The Ptarmigan Traverse - Then and Now

[Lowell_Skoog]

Over Labor Day weekend, Phil Fortier, Brian Miller, Matt Peters and I walked the Ptarmigan Traverse, retracing the route followed by Tom Miller and his friends in 1953. We wanted to duplicate some of the pictures in Miller's book "The North Cascades" to see how the country had changed in fifty years. I've posted photos and a story about the trip on alpenglow.org:

 

http://alpenglow.org/themes/ptarmigan-1953

 

The story compares our experiences in 2003 with those of the 1953 party. It also discusses the impact of Tom Miller's book, which is unknown by many climbers today. I write:

 

The book was a success. Not only did it help establish the National Park in 1968, it inspired a generation of Northwest climbers. It was the first picture book to showcase the peaks and glaciers of the North Cascades from a climber's perspective. While the Ptarmigans in 1938 made their traverse a campfire legend, the 1953 party and "The North Cascades" made it a classic.

 

Here's a photo from the story. More pictures can be found on alpenglow.org. Thanks go to Tom Miller for permission to reproduce photos from his wonderful book.

 

 

 

[Off_White]

Excellent work

[Sphinx]

[mvs]

That was a great article. The then-and-now picture of the South Cascade Glacier is astonishing!

 

[AllYouCanEat]

The climbers and miners back in the day were definately hardcore. I remember reading something about the guys who first climbed Denali and how they carried a flagpole to the summit!

 

Thanks for the read!

[lummox]

apparently the mountains were much less colorful fifty years ago. now they are really blue. thats fuckin weird. or the fuckin film.

[Stefan]

Very nice. Very nice. I like the LeConte Glacier photo....and showing some advancement of a glacier rather than retreating.