Adventure Run Ideas 2011 – Cascades

The North Cascades are the most rugged and wild mountains in the contiguous United States. They are heavily glaciated and often difficult to access. I have been climbing in the North Cascades for many years and the breathtaking scenery never gets old. Here are some adventure run ideas I have for the Cascades this summer:

Cascades:

• Westside Northern Pickets Traverse: From Hannegan Pass to Diablo Lake, this year’s route through the Pickets is even more remote and rugged than last year’s Luna Cirque Traverse and passes underneath the towering walls of the Southern Picket “fence.” The terrain is arduous and challenging so the Westside is only traversed a couple times a year, if at all. Intense summit names like Challenger, Fury, Terror, Crooked Thumb, and Phantom manifest the difficulty of reaching this fabled region and there is virtually no evidence of human impact.
• Redoubt and Spickard: I visited this spectacular area near the Canadian border way back in 2004 in a climb of Mount Redoubt via Depot Creek. I’d like to return and climb Mount Spickard at some point since the summit has one of the best views in the entire North Cascades.
• Isolation Traverse: A high traverse through the seldom visited region between Snowfield Peak and Eldorado Peak with views of the rugged McAllister Glacier cirque.
• Wonderland Trail: This amazing 94 mile loop around Mount Rainier has been on my radar for a few years and it is definitely something I hope to do someday.

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