There are days when I’m reminded that one can get a bit soft from hiking and climbing in the Gunks. My first day in the Cascades was one of those days. Although short, the bushwhack in to the base of the White Salmon Glacier on Mt. Shuksan is reportedly one of the worst (it’s the worst I’ve done out here – lots of slide alder, salmonberry and a bit of Devil’s Club thrown in for extra prickly fun). I stumbled across an old Alpine Club of Canada newsletter in which the author devised a scale that helps climbers more fully understand what their climb is going to entail. The White Salmon approach is classified as BW4 in the newsletter – “Severe brush, pace less than one mile per hour, leather gloves and thick clothing necessary to avoid loss of blood. Much profanity and mental anguish. Thick stands of brush requiring circumnavigation are encountered”. Thankfully the brushy section only lasts a few hours. It seems that 3600′ is the magic elevation there for getting across several steep gorges with waterfalls in them.

My friend Carolyn Riccardi and I just wrapped up a week climbing on Mt. Shuksan and near Cascade Pass in the North Cascades. The North Cascades don’t have the biggest mountains in the lower 48, but they definitely take the prize for the most complex range in the contiguous U.S.  Despite modest summit elevations there are some serious big-mountain style objective hazards – loose rock, heavily crevassed glaciers, long approaches and serious routefinding challenges. For this reason the North Cascades have the become the training and testing ground for the AMGA Alpine Guide Program. Most guides in the alpine course progression inevitably spend a fair bit of time acquainting themselves with the subtleties of the North Cascades.

Our week was successful and rewarding. While we didn’t tag any of the major summits we did climb new, unfamiliar routes in two areas. The first trip, as mentioned above, was to Mt. Shuksan where we climbed the White Salmon Glacier and descended the Fischer Chimneys. Both of these routes are scenic, outstanding(and not super complex but not a giveaway either). We decided to descend from our 7000′ bivy due to a weak low pressure system that was dropping rain and sleet on us the morning of summit day. Without a tent or hard shell outerwear the only real option was to go down. After a bit of wandering in whiteout conditions by Lake Ann we managed to make it out and back to our car at the base of the White Salmon Lodge.

Our second objective was the Torment-Forbidden Traverse near Cascade Pass. We climbed this over three days (including the approach and descent) and didn’t get to climb the West Ridge on Forbidden. Carolyn was due to fly home early the morning after we finished and we didn’t really want to push it too much. The ridge climbing on this route is stellar, and the routefinding challenges and steep snow/ice on the first half of the route make this route seem big and committing. I didn’t get too many photos – it always seems that when the climbing is more demanding you take less pictures.

Marty from Alpine Endeavors, and three clients are flying in today, so by the end of next week I should have some more really nice pictures of the Cascades. Unfortunately, my camera has developed a scratch on the lense that affects how images look when the sun is shining at the lens. If you look carefully you may be able to see a slight blurry spot just right of center in all of the images.