washington

A week ago I returned from a trip to Olympic Peninsula where I combined mountaineering and packrafting. I climbed a summit and then floated a river to the ocean. I still wanted to classify this trip as "backpacking" because this was the most important skill used to hold the trip together. It is...

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 Ziff and I had planned for 6 days on the traverse, as with a washed out road, on the way out. We awoke 25 miles from the spotted car. It was hard to prepare to leave the world of the alpine, but I had a flight home the following day. In fact doing it in 2...

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 We awoke early and broke camp, which meant the snowfields we had to descend were very HARD. Some we skirted, some we clung to. We could not figure out the route from the view ahead of us. That happened on day 2 also. Sometimes you just plod forward the...

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 Ziff and I went to bed, having decided to take a pass climbing Le Conte, which looked daunting. We slept better for it. Ahhh but when early light shown on the peak, we could see more features and it looked more reasonable. I pointed the difference out. We...

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 Up early the next day, we break camp and slide by the impressive icefalls of the Middle Cascade Glacier and on to the less serious, but not trivial upper glacier. We went thru the pass and down 200 feet of steep snow. After hemming and hawing, we decided...

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 Ziff was in. I took him on his first mountains when he was 8 years old.....38 years ago. Long ago he passed me by, skills and strength wise. He still offers the charity of taking me about, up in the North Cascades, when we find the time. The bad news was...

After the 4 AM thunderstorm cells moved through, sun beams shown in the valley below and successive clouds rolled over the peaks above. Gear was dried and the day settled into one of relaxation. I can only take so much of this. I restlessly stared up at the peaks. They were calling me. Jenny to...

Snowfield? Ohhhh boy is that ever the impressive name for a mountain!!!.....NOT!!! Aw well! It does have its challenges nevertheless. It was over 9 hours full packing to our camp. From there it is up a glacier to a pass, down steep snow and onto a pretty massive glacier, then an exposed ridge to...

Harvey and Jean joined Jenny and I for a 5 day trip up into the Colonial Group, near Diablo, Washington. Harvey is a famed canyoneer and backpacker and regular partner of Steve Allen's. Jean, while an athlete, was new to this type of mountaineering. Jenny and I agreed to facilitate. It is under...

Off the success on Mix-Up, we had 2 days before friends were to come in. The forecast was marginal and our desire strong for more technical climbing in the alpine zone. When the weather is bad in the Cascade's, you migrate east, over the crest to the rain shadow. We had Black Peak in mind, with...

The mountain was just staring at us, from our camp. We vacillated on whether to do it or not. It called to Jenny. Spoke to her. Called her some more. The east face route is a personal favorite. What looks like an impossibly steep face is actually steep, but clean granite slabs, hanging over a...

nick wanted more ideas for the trip he's planning to the Pacific Northwest, so I thought I'd post another fun little spot about an hour or so north of Portland. The Trail of Two Forests is on the south side of Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument. You miss all of the new eruption geology on...