8/30/2025 - 8/31/2025 Labor Day weekend occupies a prime spot on the peakbagging calendar in Washington. When a prospective trip to Holden was cancelled due to lightning-caused wildfire, we wanted to pivot to something closer to home that wouldn’t be overrun with crowds. Eric came up with the great idea to camp at Rock Lake and add on a scramble of Malachite Peak. We passed a huge number of cars parked at the Necklace Valley trailhead (I guess the secret is out about Tank Lak

8/23/2025-8/24/2025 The Drop Creek approach is a method for accessing Mount Formidable and the Ptarmigan Traverse that has been gaining in popularity in recent years. It avoids glacier travel, making it a nice alternative to the traditional approach from Cascade Pass in late season. Plus, there has been some recent maintenance on the South Fork Cascade River trailhead that has made this approach arguably the most pleasant it has been in years. Huge thanks to the people who ha

8/9/2025 Mike and I day-tripped Argonaut Peak via the South Route. Starting at the Beverly Turnpike trailhead at 6:22 am, we cruised up the (familiar to me) Beverly Creek trail for 2.6 miles and 1585 feet of gain. Here we made a right-hand turn and took the Fourth Creek trail, which climbed another 0.3 miles and 300 feet up to a pass, before descending into the Fourth Creek valley. By the time we hit Ingalls Creek, we had covered about 5.5 miles in about 2 hours. Ingalls Cree

8/1/2025 - 8/3/2025 Blackcap and Lago from the summit of Monument Lake and Monument were on the docket for the weekend. Both are remote peaks in the Pasayten Wilderness area that are hard to get to by any approach. Monument Peak is especially rugged and the most remote peak in the Lago group. My adventure would start at the Monument Creek trail and take me all the way up and over Pistol Pass to a camp at Lake of the Woods. I had tentative aspirations to hike all the way in to

7/19/2025 Katie and I were in Whistler and enjoyed an excellent hike to Panorama Ridge to see the brilliant blue waters of Garibaldi Lake. The hike starts from the Rubble Creek Trailhead, and a day-use pass is required in the summer. Beautiful views abound on this hike with the Tantalus Range, Black Tusk, and Garibaldi and its surrounding glaciers stealing the show. Even though the round-trip distance is over 16 miles with 5000 feet of elevation gain, this is a well-establish

7/12/2025-7/13/2025 The goal for the weekend was Azurite Peak, a member of the Bulger List north of Tower and Golden Horn. It’s a peak that takes a substantial effort to get to regardless of the approach. I toyed with the idea of coming in from the Methow River side but had seen trip reports stating that the trail was horribly overgrown and in disrepair. Other climbers have come in via Mill Creek or even from Harts Pass, but there was another approach that piqued my interest.

6/29/2025 - 7/3/2025 Introduction Gannett is a big undertaking, no matter how you approach it. At 13,810 feet in elevation with over 7000 feet of prominence, it is an imposing, isolated mountain, in one of the most remote wilderness areas in the lower 48. There are two main approaches climbers use to reach Gannett, one from the east and one from the west. The approach from the west (Pinedale, WY) is via the beautiful Titcomb Basin and requires going up and over Bonney Pass on

6/28/2025 The highest point in the Snowy Range in south central Wyoming at over 12,000 feet tall, Medicine Bow Peak was a nice acclimatization hike. This area is the crown jewel of the Medicine Bow mountains, with pretty meadows, lakes, and some surprisingly alpine scenery that are easily accessible from Highway 130. There are multiple trailheads that hikers use to access Medicine Bow Peak. We chose to use the Lewis Lake trailhead because it is the shortest and most straightf

6/26/2025 As part of our acclimatization preparation for Gannett Peak , my dad and I snuck in a quick hike up Grays Peak in Colorado. We camped at Lowry Campground near Silverthorne the night before and woke up early to make the drive east on I-70 to the Grays Peak trailhead. The trailhead is less than three miles from the freeway exit, but is pretty steep and rocky in places, so a high-clearance vehicle is recommended. We got started at around 5:30 am, which seemed like a pr

6/15/2025 The furthest northeast of all the Bulger peaks, Windy Peak feels like a bit of an outlier amongst Washington’s tallest mountains. Its gentle slopes allow a trail to go all the way to the summit, making it the only Bulger List peak with a trail to the top. Plus, it is significantly removed from the Cascade crest, and even its Pasayten neighbors, giving it a remote and isolated feel. Katie, my dad, and I spent the prior day car-camping at Toats Coulee Campground and e

9/7/2024 Hike in to Lower Ice Lake I apparently couldn’t get enough of driving the Phelps Creek Road this summer, so I braved the endless miles of sharp rocks yet again, this time for a solo outing of South Spectacle Butte. There was some haze in the skies from wildfires, and I was hoping it wouldn’t impair the experience too much. Leroy Basin The climb up the Leroy Creek trail is steep, especially with an overnight pack in the middle of the afternoon on a hot day. I was s

8/30/2024 - 9/2/2024 Day 1: Getting to the Trailhead (aka the crux of the trip) and Spider Meadows Our annual Labor Day backpacking trip got off to a strong start when Katie realized she forgot her shoes and I forgot my climbing helmet right as we were pulling into the Phelps Creek Trailhead. Sigh . after a three hour round trip back to Leavenworth to buy new gear while navigating the razor-sharp rocks of the road both ways we were finally gearing up (with Katie’s brand-new

8/25/2024 A return trip to Tuck and Robin Lakes was in order, and I wanted to squeeze in a jaunt up Granite Peak while we were at it. I hadn’t been to Tuck and Robin in years, so the anticipation was high as Katie, Eric, and I set off from the ever-popular Tucquala Meadows Trailhead at around 8:30 am. Cathedral Rock towering above Hyas Lake The first 3 miles were essentially flat, passing Hyas Lake and its nice selection of lake-side campsites. We then began a steep ¾ mile c

7/23/2024 With a beautiful day and time to kill on the Mountain Loop Highway after Higher Squire , I settled upon White Chuck as the perfect quick peak for the afternoon. It is a distinctive, isolated mountain that has long grabbed my attention, with its steep faces and 3800+ feet of prominence (making it Washington’s 25th most prominent peak). One nice part of climbing White Chuck is that there is a maze of logging roads on the west side of the peak, and you can actually d

7/23/2024 Excited to check out a totally new to me area of the Mountain Loop, I set out on the Eight Mile Creek Trail towards Squire Creek Pass a bit before 9 in the morning. For some reason, I had become fixated on Higher Squire as a peakbagging objective (probably because of its proximity to Squire Creek Wall and the dramatic east faces of Three Fingers and Whitehorse) and now seemed like as good of a time as any to try it. Three O'clock Rock The Eight Mile Creek Trail was

7/13/2024 The Twin Sisters are a jagged subrange of the Cascades west of Mount Baker that have drawn my eye for years. Their reddish orange rock and sharp ridges are a pretty amazing sight when contrasted against the broad, glaciated surface of Baker. The range gets its coloring because it is primarily composed of olivine, which lends itself to some great scrambling with good holds on nice, grippy rock. Because of this, North and South Twin both see a fair amount of traffic f

7/10/2024 Helena Peak is a fun scramble off the Mountain Loop that had slightly trickier route-finding than expected. It has 1000 feet of clean prominence and excellent views of some classic peaks and had always been an alluring mountain for me. Plus, there was some mining activity in the area that could lead to further exploration. Walking Deer Creek Road I wasn’t brave enough to drive Deer Creek Rd all the way to the trailhead. The road was totally fine except for one bad

7/4/2024 - 7/5/2024 I have been climbing mountains in the Cascades for my entire life but somehow had never attempted Mount Rainier. That changed when our friend Rio texted saying he had a permit for Camp Muir – this was the perfect chance to finally have a go at the iconic tallest peak in Washington State. Paradise to Camp Muir Our permit was for multiple nights, which would give us some additional wiggle room in our schedule to play with should we need it. A warming period

9/16/2025 - 9/17/2025 Katie, Eric and I set out for a fun camping and climbing adventure out of Monte Cristo – and what better way to reach the old ghost town than by bike?? I had read about an old wagon road that could be a good alternative to the standard Monte Cristo trail because it bypasses the South Fork Sauk river crossing and washed-out section of trail. The road leaves the Mountain Loop highway about ¾ of a mile east of Barlow Pass. Katie and Eric would both be using

9/2/2023 Mount Buckner is one of Washington’s 9000-foot peaks, and the highest point in Skagit County. Kyle, Brad, and I visited the summit in early September (which I’m not sure I would recommend) in a dawn to dusk effort. After a night spent at the Cascade Pass trailhead, we got up before first light and were moving shortly before 5 am. The switchbacks were as numerous and well-graded as ever, and before long we were coming into Cascade Pass. The first hints of a sunrise we