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Summer throwback

- Paradise River and The Picket range - Mt. Rainier National Park -

#summer throwback #mt. rainier national park #paradise river #paradise valley #picket range #stream #meadows #national park #mountains #cascade mountains #cascade range #washington state #pnw #pnwonderland #upperleftusa

Picket Range, North Cascades, WA, USA [OC] [2918x3647] via /r/EarthPorn https://ift.tt/2ZWUgKq

#reddit #Earthporn #Science #Geology #Earth #Our World #Picket Range #North Cascades #WA #USA [OC] [2

Welcome to North Cascades Photography

Each week we will visit some place in the North Cascades. The best camp sites; day hikes and overnight trips; lookout towers, the best locations for sunrises, sunsets and night sky imaging. Whether you’re into a week long trip, or the best place for a drive-in view, I will cover the best times to go and How To Tips ranging from How to set exposure for a shot of the Milky Way to Where to see Mountain Goats?

Introduction

My fascination with the North Cascades started with a map.

In 1976 one of my friends read the Nat Geo article about a through hiker on the PCT. Several of us had recently finished a month long Outward Bound program in the Sawtooths, backpacking and rock climbing and we were excited for a new adventure.

I still have the map, from 1976

A few glances at the images and I was sending away for maps. When they finally arrived in the mail I poured over them, tracing the PCT and looking at the terrain.

Pacific Crest Trail, Pasayten Wilderness

It was the first time I’d heard of places like the Pasayten Wilderness and Crater Lake. At that time there was little to read about the trail, most of the planning for a thru hike was up to you.

When you study a map, planning mileage, elevation gain and water sources you try to envision the place. There were more then 20 maps for Washington and Oregon I sorted through, tracing the PCT and making plans. The place I was most captivated with, the most excited about visiting was the North Cascades. I wanted to see the Picket Range and hike over Whatcom Pass.

Mt Adams and Pacific Crest Trail, Goat Rocks Wilderness

First of all, it was clearly the most rugged section. There were other sections with higher summits, like Mt Rainier and Mt Adams.

But these giant peaks were surrounded by much smaller mountains. The North Cascades boasted the greatest density of topographical map lines. I imagined wave after wave of serrated ridges; steep U-shaped valleys, cloaked in green and mantled with glaciers. The names of the places fueled my imagination: Mount Terror and Mount Fury, Desolation Peak, Diablo Lake and Forbidden Peak were just a few. I couldn’t wait to get there. The only problem was that it wasn’t the easiest place to get to!

Sunset at Sahale Camp, North Cascades National Park

In the end we decided to hike the PCT through Oregon. We hitchhiked from eastern Pennsylvania to Cascade Locks, Oregon, along the Columbia River and started our journey south.

My travels led me to many places, decades passed. But the allure and wonder of this place I’d never seen stuck with me.

The Picket Range, from Copper Ridge

Mt Challenger, from Whatcom Pass

Easy Pass, Whatcom Peak and Mt Challenger

Salmon in the Chilliwack River

Sahale Camp

It was 30 years before I made it back to see the places I’d dreamed of: Copper Ridge and the Chilliwack River, Mt Challenger and the Pickets…

I feel privileged to be able to see such things and humbled trying to capture some part of it in an image.

Now I live along the North Cascades Highway. Living on the doorstep of the mountains makes it easy to visit often. I truly feel at home.

Each week North Cascades Photography will visit some place in the North Cascades and share info on the best trails, camp sites, day hikes, long hikes, drive-in vistas, locations for Night Sky imaging and of course lots and lots of images.

You can always find out more about Trips, Classes, Photo Tours and more at my web site, AndyPorterImages.com

Next: The North Cascades Highway

Welcome to the North Cascades

North Cascades Photography – Introduction Welcome to North Cascades Photography

#chilliwack river #copper ridge #mt challenger #North Cascades #north cascades highway #north cascades national park #picket range #whatcom pass

Tidbits from West Twin Needle climb in the Picket Range

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A post shared by John (偉文) | One Hike A Week (@onehikeaweek)

#picket range #west twin needle #north cascades national park #stephen mather wilderness #adobe express #adobe photoshop #Instagram #onehikeaweek #每週一行 #reels video

West Twin Needle of Picket Range by Mount Terror in North Cascades National Park, Stephan Mather Wilderness via Terror Creek and Barrier.

#picket range #west twin needle #north cascades national park #twin needles #stephen mather wilderness

Silesia Camp and Copper Ridge, North Cascades National Park

The North Cascades National Park turns 50 this year! Learn more about its history here.

This is the 4th post in a series highlighting spectacular places in the North Cascades National Park. You can access earlier posts here.

Silesia Camp is located along Copper Ridge in the northern section of the North Cascades National Park.

You can hike there in one day, access is from the Hannegan Pass trail…

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#copper ridge #mount shuksan #North Cascades #north cascades national park #picket range #ruth mountain #silesia camp #whatcom peak

Oh Fury, My Fury

My friend Ian and I set out to complete a full North-South traverse of the Picket Range in the North Cascades, allotting 7 days for the whole trip. I literally packed for 7 days. “This will be fine -- the reports from previous years looked manageable. We’re experienced. My gear works. I’ve been training.”

See below for a few pictures (some are mine, some are Ian’s).

My info: IG: @keschh.

Ian’s info: IG: @iansradventures, Blog: http://photo.iansradventures.com/

Sunset of Mount Baker (left) and Shuksan (right) from the false summit of Luna Peak.

We thought were ready. In shape. Skillfully experienced and physiologically aware. But we were still outmaneuvered and underprepared. We weren’t far off from ready, truly. In fairness, we had everything we needed, save 3, maybe 4, extra days of food. But I should’ve paid more attention when Ian said only a few others groups had done the full traverse.

Our shadows as we cross the Challenger Glacier.

In reality, it wasn’t the technical difficulty that made us bail out early, but the daily gruel. Thousands of feet of descent, followed by thousands of feet of ascent, again and again. Every. Day. Our packs weighed upwards of 60 pounds, Ian’s due to camera gear and his (!) 6 Platypus liters. And me having packed for more-than-anticipated snow-travel. One of the problems was that the Pickets are so remote, that there were very few reports about conditions. Not just in the past few months -- but in the past few years. We’d stopped by the Marblemount Ranger station the morning before our departure -- they’d sent out climbing rangers to do a quick look at the conditions, but even their beta was limited. So in the end, while we found that conditions were manageable (water was plentiful, the glaciers were still traversable), the only thing we didn’t account for was time. Our pace was simply too slow to meet the resource constraints.

Luna Lake at dusk -- my first time jumping into a lake that still had icebergs in it.

I’ve done a lot of long-distance backpacking, easily over 300 miles spanning 3 or 4 trips. I felt ready. I knew what it felt like to walk for days on end with a heavy pack, at least on a nicely groomed trail. I knew where my blisters would form and when, and how the first day always sucks, but how your trail legs come in with a vengeance. The food I packed was enough for the time I packed for (alright, maybe I did lose some pounds, but because of lack of food). But the Pickets are different. The total mileage is short, by most measures, maybe 50-60 miles or so. But after hiking in the 18 miles from Little Beaver trailhead, the “trail” stops, and you’re left route finding through boulder fields, talus, glacier travel, literal bushwalking, and feeding your way through cracks in cliff faces.

What you think is a nicely groomed route with a manageable descent, when you see it from thousands of feet away high on a cliff, is actually a hundreds-of-feet-tall moraine freckled with boulders the size of busses and stabilized by sand. What looks like an easy-going climb up a clear knife edge is actually loose rock, with limited holds for cams. And what looks like a reasonable “ramp”, for lack of a better word, that might even have a climbers trail, is actual a massive boulder field covered in alder bush that steals your camera gear and tears your pack open.

The going is slow my friend. I’d liken it more to bear crawling drunk, with the literal added constraint that you now have a big, heavy round thing strapped to your sweaty back. Maybe that’s how I should’ve trained.

Ian’s photo, taken at Perfect Pass.

In retrospect, neither of us overpacked at all. Mountaineering boots, crampons, axes, rope, harnesses, gear. Extra filters, warm puffys, base layers, rain shells. It was all necessary. We used everything we had. We could have done without the tent and bivvied instead, but that’s pocket change in the grand scheme of things.

Ian’s photo of me standing mesmerized by Mount Fury, taken from the Luna Col at sunrise.

In the end, we got to experience one of arguably the most remote and rugged, yet simultaneously magical and beautiful, places in the lower 48, and that I’ve ever seen. A place that few people know about, and even fewer ever get to see. There were fires burning in BC, Idaho, Montana, and Eastern Washington, and the smoke seemed to converge in the North Cascades, making for some of the most remarkable sunsets. The mountains are sharp and jagged -- they almost look “fresh”, as if a glacier just carved them out and they’re still reeling in their rawness. The colors are deep, pure, and threatening. The Pickets are saturated with jet black granite and copper-veined boulders and mesmerizingly blue crevasses.

Mount Challenger summit at dusk.

We crossed the Challenger Glacier in the evening, and I remember feeling like I was on the moon. The sun cups in the snow were lit up on one side, with a deep purple shadow on the other, giving the glacier this dreamy, cratered look. If you snuck a peek up towards the summit, you could see the deep bergshrund, and just over the peak, a half moon. It was one of those moments where you realize what’s happening and the only words you can think of are “Holy shit, I love Earth.” Or does that just happen to me?

We’re planning our trip back already.