The Drop Creek approach is a method for accessing 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 have been doing the trail ma

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The Twin Sisters are a jagged subrange of the Cascades west of Mount Baker that have drawn my eye for years. Their reddish orange...

Helena Peak is a fun scramble off the Mountain Loop that had slightly trickier route-finding than expected. It has 1000 feet of clean...

I have been climbing mountains in the Cascades for my entire life, but somehow had never attempted Mount Rainier. That changed when our...

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...

Katie and I spent 4 days exploring Lost Creek Ridge over Labor Day weekend. This was an area that had always interested me, and I’d...

Took advantage of the long days of summer by doing a quick weekday evening jaunt up Tolmie Peak in Mount Rainier NP. The Mowich Lake Road...

Tomyhoi Peak is great Type 1 fun trip off the Mount Baker Highway. Eric and I started from the Yellow Aster Butte Trailhead at a...

Keyes Peak was a long time coming for me. I had been drawn to it since my first of many trips to Blanca Lake years ago. It also helped...

The weather for the Fourth of July weekend wasn’t looking too great for western Washington. The saying “summer doesn’t start until July...

Bulger season was upon us, and that called for a long drive to a remote part of Washington to kick it off. Katie, my dad, and I made the...

With another great September day on our hands, Fern, Isabel and I headed out in search of Gunn Peak (or the infinity tarn if we were...

Desolation Peak is a worthy destination not only because of its unique approach and incredible scenery, but also because of the...

There are some places in the Cascades that have a near magnetic pull on me. I love looking at maps of the mountains and dreaming of new...

I had spent precious little time in the Pasayten Wilderness, and it was time to change that. The Pasayten is in the northeast corner of...