Before Alex and I even moved to Washington, the Sahale Glacier Camp was at the top of our list of places we wanted to visit. Its sprawling views of the North Cascades and its unique campsites nestled in rock shelters at the base of the Sahale Glacier were enough to pique any backpacker’s interest. And piqued interest, it had. The backcountry permits for the camp are notoriously difficult to get.
Read MoreIf you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you may have noticed that trips and adventures don’t always go as planned and sometimes objectives require multiple attempts before we’re successful. This was the case for Ruby Mountain in the North Cascades. In May of 2021, Alex and I started our tour at the Happy Creek trailhead bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We knew the day ahead of us would be arduous but we felt we were adequately prepared both mentally and physically. It turns out we were wrong.
Read MoreThe name Snowking Mountain elicits thoughts of icy royalty—a peak draped in a velvet robe of snow in an area that is so difficult to reach it feels as if it were guarded. Snowking resides in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, just on the outskirts of North Cascades National Park and while it may not be guarded in the literal sense, the route requires battling the terrain nearly every step of the way. In fact, one of the reasons this blog post has taken me nearly half a year to write is because of how shaken our experience on the trail left me.
Read MoreI first saw Ruth Mountain in the summer of 2019 while Alex and I were hiking the Copper Ridge Loop. We were on the early stretches of the trail, making our way toward Hannegan Pass when a beautiful mountain face, its upper slopes still draped in snow in late summer, came into view. In my planning process for that hike I had been so fixated on the camp spots and other high points that I had entirely overlooked Ruth Mountain, but it was impossible to overlook on the trail, it dominated our views. As we got closer I said to Alex, “I’m pretty sure you can ski off that. We should do that!” 1.5 years later and we did just that!
Read MoreIn late 2019 Alex and I signed up for a ski mountaineering course on Mt. Baker with Pro Guiding Service. After a few seasons of backcountry touring we were feeling limited by our lack of glacier travel and mountaineering skills. We had taken our AIARE 1 course and could travel and route find in the wintry backcountry, but we could not traverse onto the slopes of some of the more remote mountains in Washington because they were surrounded and covered by glaciers.
Read MoreIn late October, Alex and I went on a trip that I have been dreaming of for years: a flightseeing tour over the North Cascades. I’ve long wanted to go on this flightseeing trip with Snowking Aviation, however, I had specific conditions in mind for our eventual flight. I wanted to fly in fall, after the first couple snowstorms coated the mountainsides in a blanket of snow, but the alpine lakes still remained unfrozen in their basins.
Read MoreThe Hidden Lake lookout in the North Cascades has been on my radar for years. I’ve always wanted to visit in the summer but the road is rugged—far too rugged for our Sedan—and the lookout is popular, which means you would be hard pressed to find any solitude there on summer weekends. However, in the winter the entire landscape transforms the tough summer hike into a grueling ski tour. The crowds diminish and the chances of getting the lookout to yourself increase (or so we hoped).
Read MoreEarlier this month Alex and I went on a dreamy backcountry ski tour with some friends in the Mt. Baker backcountry. The forecast for the day looked overcast and dreary, and we expected to be in the clouds for most of the day and possibly even snowed on. However, instead what we experienced was a winter wonderland. The clouds were light and airy and transformed the harsh sunlight into a soft golden glow on pillowy snow. We spent the entire day skiing laps in the Artist Point area, stopping often along the way just to stand in awe of the scenery surrounding us.
Read MoreWe pulled into the North Cascades ranger station in Marblemount at 5:00am, two hours before the office opened, but as our headlights swept through the dark lot we saw that we weren’t the first to arrive. There were already two people waiting at the front door, their headlamps illuminated a map as they talked over their options. I parked the car, turned off the engine, and walked over to join them. We were all here hoping to secure a walk up permit for North Cascades National Park over Labor Day weekend.
Read MoreAt the end of September, Alex and I went on an overnight backpacking trip with our friends Alisha and Sean to a place we have been dreaming about for a couple years: Sahale Glacier camp. This backcountry campsite is one of the most sought after destinations in North Cascades National Park so, understandably, the competition for permits on weekends is fierce.
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