Archive · 29 entries
Everything on the site, laid out properly
Five sections, twenty-nine entries. The front page carries an edit of this; here is the whole roster.
The Lower Town Wall and What the Valley Below It Changed
A portrait of the Index Town Walls — the Lower Town Wall, Godzilla, the Japanese Gardens — as named climbing terrain, with the Skykomish valley as context. The angle is how the wall's proximity to a small town shaped who climbed it and when.
Basalt That Broke Off in Columns
The Feathers at Frenchman Coulee near Vantage — what Columbia River basalt is, how the columns formed, and what the formation looked like before any climber named a route on it. An explainer in geological terms first, climbing record second.
Outer Space and the Wall It Finishes On
Snow Creek Wall above the Icicle Creek drainage and the route named Outer Space — its place in the first-ascent record and the specific character of the granite it runs on. A close look at one named route as a document of its era.
Castle Rock Above Leavenworth
Castle Rock in Tumwater Canyon and its position in the Leavenworth climbing record — the formations, the named routes, and why this crag drew climbers decades before the Icicle Canyon walls did. A short historical note.
Exit 38, World Wall I, and the Case for Roadside Rock
Little Si and the Exit 38 crags east of Seattle — World Wall I as a named formation, and an argument for why proximity to a city shapes a crag's history as much as the quality of the rock does.
Peshastin Pinnacles: Sandstone in a Granite State
The Peshastin Pinnacles near Leavenworth — the only major sandstone formation in the Washington climbing record — and what distinguishes their geology from the granite that surrounds them on three sides. A comparison of rock types through the lens of first-ascent history.
Mount Erie Above the Islands
Mount Erie near Anacortes — basalt cliffs above Fidalgo Island, with views that include the San Juans — and its place in the northwest Washington climbing record. A portrait of a crag defined as much by its setting as its routes.
The Royal Columns and the Tieton's Dry Side
The Royal Columns in the Tieton River canyon — columnar basalt on the east slope of the Cascades where the rainfall drops sharply — and how the dry-side location gave this crag a different climbing season and a different first-ascent roster from the western walls. A walk through the record.
Four Towers Above the Highway, and the Line Beckey Found in 1946
Liberty Bell Mountain — 7,720 feet by the Forest Service survey — and Fred Beckey's first ascent of the northeast buttress in August 1946 as a dated event in the climbing record. The piece reconstructs what was known about the peak before that ascent and what the Beckey party found.
Mount Stuart's North Ridge as a Problem in Granite
The North Ridge of Mount Stuart — the longest rock route in the contiguous Cascades by most measures — examined as a named feature in the first-ascent record rather than as a route to follow. The piece focuses on the geological character of the Stuart batholith and the history of who climbed it and when.
Forbidden Peak and the West Ridge Record
Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades — its 1940 first ascent and the West Ridge as a named line in alpine climbing history. An argument for why Forbidden became the reference point for North Cascades alpine rock when Shuksan and Baker were climbed earlier and written about more.
Rainier from the North: Liberty Ridge and the 1935 Line
Liberty Ridge on Mount Rainier — first climbed in 1935 — examined as a named feature distinct from the standard Camp Muir approach. The piece traces the ridge as geography: its ice, its elevation gain, its position on the Carbon Glacier headwall, and its place in the Rainier first-ascent sequence.
Shuksan: The Peak That Is Not a Volcano
Mount Shuksan — metamorphic rock in a range of volcanoes — and what distinguishes its geology and its climbing record from the Cascade peaks around it. A comparison that uses the 1906 Mountaineers survey and the first-ascent sequence to make the geological argument visible.
Prusik Peak and the Name It Carries
Prusik Peak in the Enchantments — named for the knot, which was named for Karl Prusik — and the first-ascent record of its granite spire above the upper Enchantments basin. The piece traces the naming chain and the 1950s climb as a piece of documented history.
Glacier Peak: The Cascade Volcano Nobody Sees from a Road
Glacier Peak — the most remote of Washington's five major volcanoes — and its place in the climbing record from the 1898 first ascent onward. An argument for why its obscurity is itself a geographical fact worth recording.
Three O'Clock Rock and the Sauk's Afternoon Light
Three O'Clock Rock above the Sauk River — named for the hour its face catches direct sun — and its position in the Darrington climbing record as a slab formation distinct from the canyon walls of the Icicle. A portrait of the crag through its geology and its first-ascent history.
Exfoliation Dome: What Peeling Rock Tells You
Exfoliation Dome near Darrington — named for the geological process visible on its face — and what the exfoliation pattern says about the cooling history of the Darrington pluton. The climbing record follows the geology rather than leading it.
Two Kinds of Washington Granite
A direct comparison of Darrington-area granite and the Index batholith — mineralogy, texture, friction, and what each rock type produces as climbing terrain. Uses the named formations on both sides as evidence rather than as destinations.
The 1976 Line That Changed the Enchantments
The Alpine Lakes Wilderness Act of 1976 — what it designated, which agency it shifted authority to, and how the boundary it drew changed the Enchantments basin as a place in the climbing record. A piece about a legislative act as a geographical event.
Early Winters Spires at 5,477 Feet
The Early Winters Spires at Washington Pass — the four towers visible from the highway — and their place in the first-ascent record alongside Liberty Bell. The piece examines why the spires were climbed in a different sequence from what their visibility might suggest.
The Basin Named for Its Own Scenery
The Enchantments basin as a named place — who named it, the first-ascent sequence across its granite spires, and the Leavenworth climbing community's role in documenting it through the mid-twentieth century. A survey of the record rather than the terrain.
The Index Batholith: Where the Rock Came From
The Index batholith — the granite intrusion underlying the Index Town Walls and the Skykomish drainage — explained as a geological body: its age, its mineralogy, and why it produces the particular friction and crack systems that define Index climbing. An explainer that earns its geology.
How Basalt Becomes a Column
The Columbia River Basalt Group and the specific cooling mechanics that produce the hexagonal columns at Frenchman Coulee, the Tieton, and Mount Erie. A geological explainer that uses named Washington formations as its examples throughout.
The 1968 Act and the Peaks It Enclosed
The North Cascades National Park Act of 1968 — which peaks and drainages it enclosed, what it changed for climbers who had been operating in the range before the designation, and how it altered the administrative record of named routes. A history of the boundary as a fact.
The Mountaineers, 1906, and the Book That Catalogued the Range
The Mountaineers — founded in Seattle in 1906 — and their publication of Fred Beckey's three-volume Cascade Alpine Guide as the most complete first-ascent record any American range carries. The piece treats the Guide as a document and The Mountaineers as the institution that made it possible.
Lloyd Anderson Needed an Ice Axe
REI's 1938 origin — Lloyd Anderson's cooperative, founded because he could not buy a quality ice axe in Seattle — told as institutional history rather than retail biography. The piece traces the line from a missing piece of equipment to the co-op that grew from it.
Who Bought the Lower Town Wall and Why It Mattered in 2010
The 2010 purchase of the Index Lower Town Wall — the transaction that transferred the wall from private to public ownership — as a piece of Washington climbing history. The piece names the parties, the year, and the significance of the boundary change for the climbing record.
The Washington Climbers Coalition and the Question of Access as History
The Washington Climbers Coalition — its founding, its named campaigns, and its role in the Index purchase — examined as an institution in the climbing record. An argument that access history is as much a part of the climbing record as first-ascent history.
May 1980 and the Closure That Rewrote the Southern Cascades
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens — the climbing closure it imposed, how long that closure held, and what the eruption changed in the documented summit record of the southern Washington Cascades. A dated historical event, stated as such.