North Cascades Rock Climbing

The North Cascades are home to a huge number of peaks with many excellent alpine climbs. It is unlike other North American ranges such as the Sierra, Wind River or Colorado Rockies in that the local relief is immense and consistent - much more like a plateau of summits with deeply cut gorges in between than a series of ridges that ascend to a high point. The North Cascades is also northernly on the continent and has a maritime climate - this results in its containing the majority of the glaciers in the lower 48. Deep, mossy gorges, countless beautiful falls, endless devil's club and banded Skagit gneiss on the west side give way to rattlesnakes, hot summers, endless sharp ridgelines and sedimentary choss. Both sides of the range, however, have pockets of lovely granite scattered hither and yon, and intense bushwhacks to many of the peaks. In a low-elevation range with so much snow and rainfall, plus deep glacier-sculpted cirques and valleys, those who access these sometime-remote peaks are a special type of Cascade hardmen. The mainstays of good rock include Washington Pass, parts of Boston Basin, the Gunsight Range, and parts of the Pickets. With so much to offer and typical alpine approaches, you probably won't find mobs of other people. Where granite exists, the rock is mostly very good, offering cracks, chimneys, flakes, roofs, etc. Summer is the time for alpine rock.