Last Updated: December 4, 2024



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Oh my! Quite the backlog here...

  • Isollilock Peak - scramble (October 2023)
  • Mount Manson - Mount Hatfield Traverse - scramble (October 2023)
  • The Gargoyles & Columnar Peak - scramble (October 2023)
  • Opal Cone and Lava Glacier - hike (October 2023)
  • Park Butte (WA) - hike (October 2023)
  • Trappers Peak (WA) - scramble (October 2023)
  • Rattlesnake Ledge (WA) - hike (November 2023)
  • Sauk Mountain (WA) - hike (November 2023)
  • Sunshine Coast (Mount Daniel, Pender Hill) - hike (November 2023)
  • Mount Dickerman (WA) - hike (November 2022)
  • Verona Peak AKA Winter's End - snowshoe (November 2023)
  • Dolomites (IT) - snowboard (December 2023)
  • Red Rock Canyon (NV) - scramble (January 2024)
  • Flute Summit & Oboe Summit - snowboard (February 2024)
  • Whistler Miscellaneous (Train Wreck, Loggers Lake, Shadow Lake and more) - hike (February 2024)
  • Mount Underhill - hike (March 2024)
  • Bombtram Mountain - snowshoe (March 2024)
  • Steep Peak - snowboard (March 2024)
  • Ruby Mountain (WA) - snowshoe (April 2024)
  • Blustry Mountain - hike (April 2024)
  • Sowerby Peak (Barr East) - snowshoe (April 2024)
  • Picacho Peak (AZ) - hike (April 2024)
  • Kitt Peak Observatory (AZ) - (April 2024)
  • Mount Wrightson (AZ) - hike (April 2024)
  • Saguaro National Park (AZ) - April 2024)
  • Superstition Peak/Benchmark (AZ) - scramble (April 2024)
  • Mount Humphreys (AZ) - hike (May 2024)
  • Petrified Forest National Park (AZ) - (May 2024)
  • Piestewa Peak (AZ) - hike (May 2024)
  • Channeled Scablands (WA | Columbia Gorge, Ancient Lakes, Potholes Lake, Palouse Falls and more) - hike (May 2024)
  • Rhododendron Mountain ("Pk. 2220") - snowshoe (June 2024)
  • Flora Peak - hike (June 2024)
  • Gibson Peak - snowshoe (June 2024)
  • Mount Urquhart - scramble (June 2024)
  • Rock Mountain (WA) - hike (July 2024)
  • Ladies Pass Quartet (WA | Cape Horn, Ladies Peak, Snowgrass NE Peak, Snowgrass Mountain) - scramble (July 2024)
  • Old Snowy (WA) - scramble (July 2024)
  • Dog Mountain (WA) - hike (July 2024)
  • Mount Ratney & Mount Bardean - scramble (July 2024)
  • Torrent Peak - scramble (July 2024)
  • Steep Peak - Darkside Peak Traverse - scramble (July 2024)
  • Silvertip Mountain - scramble (July 2024)
  • The Old Settler - scramble (July 2024)
  • Silent Hub Peak - scramble (August 2024)
  • Saint Jacobs Mountain - scramble (August 2024)
  • Mount David (WA) - scramble (August 2024)
  • Goat Mountain West Peak & Table Mountain (WA) - hike (August 2024)
  • Griswold Pass (Tuber Hill, Glacier View Peak, Subatomic Peaks: Baryon, Meson, Muon, Lepton) - scramble (September 2024)
  • Yellow Aster Butte (WA) - hike (September 2024)
  • Mazama Dome (WA) - hike (September 2024)
  • Ptarmigan Ridge - (WA | The Portals East Peak, Coleman Pinnacle) - hike (September 2024)
  • Tetrahedron Peak - scramble (September 2024)
  • Lone Cone & Peak 86 (Tofino) - hike (September 2024)
  • Mount Athelstan ("Pk. 2460") - scramble (September 2024)
  • Excelsior Peak and Cowap Peak (WA) - hike (October 2024)
  • Hollyburn Peak - hike (October 2024)
  • Cheam Peak - hike (October 2024)
  • Blanchard Needle - scramble (October 2024)
  • Debeck's Hill & 4 Lakes Loop - hike (October 2024)
  • Mount Hallowell - hike (November 2024)
  • Anderson Mountain (WA) - hike (December 2024)
  • Sumas Mountain (WA) - hike (December 2024)

*As of 12/04/2024


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| Featured Trip Report |



Last Updated: Nov. 3, 2003

East Wilmans Spire - South Face, September 2003



If you're looking for an easy technical climb that can be completed in the short daylight of an autumn day, is within reasonable driving distance from Seattle, and offers up great views of the Mountain Loop area, look no further. By the way, East Wilmans Spire (EWS) is also a good climb to consider if you have to be back in Seattle by 7pm to attend your buddy's bachelor party. I sold Andy Ball on the idea (the climb, not the stripper party) who in turn invited James Cunnigham to also join us. James lives in Winthrop and was planning on visiting Andy in Seattle anyway. With a long drive ahead of him that Friday night, James suggested just meeting up with us at Barlow Pass the next morning. If he wasn't there when we arrived we were to just proceed without him. Andy and I pulled up beside James' truck at Barlow Pass shortly before 8am. We didn't envy his sleepless night in the truck, and so cut him some slack while he took an eternity to pack and get ready. Finally, we hopped on our bikes and began the 4-mile ride to Monte Cristo. Either my pack was really heavy or I was just tired myself, but the hill climbs wasted me! We locked our bikes in town, next to several other bikes already secured to the bike rack. With bike shoes stashed in the bushes, we started hiking up towards Glacier Basin. This would be my third trip to Glacier Basin and yet the scenery continues to impress me.

We encountered a party of three relaxing in the sunshine as we reached Glacier Basin. Andy and James apparently knew two of the guys from their high school days back on Bainbridge Island. We learned that there was also a party of two ahead of us (we could barely see them ascending the talus slope above us). Planning on climbing the South Face of EWS as well, the party of three seemed content just letting us get ahead of them. Bonus! The scramble up the scree and talus slope that fans out below EWS is tedious and loose, and hints at what lies ahead. Most years, the gully that continues up to the notch below EWS is snow-filled, becoming steep an icy later in the season. How odd, we thought, it was for the party ahead of us to leave crampons and axes behind. A short scramble into the horribly loose gully confirmed that it was in fact mostly snow-free, with only a small finger of snow and fallen blocks of ice accumulated at a constriction. The snow and ice was passable by odd an uncomfortable squeezing and stemming moves in the moat on the left then back right, around a final block of ice for one final pitch of wet, rotten, ball bearings-on slabs to the notch. All said, the gully is 3rd class, with a bit of 4th here and there. The moist and generally rotten rock demand one's full attention. Party induced rock-fall is definitely a consideration. (more...)

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