The Ptarmigan Traverse is an ultra-classic mountaineering route that cuts through the heart of the Northern Cascades. Four days of miles and miles of glacier travel, rugged terrain, and never-ending views.

Day 1: Cascade Pass Trailhead → Yang Yang Lakes

Familiar views above Cascade Pass

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And Johannesburg Mountain

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Eldorado, Forbidden, and Sahale

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Our three little ant friends in the bottom left, typical of the side-hilling terrain we’ll now be doing having left the trail

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Forbidden, Sahale, Buckner

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Mandatory mantling of the Cache Col cornice

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Another theme of traverses other than the side-hilling is the entering of the next basin/drainage with completely new views than the one you just climbed over

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A phone photographer standoff

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Middle Cascade Glacier

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The backside of Johannesburg and co

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And into a new zone looking straight at the Le Conte Glacier

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Tonight’s camp seen in the bottom right

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North Yang Yang Lake

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South Yang Yang Lake

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Day 2: Yang Yang Lakes → Dome Peak Bivy Spot

Hello Baker!

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Heading towards Le Conte Glacier

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Spire Point Peaks

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Maaasive South Cascade Glacier

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Looking at Dome Peak and the broken up Chikamin Glacier to its left

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Down towards White Rock Lakes

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Towers over Dana Glacier

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Probably not surprising given the terrain we’re in

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Chossy walls...

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And chossy peaks

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A look back north over the terrain we’ve covered

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A group of five that we passed going down from Dome Peak

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Cool textures

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The final scramble up the summit of Dome - perhaps the best summit views I’ve ever seen in my life

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Glacier Peak being shy

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A look at the 9000’ giants to our east: Bonanza (big), the four peaks forming the ridge of Copper, Fernow, Seven Fingered Jack, Maude

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Looking down at the crevasses on the Chikamin Glacier

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Yikes!

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Sunset glow on the Gunsights

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Sun setting on Mount Baker

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Good night GP!

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Day 3: Dome Peak Bivy Spot → Canyon Lake

Good morning GP!

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Shapes and shades of a glacier

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Mount Baker. I think summit views are a little lame without any personal context or relationship to the mountains, but it’s fun for me now being able to recognize these iconic peaks and think back to some of the epics I’ve had (or will have) on them.

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Mount Shuksan

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Eldorado Peak

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Forbidden Peak

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Mount Buckner

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Mount Logan

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Goode Mountain

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Black Peak

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The crux bergschrund of the Chikamin Glacier

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Definitely need to go face in for this one

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Not having this snow bridge as an option would have made things veeery interesting

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Sinister Peak!

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Crevasses that can eat you whole

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Towards the Gunsights

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A look back at Sinister and Dome

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Although the actual boundary of Glacier Peak Wilderness is further up north closer to Cascade Pass, this is kind of where it starts in my mind, especially since the dominant view going forward is the namesake mountain.

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A look back at Dome and Sinister

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Met up with some friends!

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No more glaciers from here on out

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I love when a camp has a built-in bath!

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Day 4: Canyon Lake → Suiattle River Trailhead

Yep, just GP now

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Last look back north

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GP over Image Lake

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GP getting closer and closer. Argh I regret accidentally turning on the RAW mode for the phone camera since it seems to be struggling and given that I have no patience/tools to correct it.

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Image Lake up close

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Miner’s Ridge Lookout, marking the return to civilization

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Last look at GP

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An easy trail back to our car shuttle, but many miles to go

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Notes

• This was probably ~52 miles and ~18000 feet of vertical gain over four very memorable days.