East Coasters Headed out to Cascades to Climb

[DcDPT2016]

Hey everyone! I stumbled across this awesome site as I have been looking into putting together a hiking/climbing trip this summer to try and go up some of the Northern Cascade summits. Looking to have a group of 3-4 of us headed out in Early August for about 10 days and were looking into doing Mt. Baker, Shuksan, or any others that are suggested for us! We had originally looked into trying to get into a group on Rainier and learn basic technical climbing skills but no such luck as of now. 2 of us have pretty extensive backcountry experience and hiking in the Rockies, all are in excellent climbing shape, just a little short on big mountain experience being from the east coast! We would be open to finding another group to join up with or if anyone out there would be nice enough to share some local insider info on these plans it would be much appreciated!! Feel free to DM me or reply back here. Hope to meet some of you all out there on the mountains soon!

 

David

[Sophia]

I don't think that the skills to climb Baker and Shuksan are all that different than the skills needed to climb Rainier. If you're looking for big, less technical mountains, I'd say shoot for Hood, Adams, and some others.

 

That said, you have plenty of time to learn most of the basics (roped travel, self arrest, pulley systems, rescue, etc) and can do that on the east coast. There are probably classes up north. I'd still say to do Hood or Adams first when you get here and then head up to the bigger mountains.

 

If you want to tag along with others or get an experienced person to lead/support, you might want to consider a smaller group - 2 at the most (and still practice those skills before you come.) Most experienced people would be pretty uncomfortable with 3 or 4 inexperienced people on their rope unless they are a professional guide.

[Jcweinsx]

Hire a guide or pick different objectives with less risk to an inexperienced party that is not familiar with the routes. St. Helens, south sister, adams are typical routes to learn on. Hood is not technical on south side but still manages to kill people every year, typically due to inexperience or very experienced climbers that make poor choice about weather and conditions. Don't be a statistic. Hire a guide, not too bad on $ when split with a few friends.

[JasonG]

David-

 

If you need a guide, you should get in touch with Kurt Hicks

 

Highly recommended!