Eric and Lucie's Bus Trip

We spent the first summer of our trip in the Cascades again. This time - and unlike on our first bus trip there - we climbed mainly in the North Cascades.

On our first visit in 2003, we happened on the driest summer on record, which may have given us the wrong impression of the local weather... This time around, the summer was quite wet and we found ourselves doing a lot of waiting for the occasional stretch of good weather. Still, we managed to log in a couple of overnight trips with postcard-blue skies.

Anything in red on the map below can be "clicked" on for a summary report and related photographs.

We arrived late June and did a couple of day climbs to get comfortable on snow again and get in shape for the infamous cascade approaches... We started our trip in the Darrington area, initially hoping to climb Whitehorse. Unfortunately, the warm weather beat us to it. Instead, we went rock-climbing on the great granite slabs of Three o'Clock Rock (the Kone). A couple of days later, we climbed East Wilmans Spire, a fun day route with a bit of everything, snow, rock, and ...mountain biking.

We then drove North to Washington Pass to climb Silver Star Mountain, a mellow one day outing, then on to the Bellingham area, to climb Ruth Mountain, at least in part for the terrific views of Mt Shuksan and the Price glacier.

Our first overnight trip came around the 4th of July. We didn't get a chance to climb Shuksan during our 2003 visit, and were longing to climb this iconic Cascade peak. We had hoped to climb the North Face, but the approach - already snow free - looked like a bushwhacking nightmare. We settled for a ski trip up the Sulphide Glacier instead (which was amazing).

Next, we did another popular day climb with a mountain bike approach, the West Ridge of North Twin Sister.

By then, it was more than time to switch to rock-climbing... We drove back to Washington Pass where we climbed a few classics we had not gotten around to on our first trip (or did not even know about, since the 2nd volume of Nelson & Potterfield was not out yet). We climbed the classic East face of Lexington Tower and had a good day on the Minuteman.

We also made several trips to the Goat Wall near Mazama, as diversions from the bad weather at the Pass, and climbed Prime Rib and Sisyphus.

Taking advantage of a long stretch of good weather in late July, we hiked into Silver Star basin to climb Clean Break on Juno Tower and Rebell Yell on Chianti Spire.

Next, we did the long haul into the Southern Pickets (one of the most beautiful alpine basins we visited) to climb the East Ridge of Inspiration Peak.

After that taxing trip, we went back to WA pass for more single-day routes. We had good days on the Southwest Buttress of South Early Winter Spire, and the North face of Burgundy Spire which we linked with the West ridge of Paisano Pinnacle.

We left Washington Pass mid-August and drove South to Index for some cragging. Then off to Darrington to try a relatively new route on the Roan Wall.

We wrapped up the season with an overnight trip to Eldorado Basin. Our original intent was to climb Early Morning Spire but we picked the wrong strategy for the approach, gave up on our goal, and climbed the East Ridge of Eldorado as a consolation prize.

By then, it was almost September and time for us to think about heading South to catch a flight to New Zealand where we would spend the austral summer. On our way, we stopped in Winthrop for some mountain biking and sport-climbing. The last route we climbed in the Cascades was Restless Natives, another good clip-up on the Goat Wall.