A loop connecting the eastern Necklace Valley trailhead to the West Foss Fork. An insane amount of boulder hopping and slow trails - definitely underestimated this one and feeling whooped, a sensation that I haven’t experienced in a while.

Escaping the heat (or heat training?) by getting high on the mountain loop. Sunset at White Chuck Mountain then Mount Pugh before heading home.

Via the Northern Loop on Mount Rainier. Or rather, cutting the loop by leaving the Wonderland Trail after Mystic Lake for Old Desolate and rejoining the trail on the way to Lake James. Backpacking the full Northern Loop Trail was one of my first outings in Washington State so it was fun to revisit some of those memories!

Trying to pick an outing not focused on running. Rehabbing the ankles was somewhat successful, but man that heat was brutal.

We originally intended to circumnavigate the Baker River but had to reroute with some unexpected weather. Not quite the adventure we hoped for but still glad to check out the Northern Pickets!

A quick trip to the highest point in the Monte Cristo Range.

After gastronomically crashing out in NYC/DC for two weeks, I rallied for one last ski day this season. Some much overdue redemption for an earlier attempt in 2022 although it was one of the worst ski descents in my life quality wise lol. At least it was continuous!

This ski traverse going from Cascade Pass to Hwy 20 has long been on my bucket list so I was happy to get it done on an uncertain weather weekend. Some interesting ski conditions, but the views couldn’t be beat.

We were originally thinking about giving the Shuksan Sulphide route a go, but the guys needed to catch 7pm flight, one of whom needed to make it to a wedding the next day!

An outing I don’t mind repeating because the views are sooo good.

A nice walk essentially tracing the first bit of the Ptarmigan Traverse and looping around Hurry-Up Peak. This was my first time skiing at Cascade River Road not doing Eldorado and boy were the views mindblowing. I definitely need to make it out here more often!

It’s been fun to finally get around to checking out the spring opening of Washington Pass. I’ve joked that so much of the area seems same-y, but having snow on the mountains definitely adds some much needed character that I’ve come to expect from the Cascade Range.

Wallaby seems to be one of those unnotable sacrificial peaks with great views. Fun day flipping between lagging and scurrying to chase corn on east, south, and west aspects.

Just scoping out the Park and Coleman Glacier headwalls. I knew the latter wasn’t going to go, but the entire upper mountain was a bit rimier than I expected - I suppose I was too optimistic about the half inch of precipitation.

Booked it down to the lower eastside to nab a line I’ve been thinking about since 2022. For some reason or another, it’s never materialized in recent years for many in our group so we were very happy to get it while it was pretty good.

Scouted this line from Silver Star before I later identified it as the north couloir of Big Kangaroo. I wanted a shorter outing with potentially a big one the next day, so opted for this.

Flew from Virginia to SLC, then drove straight to WA Pass to catch the first opening week for cars.

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.