Awesome ridge linkup starting at Excelsior Peak and ending with a fun scramble on Tomyhoi.

Sometimes I feel like the Twin Sisters Range next to Mount Baker is often forgotten about. The red tape with the logging company land ownership adds a bit to the weirdness and mystery. Armed with mountain bikes, this turned into a great multi-sport adventure traversing from South Twin to North Twin.

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.

Ruth Mountain may have the best scenery-to-effort ratio in the North Cascades. A smooth gravel road to Hannegan Pass Trailhead, followed by a nicely maintained trail, easy snow travel, and no crevasse shenanigans (season dependent obviously) - highly recommend as a type 1 kind of day.

Mailbox is an unremarkable peak for someone who’s gotten used to the scenery around North Bend and the I-90 corridor (and also done it many times), but it was a great day for friends visiting from out east. Ended up being a memorable one because it was one of those “above the clouds” type of days!

To add to the confusion, there is also a White Salmon Glacier on a prominent Washington mountain (Shuksan being the other). I thought this terrain feature looked sooo cool on CalTopo but was unfortunately a bit more disappointing than expected.

Feeling strong enough this season to try for a double lap on Mount Adams.

A solo repeat of the exact same outing from last year, except I actually got the pictures I wanted!

A glorified backpacking trip to round out skiing the Washington volcanos. The ski descent was pretty mediocre, but it was otherwise cool to check out the changing season on Washington’s most remote volcano.

Just soaking in the views of the crevasses up close on this one. I hung back with one of a friend who was having a problem with the altitude and encouraged the other two to summit without else since I had already been up earlier this year. A bit disappointing, but this outing confirmed my ability to make turn around in practice, and was otherwise happy to explore this side of the mountain regardless of the outcome.

Little Tahoma is a satellite peak of Rainier, the pointy thing next to the main summit. I think it looks like a castle made of mahogany. Little T is actually the remnants of what used to be an even bigger volcano; it’s hard to imagine another a couple thousand feet on top of what Rainier is currently.

Mount Rainier is just an absolute unit looming over the Seattle skyline from afar - a 14411’ ruler from sea level if you were curious what that might look like. I’ve always dreamed of what getting to the roof of Washington would be like after first seeing it.

Eldorado Peak is one of the “Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America” that shouldn’t be. The quality of skiing itself was mediocre but the views more than made up for it. We were debating turning around with the grim visibility on the way up, but we pressed on and were instead rewarded with brief yet stunning views near the summit.

There is nothing notable about Ruby Mountain in the North Cascades, but its view of Ross Lake and the surrounding peaks is pretty cool. We missed the powder window in favor of mashed potatoes so I definitely need to come back early on a cold bluebird day!

In retrospect this was probably kind of burly for me at the time, but I’m super thankful for the receptive partners and the proper conditions to ski a line of this caliber with no drama.