Inspiration Peak, East Ridge

Inspiration Peak, East Ridge

This year Tim and I decided we wanted to learn the true meaning of Labor Day so while we could have spent our three day weekend climbing anywhere we chose the Pickets, a range in the North Cascades known by climbers for its remoteness and inaccessibility. In 1931 when all of the major peaks in the Tetons had established routes the Pickets saw their first recorded technical ascent. When people talk about the wild of…

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Prusik Peak, South Face, Beckey-Davis

Prusik Peak, South Face, Beckey-Davis

The reviews are in, Prusik peak is as good as they say. Chase and I climbed it last Thursday (7/20) via the Beckey-Davis route on the south face. I would summarize the route as sustained alpine granite fun. The following is a summary of approach/descent and a pitch-by-pitch recap of the climb. Hopefully this helps the next aspiring Beckey wannabe find their way up the route. Approach – we started from Snow Creek TH at…

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North Face of Burgundy Spire, Washington Pass

North Face of Burgundy Spire, Washington Pass

The plan was do to a Paisano Burgundy link up, but nothing that day quite went according to plan. Andrew, Tim, James and I slept at the trailhead 4mi east of WA pass, and were walking by 5:45 Saturday morning. The trail starts by scrambling down past cairns to Early Winters Creek, then weaving up through the woods to the bivy camp. The camp is roomy and has excellent views of the Liberty Bell group…

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North Cascades, Climbing

Southwest Rib w variation, South Early Winters Spire

by  in North Cascades, Climbing
Tim and Andrew beat us to the same summit up the same route two days earlier, so David and I rolled into Monday with some helpful beta for the climb. In hopes of a warmer climb we opted for a later start, leaving from the trailhead at 7am. We followed the Blue Lake trail for 1.5mi, until the terrain opened up and we had views of the Liberty Bell group. From there we took the…
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Climbing, Touring, Mt. Rainier

Success Glacier Couloir, Mount Rainier

by  in Climbing, Touring, Mt. Rainier
Success Glacier Couloir on Mount Rainier. A friend of a friend had heard about it. Finding information on the route wasn’t easy; a google search pulled up a couple dated trip reports with helpful beta but very little to cross-reference against. Skiing down the south-facing couloir seemed straight-forward (and fun!) but climbing up was more like choose your own adventure. We chose the Kautz Cleaver for the ascent with two goals in mind: 1) ski…
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Olympic Mountains, Touring, Movies

East Basin, The Brothers

by  in Olympic Mountains, Touring, Movies
Looking west from Seattle, The Brothers rises up from the sound to 6650 ft. The East Basin is the obvious line from the top and even from 40 miles away is clearly a sicky. After a very wet March and April with few breaks in the weather, Easter Sunday was forecasted for sun so we camped out at the Lena Lake trailhead the night before and hit the trail at 4am for what would be a 14…
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Touring

Emerald Bay Chutes, Lake Tahoe

by  in Touring
Lake Tahoe is California’s premier summer playground. Flooded with tourists longing for beachy days, boozy boat rides and immaculate mountain views, it can be a challenge to find solitude in these mountains. Winter, however, is when the real magic happens. Luckily for Mark and I people seem to shy away from the piles of snow and cooler temps of winter. Despite the cold and stormy weather that had defined the season, cold temps were not…
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Touring, Movies

Wendy Thompson Hut, Marriott Basin

by  in Touring, Movies
Another year, another hut trip. 2017 was the Year of the Coast Mountains in British Colombia. The Wendy Thompson Hut was nearly booked full when we decided to make reservations in late summer but we managed to score 5 days in for the beginning of March and score we did. After a drought that seemed to last most of January and February with a few exceptions, the snow returned in a major way the week…
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Touring, Movies, Snoqualmie Pass

Commonwealth Basin, Snoqualmie Pass

by  in Touring, Movies, Snoqualmie Pass
Car window got smashed weeks ago, too cold to drive without it. David picks me up dark and early. We pick up where the late night text storm left off… Where we going today? Definitely the pass. Snow is dry, low density blower. So it’s a question of how big… How far? How committed? The debate commences and hardly abates when we stop for Brian at the P&R. The truck feels smaller now. Three egos battling…
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North Cascades, Stevens Pass, Touring

Arrowhead Mountain, Stevens Pass

by  in North Cascades, Stevens Pass, Touring
What started as an idea to make a solid attempt to take on Jim Hill Mountain turned, out to be a relaxed post Christmas tour to Arrowhead Mountain. A much needed tour after a few days regaling of old Christmas past with family and friends. The weight of honey ham, seasonal meats and cheese, and a few many holiday spirits needed to escape our bodies in exchange for a solid tour. We started out at…
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North Cascades, Mt. Baker, Touring

Mt Herman, Stoneman Couloir

by  in North Cascades, Mt. Baker, Touring
Alright! Time to break the long silence with the first snowboard trip report of the season. Did you miss us? We went up Table Moutain and Herman a couple weeks ago but it didn’t quite warrant a write up. Fast forward to today and once again we were heading out of the upper lot at the resort around 9am. The snow around Bagley Lakes has been hit hard with tracks since the last storm but…
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Climbing

The Chief via Squamish Buttress

by  in Climbing
Turquoise water was white-capping on the left as a massive chunk of granite came into view on the opposite side of the road. The thousand foot walls of grey granite occasionally streaked black with lichen stood proud over the valley. This is bigger than I remember, I thought to myself. Or maybe I was just looking closer this time… It started as it always does, with mutual acknowledgment of an open weekend and an ambition…
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Climbing, Stevens Pass

Prusik Peak, West Ridge

by  in Climbing, Stevens Pass
The great debate, skiing vs snowboarding, Hillary vs. Trump, is OJ Simpson innocent? And then the big one; to approach Prusik Peak from Snow Lake or from Colchuck Lake. Certainly there are merits to both but in this increasingly partisan world, people have picked their approach and climbing teams all over the Northwest and beyond have been ripped apart by their inability to see the other side. On one hand you have Colchuck Lake; less…
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Climbing

Cutthroat Wall, Easy Getaway: No Surrender

by  in Climbing
20 years from now, Sam and I will say we were there, there at the birth of a classic… I’d be lying if I claimed that thought was going through my head as I down-climbed towards the middle of pitch two after an ill conceived foray and subsequent fall in lichen laden territory on the Cutthroat Wall. As Sam belayed from above, and I placed gear on our retreat, the team next door was rapping…
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Mt Hood, Touring

Mt. Hood, Old Chute

by  in Mt Hood, Touring
Despite the unbeatable weather, when we pulled into Timberline Sunday morning the stoke level was at an unusual low. We were both feeling the effects of a short night, and pulling our packs out of the car brought the unfortunate realization that we only had one pair of crampons between the two of us. This was especially disappointing as we had tried unsuccessfully to summit this mountain multiple times, and were now determined to finally…