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North cascades guidebook

Original Post
Medium Spoons · · PNW · Joined Jan 2021 · Points: 0

What is it named? I couldn’t find an obvious answer with a google search. Looking for alpine routes specifically. 

Nate A · · SW WA · Joined Aug 2018 · Points: 0

I think this is the consensus best one for alpine in the cascades. 

Marlin Thorman · · Spokane, WA · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 2,646

Depends on what you are looking for.  If you are just doing the regular classics outside WA pass then yea Blake's book listed above is the one to get.  If you are looking for obscurities or even routes that just don't get deemed classic as much then you need one of the Cascade Alpine Guides....Volume 2 or 3 depending on where.  

Chris C · · Seattle, WA · Joined Mar 2016 · Points: 407

Cascades Rock (Harrington) is probably the most comprehensive collection. It does lean on the advanced side. Overall, it has a lot of stuff and can get your research going.  There is also approach beta in there for some of the more remote peaks that is very hard to come by elsewhere.

The Washington Pass SuperTopo (Nicholson) book is really good. As the name suggests, it is isolated specifically to that one area.  For the climbs in WA Pass, it really doesnt get any better than this.  It's topos give as close to turn-by-turn directions as you're going to get. For route research, this is basically a one stop shop.

Classic Cascades Climbs (Sjolseth, Nelson, Whitelaw) is really cool. It varies from easy classics to the fairly obscure that haven’t seen many repeats. It’s somewhere between a full on guide book, a coffee table book, and route porn. 

Cascade Alpine Guide (Becky) is commonly available and contains a lot of routes, but it's almost looking at an old encyclopedia.  I've really only found use in this series useful when I can't find route information anywhere else at all.  Select Climbs of the Cascades I/II (Nelson, Potterfield) is cool but on the older side.  While I enjoy owning them, I can't say they are super useful at this point.

For most alpine climbs in the Cascades, doing research from multiple sources has been really key for me. It's always kind of piecing together a puzzle before getting out there.  Mountain Project contains a lot of really good information for this type of climbing, especially for conditional beta in the ticks.  There are a lot of really good blogs out there once you start googling.  Also, this is a really good GPS trace resource: https://www.alpinesavvy.com/gps-tracks

Kyle Elliott · · Granite falls · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 1,773

Not a guidebook, but Cascadeclimbers has some trip reports that are beyond what could be covered in a guidebook. I've printed out several of them and laminated them into my own book. 

Google whatever climb you're researching, then site:cascadeclimbers.com if you don't want to scroll or use the website search. 

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Pacific Northwest
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