The Sawtooth Slam is a great way to knock out five easy mountains from the Bulger List (a rough list of the state’s 100 tallest mountains). The larches were a little past prime, but collectively they gave off a darker yellow hue that was noticeably different from the weekend prior. Pretty cool to see the full lifecycle of these larches this season!

The previous day zapped more energy than expected, so I went for one of the more straightforward peaks in the area.

First time for me checking out the Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness area and really seeing the dense larch groves less prevalent in the rest of the Cascades.

Finally knocking this one out in between an iffy forecast window!

A scenic loop to see soak in the fall colors and perhaps the impetus/rebirth of this very website!

A nice loop to tag two peaks while enjoying some fall colors.

A nice warmup before venturing deeper into the great Glacier Peak Wilderness. I used to think the Entiats were a little lame and colorless, but revisiting the area was much cooler now that I could identify many more peaks of the GPW/North Cascades and able to remember fondly some of the prior experiences I’ve had on those peaks.

Been saving this one for those weird forecast days. I don’t think I give the Alpine Lakes Wilderness enough love. Definitely hoping to have more Plan A days here instead of relegating this area as a backup to “cooler” plans. A bit more crowded, and the peaks are a bit smaller, but I overlook how comparably rugged it is to the North Cascades.

A throwback and “free-solo” of my first alpine climb.

NFNWR is short for the north face of the northwest ridge on Mount Adams - what a mouthful to say. During the time I’ve been skiing in Washington, there’s been some opinions that this line might be less and less skiable as climate change impacts the mountain. With a fat high elevation snowpack and after seeing that some friends skied this line, I knew it was time to pounce.

The P3 Mount Defiance loop makes a rectangular shape on Strava I’ve come to recognize from everyone doing it over the years. A perfect low-stakes day for me and Haram as he prepares and crams some last minute vert for his upcoming race.

I’ve done Ruth Mountain previously in the summer and I thought it had some of the best views in the North Cascades for the relatively easy level of effort. I couldn’t say no to the same views with even more snow, tagging Icy Peak this time around, and skiing back down the enticing slopes of Ruth.

As straightforward of an up and down on Mount Baker as you can get. Great to revisit this route, but man is it kind of a boring slog in the sense that the views don’t change that much. The conditions this weekend were a little uncertain to go for anything bigger and I certainly needed the confidence booster after last week’s debacle.

I’ve always wondered what kind of outing I’d be capable of off the couch, and on this day I really paid for it trying to attempt two classic steep ski lines on Mount Baker.

I would love to be able to do this one again differently, but given that I found out than an aurora was happening the day of, I can’t be too bummed about it. Grateful to have even gotten to see such a rare phenomenon here in Washington at all.