Best of NC Wilderness besides Picketts, Ptarmingan

[johndavidjr]

Picketts news is fascinating & I always wanted to climb Dome, but I remember from Beckey a few other subranges that are equally wild. What are they and does anybody go there?

Edited September 20, 2004 by johndavidjr

[graupel]

Rhetorical question:

Does talking about how wild a place is further its status as remaining a "wild" place? Does identifying the places nobody goes and speaking in glowing terms about them encourage or discourage folks from visiting them?

[Rad]

Assuming the highest 'wild' scores will be from places with minimal human impact and travel, I propose the following hypothesis:

 

1 - The 'Wild' factor is directly proportional to the difficulty of gaining access. Lack of roads or trailheads nearby will deter many. Long, hard bushwhacks will deter most others.

 

2 - The higher the perceived rewards, the more suffering people are willing to endure on the approach. What if you had to bushwhack for two days straight to get to Das Toof? What if Terror peak had a road running to its base as Index does? What if the most remote and 'wild' place was a swamp infested with tons of mosquitoes and had little or no value to climbers, hikers, hunters, or campers? It probably stands a better chance of staying wild than do the Pickets, right?

 

Lauding great wilderness areas might increase the numbers of people who perceive a high reward, but it may not increase traffic if the access difficulties still deter most folks from going. How many people do you know who talk about climbing Challenger, Luna, Terror, Bear or other remote peaks but have never gone?

 

I see no reason to curtail discussion of 'wild' places, particularly if heightened awareness might encourage those who go to do so in an environmentally sensitive manner, and leave no trace of their passing.

[johndavidjr]

I sure read all that I can here about Pkts and Ptmgn, & how wonderfully remote they are. I guess almost nobody goes to those other places actually.

[JoshK]

Though I have not been, the redoubt/spickard/rahm area sounds quite remote.

[AlpineK]

Rahm is not too far from the road, but if you're a Yankee it takes a long time to get there since you've gotta go to Canada and drive to Hope and then come back down to the boarder.

[specialed]

Bear

[hohm]

The Pasayten Wilderness has a very remote feeling once off the beaten path, and has some great rarely summitted peaks. The weather is great in the fall also!

[specialed]

Yeah that five inches of snow and driving wind up at Hart's Pass on Saturday would have been "great" for climbing.

[hohm]

Absolutely....what could be better than fresh snowfall and a little breeze at Harts Pass for a refreshing early fall outing? Sounds delightful...

[Lowell_Skoog]

That's easy. Get yourself a DeLorme Washington atlas and gazeteer (see delorme.com if the stores in your neighborhood don't have them). Open it to pages 97, 98, 111 and 112. If you like your wild stuff above treeline, look at the white areas. If you like it below treeline, look at the green areas. It's as simple as that. They're all good and yes, people go there. They're probably less crowded than the Ptarmigan and Pickets because they get less publicity.

 

That's as close to spoon feeding as I'm willing to go.

[johndavidjr]

Beckey maketh all secrets known. It's an open question whether people should talk-up alternatives to the better-known places to spread out the visitors. Probably makes no difference. Unless Mr. Skoog starts talking up a hike---that'd may be different.

[Skeezix]

I worked as a climbing ranger in NOCA for ten years. Didn't see it all, but quite a bit. Wild? There's the Bacon Rim Traverse from Watson Lakes to Thornton Lakes via Bacon Peak, Green and Berdeen Lakes, Despair, and Triumph. If you ever get in there, note the rock walls NW and N of Berdeen Lake ...tucked into the little valley N of the unnamed peak NNW of Berdeen Lake. Take fly rod... Another remote traverse is Prophet Ridge from Big Beaver to Beaver Pass via Mt. Prophet and Skymo and No Name Lakes. Even if someone sees me write about these locales here, I'm not worried about over use really. If you can get to these places, you deserve to be there. I throw down the gauntlet.

[johndavidjr]

Haugen, Bacon? Snowy? You seen 'em, thanks to Austin Post & pilot..

[Skeezix]

One little-visited area I'd like to get into is Snowking. Difficult access...easy climb. I've heard it's quite beautiful and featurey in there with lots of small lakes and zen meadows. But I never went there when I worked for the NPS because it's outside the park.

[geordie]

Snowking's not that hard to get to. Actually it's really easy.

 

Skeeziz- ORGINAL POST EDITED.. Welcome to the fray..

 

Edited September 29, 2004 by geordie