48°31′N 120°39′WWASHINGTON PASS QUADRANGLEELEV. 5,477 FTCONTOUR INTERVAL 40 FT
Climbing
Washington

Rock and mountain climbing in Washington State, mapped: the crags, the peaks and the record of who first climbed them.

Four towers stand above the highway at 5,477 feet. The first of them went in 1946.

Fred Beckey, Charles Welsh and Jerry O’Neil climbed Liberty Bell Mountain in September 1946. The road beneath it did not open for another twenty-six years.

SHEET 1 · NINETEEN PLACES BETWEEN PUGET SOUND AND THE COLUMBIA
Mount BakerMount BakerMount ShuksanMount ShuksanLiberty BellLiberty BellEarly Winter SpiresEarly Winter SpiresForbidden PeakForbidden PeakDarringtonDarringtonThree O'Clock RockThree O'Clock RockMount ErieMount ErieIndexIndexGlacier PeakGlacier PeakPrusik PeakPrusik PeakSnow Creek WallSnow Creek WallCastle RockCastle RockPeshastin PinnaclesPeshastin PinnaclesMount StuartMount StuartExit 38Exit 38Frenchman CouleeFrenchman CouleeRoyal ColumnsRoyal ColumnsMount RainierMount Rainier
How to read this map
CragsPeaks & RoutesDarringtonEnchantmentsLandGraticule at two-degree spacing
Numbers match the key below — hover for a name, click to open the entry
Nineteen places, coloured by section. The numbers run with the key below; hover a marker for its name. The sea is at left, the Columbia basin off the right edge.
  1. 01Mount ShuksanPeaks & Routes
  2. 02North Cascades National ParkLand
  3. 03Liberty BellPeaks & Routes
  4. 04Early Winter SpiresEnchantments
  5. 05Forbidden PeakPeaks & Routes
  6. 06DarringtonDarrington
  7. 07Three O'Clock RockDarrington
  8. 08Mount ErieCrags
  9. 09IndexCrags
  10. 10Glacier PeakPeaks & Routes
  11. 11Prusik PeakPeaks & Routes
  12. 12Snow Creek WallCrags
  13. 13Castle RockCrags
  14. 14Peshastin PinnaclesCrags
  15. 15Mount StuartPeaks & Routes
  16. 16Exit 38Crags
  17. 17Frenchman CouleeCrags
  18. 18Royal ColumnsCrags
  19. 19Mount RainierPeaks & Routes
Castle Rock, Icicle Canyon
Castle Rock stands directly above U.S. 2 at the mouth of Tumwater Canyon, the first Leavenworth crag to carry a documented record.
Photo: Castle Rock, Icicle Canyon · Wikimedia Commons

Four miles of granite line the Icicle above Leavenworth, and the record of who climbed it first runs back to the 1930s.

Castle Rock →
Crags

Rock you can reach before the coffee goes cold

Two climbers scale a steep granite cliff face dotted with sparse vegetation
Index granodiorite, part of the Index batholith, rises straight out of the valley floor at the edge of a town of a few hundred people.Photo: Index Town Wall · Wikimedia Commons

Index, the Icicle above Leavenworth, Exit 38 and Little Si on the Interstate 90 corridor, Mount Erie above Anacortes, the Royal Columns in the Tieton, Peshastin Pinnacles, Frenchman Coulee out on the Columbia. Most are within two hours of a city.

All eight crags →

Peaks & Routes

The summits, and the men and women who signed them first

Fred Beckey’s name sits on more Washington first ascents than anyone’s. The Beckey Route on Liberty Bell went in September 1946; the North Ridge of Stuart, the West Ridge of Forbidden and Liberty Ridge on Rainier are the other lines the state is known by.

Peaks & Routes →

  1. Liberty BellBeckey Route1946
  2. Mount RainierLiberty Ridge1935
  3. Forbidden PeakWest Ridge1940
  4. Mount StuartNorth Ridge1956
  5. Early Winter SpiresSouth Arete1942
  6. Prusik PeakSouth Face1957
Darrington

Slab country above the Sauk

Three O’Clock Rock, Exfoliation Dome and Squire Creek Wall stand behind Darrington: low-angle granodiorite scoured by ice and climbed on friction.

Darrington →

A lone climber ascends a large streaked granite dome surrounded by boulders and shrubs
Three O'Clock Rock takes its name from the hour the sun reaches it.Photo: Osviel Rodriguez Valdés / Pexels
Turquoise alpine lake surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks and evergreen trees
Prusik Peak, in the Enchantment basin above Leavenworth, named for a knot.
Photo: Nathan Steele / Pexels

A basin named for its own scenery

Enchantments →
Land

Who owns the rock, and since when

Designation by designation, the record of who came to own the rock.

  1. 1964Wilderness ActGlacier Peak Wilderness comes under it
  2. 1968North Cascades National ParkPasayten Wilderness designated the same year
  3. 1972State Route 20 completedThe highway reaches Washington Pass, 26 years after the Beckey Route
  4. 1976Alpine Lakes WildernessA boundary drawn around the Enchantments
  5. 1980Mount St Helens erupts18 May; the mountain closes to climbers
  6. 1984Mount Baker Wilderness
  7. 1987St Helens reopenedSeven years after the eruption
  8. 1991Peshastin PinnaclesBecomes a state park
  9. 2010Lower Town Wall boughtThe Washington Climbers Coalition takes title at Index

Land →

A club, a press and three volumes

The Mountaineers were founded in Seattle in 1906 and became the publisher of Beckey’s Cascade Alpine Guide — the most complete record any American range has.

The printed record →

Sandstone among the granite

Peshastin Pinnacles, fins of Chumstick sandstone above Cashmere, climb unlike anything else in the state and became a state park in 1991.

Peshastin Pinnacles →

The five volcanoes, in order of height

Rainier 14,411 · Adams 12,281 · Baker 10,781 · Glacier Peak 10,541 · St Helens 8,363 since 1980. Rainier was first summited in 1870.

Peaks & Routes →

Supporters

Tending the route record with us

Clubs and archives that share a rope with this record.