am start and made decent work up through the Boulder Field. By mid-morning, we were skinning up the Eldorado Glacier, watching people post-hole through the slush. Soon we were below Eldorado and I talked to Climber Kyle & crew for a little bit. When I went up Eldorado last year it was in a near whiteout, so looking over at Moraine lake and Forbidden was stunning. Lots of parties were out as you’d expect from such a beautiful weekend. Once we started the traverse over to Klawatti, we were alone. The sidehilling was tiring, especially on a splitboard, but the surrounding terrain made up for it. We put on trailrunners and scrambled up the South ridge of Klawatti. It was fun scrambling and we were at the top around 2, albeit now with wet feet. We descended back down and made a nice traverse over to Austera. With the hot sun, we skinned in the shade below a big rock. Our skin track probably looked a bit stupid to other parties once the sun moved. Anyways, some shenanigans of snow in trailrunners eventually brought us to the Austera summit. On the rappel through the gully, I had an awakening when a carabiner unclipped itself. Luckily we had two opposite and opposed but it definitely shook me up for a second. We set up a nice bivy on the ridge below Austera and watched an avalanche pour over the cliffs on the McAllistar Glacier On Sunday, we started the morning at 6 by skiing the Klawatti Glacier to get over to Primus and Tricouni. At the bottom of the ridge the snow was already mush, over crevasses and cliffs. Knowing that this was our only exit option and that we’d be coming back out in the middle of the afternoon, we took a pause to think through our options. Wanting to make our parents proud, we decided to put skins on and head back out. Another ski party also followed suit. The climb up the Klawatti Glacier was definitely nerving. The glacier was very smooth, but big whoomphs reminded us of the cracks we were walking over. I think it was just the recent snow settling under our weight, but it still wasn’t fun feeling the snow around me dropping an inch or two. The way out was just a lot more traversing. I thought about going up to ski the northeast face on Eldorado, but Cole just wanted to get out. I wasn’t feeling super stoked about it anyways, so off to the Eldorado glacier we went. A few thousand feet of slush got us to the boulder field where it was a toasty hike back to the car. Went out to a college tour at UBC on monday and then skied Emmons/winthrop yesterday. For those wondering, the snow conditions are much better than the ranger blog makes it out to be. Nice corn to 1000' above the prow. Nice edgeable chalky to the saddle. Sastrugi Above. Skinnable snow at the switchback before the camp. Traverse to saddle or snowbridge which we saw a party belay across. Might add a TR eventually to my blogspot but got some school and other life to catch up on right now. (TR now here) Gear Notes: belay devices are nice for the rappels in addition to normal glacier gear Approach Notes: snow above boulderfield

Trip: Gothic and Del Campo - Standard Routes Trip Date: 05/17/2025 Trip Report: Took a solo stroll up Gothic and Del Campo in the rain on Saturday since I had nothing better to do. Scrambling was entertaining, summit register of Del Campo was a fun read. If anybody is going up, Gothic summit register could use a new zip-lock and notebook. Sun peeked out in the morning but by the time I was descending Del Campo, rain was coming down. Forgot to buy snacks on the way in and didn't really eat breakfast so did the whole thing on 350 calories which I'm sure my body loved. 6h45 c2c. Nice morning and got some overpriced lunch in granite falls. Oh and I think I had mold growing in my boots because I forgot to dry em out after last weekends mother's day gift of getting home at 11pm on a school-night. Gear Notes: wet feet Approach Notes: trail runners are nice

Trying to do some bike -> climb this summer since taking a car all the time proved problematic with my family last year. Also saves on gas and I got the time. Definitely want to get out to cascade river road since it was closed last summer. Maybe a northern pickets traverse and the ptarmigan??? I just want to get out for longer overnighters really. Bike's mostly ready by now after a little sewing. Just need some new tires - lmk if you got any 27.5" tubeless compatible gravel/road tires you're tryna sell

Trip: Ingalls Peak - South Ridge Trip Date: 04/21/2025 Trip Report: Been getting out a good amount but mostly ski-mountaineering. Since this was a more climbing-y thing, I figured I’d post it on here. With Monday off, I wanted to get one more trip out of the Spring break by giving an early season attempt on Ingalls. Mid-day Sunday, Asher and I drove out to Esmeralda and got the car a little past Beverly Campground. We began walking at 16:00 and set up camp at around 6000’ at 20:00 a little below Ingalls pass. I had my splitboard, Asher had snowshoes. My lighter ended up freezing so we had cold soaked oatmeal and fresh carrots for dinner. The next morning we got moving around 06:30 and were at the base of the South Ridge of Ingalls at around 08:30. There was more snow than expected overnight so but I figured I’d at least give it a shot. We started by booting up an entrance couloir. The top of it contained a dusting of snow above a slab, but a short little boulder move brought us onto a sub ridge. From here we butt-scooted a little bit until we reached the rock. A short little step brought us to the belay. Here I roped up and started up the route in ski boots. The rock was very icy with lots of snow in the cracks, but with big cracks, it was still reasonably comfortable with ski boots. I found the passive pro super useful with the icy cracks. Honestly I should've brought way more nuts. Eventually I got about 30 meters up and found myself stuck. I stuck my Gully in a crack, tied in direct, and switched from ski boots to climbing while backed up by a hex. I was feeling pretty patagonian by now… on a 5.4. I looked around but decided to try and follow a crack system on the left. Asher lowered me off the hex and belayed me as I traversed across closer to the ridgeline. Here looked more promising so I continued climbing up. Higher up the crack, I was nearly postholing in climbing shoes. Near about 40 meters, at the top of P.2, I reached a band of snow and Ice. I couldn't continue up and eventually placed in a bomber nut and lowered off after bounce testing it while backed up. Halfway down I pulled the rope again and got lowered off of a nice slung horn. I think it could’ve been possible by drytooling but I wasn’t quite desperate enough to scratch up such a popular route(also I’m definitely not that confident of a drytooler). I’ll hopefully be back this summer anyways to link up the ridgeline between Ingalls and Sherpa. Anyways, once I arrived back at the belay, we found an older rap anchor to make a final rap to the approach gully. I got some consolation turns as Asher suffered on snow shoes. We got back to camp and kept going down. We ended up back at the car by 16:00, just 24 hours after leaving. While we didn’t get the summit, it was still a great time getting out and I learned a few things about winter climbing. The truth is we just had a lot more snow and ice than expected, and climbing an icy slab without drytooling is next to impossible. Better than sitting around in the city. Next person up the South Ridge gets a little booty! Always good to learn to bail. https://lucasfng.blogspot.com/2025/04/ingalls-peak-attempt-420-4212025.html Gear Notes: Should've brought more hexes and Nuts for the wintery conditions. Anchors not visible Approach Notes: 2 hrs to walk/skin the road

With nothing to do, decided to go for a “quick” little afternoon mission up roaring ridge and scope out the entrance to the zipper couloir with Emily and Andrew. After dealing with Snoqualmie parking insanity, we got going around 11:15. Going was slow with a little wallowing and breaking trail most of the way but we made it to the entrance around 3:15. After cutting a cornice, we watched a nice big sluff run down. We belayed ski cuts to Emily and Andrew before skiing down. After them, I followed. It was great blower pow and my best line of the year so far. At the bottom we quickly found the XC road and skinned out in the dark. https://lucasfng.blogspot.com/2025/02/zipper-couloir.html cc8a5f9c703f4dbab81e8e092230b266.mp4 4ccaf903c1954a18ac20c495e35a98d8.mp4

Schrund, you're right that was me. We kinda got screwed by the permitting and could only get a single night. Hiked in for an hour then my partner decided the inevitable 2 days of suffering wasn't for him and we turned around. Looking back we should've just got permits for the other night in a neighboring zone but it's fine. How life goes I guess, N. Cascades permits are just a PITA.

Thanks so much yall. Don't want to get too hung up on gear, comes with the sport I guess(though if anybody in wallingford needs lawn work, I have a lot of experience and many happy customers). Here's my Skagit Alpinism/Cold Thistle inspired blogspot. I'll be honest I just write stuff and then don't re-read it since it's more of a memory project(though I could probably throw some more trips in there) but you should be able to find nooksack. Maybe I'll do some editing during class tomorrow . I'll try to start posting some more TR's in here given how helpful it is for most of my trips.

8 pickets, a screw, and a lot of slings but ya, was well worth it. Parties have used more(12 I think) Just means my broke high school ass needs to get to work. Wouldn’t have trusted a bollard in those conditions and after using/arguing with them for a few raps down nooksack, I don’t think highly of em anymore.

Well it wasn't the radness that took place on Sloan Peak that weekend but with the great high pressure, Cole reached out to me about climbing Lincoln. It's been on his mind for a while and given that he was willing to do Nooksack with me over the summer, I figured I'd take him up on the offer. A flu and vacation had also meant I hadn't done something hard for a while so with a lot of stress from highschool, I decided I needed to get a little scared. I skipped the afternoon on Friday to beat the traffic up to B-ham and enjoyed a nice afternoon of trying to get caught up on schoolwork at Coles place while he was working. Once Cole was done, we did a little last minute supply-grabbing and packing before we met up with Fletcher to get a little beta. assuming it would be a quick approach to camp, we decided on leaving Bellingham at 7:30 to be at camp early afternoon. Saturday morning we leisurely took our time getting out of Bellingham. We passed the turnoff for FS 38 but eventually found our way back and made our way along the road. The road was bad but easily subaruable until the 3rd switchback, where large ruts made us park our car and start walking at 10am. I was still in a poor mood but forced myself to shut up and walk, knowing this was what I needed. The road eventually got bush-wacky but soon enough we were climbing a dense forest. Instead of going into the basin, we climbed up to the ridge along the Deming glacier and booted to around 5800' where it opened up to great views of Lincoln. From here we skinned to 6050' and set up camp by a stand of trees with a great view of Lincoln The night was rather uneventful other than Cole spilling his pasta bolognese in his sleeping bag. Luckily we both brought an extra meal so instead we just enjoyed what warmth there was to our sleeping bags(my MYOG one did surprisingly well) and thought about the next day. A decent 3:50 wakeup got us out of our bags and we traversed over to the base of Lincoln on our flotation devices(hardboot splitboard for me, ski's for Cole). From here we did about 1500' of booting before stashing our skis a little before the bergschrund. Unroped, I lead the bootpack up to the the mostly filled schrund. It wasn't too deep and it was angled but it still wasn't something you want to fall into. Feeling in my element, I tried to cross, watching my foot punch through slightly. I tried to go to the left with the same result before finding a small little step that I climbed over to the right. From on top of this packed snow step, a trusty big step got me across the schrund and onto a steep snow/ice ramp. I was confident on the terrain so I kept moving up. I continued most of the way up the steep snow/ice ramp before Cole called for me to rope up. From here we simuled with me in the lead, trying to have 2 of our 8 pickets between us at all times. One simul block brought us to the base of the X couloir where we took a break before I set off on a second lead. The X couloir was much chiller than expected, possibly due to the snowy winter conditions. From the hogsback at the top of this, I lead a 3rd simul-pitch to the summit. The snow on the climb was wallowy but not horrible. Pickets went in easily with a hand however, so I viewed them more as mental pro. After running out the last 60meters, we hit the top at noon. views were great but with these D10 peaks, we knew we were only halfway done. IMG_6959.mp4 Though I opted to down-climb, Cole was pretty tired and unsure of his condition to down-climb so we dug a deadman on the summit, pulled out the tagline, and left the first of our pickets. We found 3 sling-able rock anchors in the X couloir and by 3:30 we were on top of the waterfall with our final picket. By now the sun was on the face and with small ice chunks coming down, we just wanted flat ground. We were only able to pound in the picket halfway and mid-clip it so after backing it up with a marginal ice screw, I very nervously set off over the edge, extremely relieved to see that the ropes reached. From here it was a mediocre snowboard down the bottom half before a quick slog to camp, arriving at around 4:30 right before sunset. Realizing our two-day itinerary wasn't happening we settled in for the night. My MSR reactor burst into flames but after warming it in my bag for a little bit, it started working again and after a night of shivering, we were moving around 9 the next morning. 2.5hrs of skiing, survival skiing, and cutting through the forest to avoid the mess of slide alder later, we were back at the car. It was a rad yet expensive peak. I'm glad to never have to do it again but I truly did need it and am feeling much better now. I guess somehow I got what I came for.