Help designing a climbing itinerary in WA, BC and Banff
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Wondering if I can benefit from a what could be a fun thought experiment for y'all. If you had a few months to spend climbing in Washington, BC and Banff to climb what would your itinerary look like? Places we are going: Olympic NP, Ranier NP, Leavenworth, Index, Darington, North Cascades NP, greater Bellingham, Okanagan, The Bugaboos, BC, and Vancouver Island. I'd love to hear what you would consider as the "must do" climbs. |
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Background: I'm a 5.10 trad leader with lots of glacier travel and alpine experience. I grew up in WA, but left 20 years ago. I don't have that much technical ice experience, but I've climbed a dozen or so technical alpines routes with long sections of AI 3 and some WI 4 frozen waterfalls. My girlfriend doesn't identify as a climber, but she's climbed a bunch of multipitch rock with me (up to 5.9) and a couple 6,000m peaks in the Andes. We've trekked thousands of miles together. She can handle arduous approaches and long days, but I don't want to lead her into all out sufferfests. Some light bushwakcking and creek crossings are okay, but nothing hardcore. She can climb 5.8 well, but things get hard for her at 5.9 and beyond. She only has little experience with steep snow and ice. She's also cool about hanging back at Basecamp when I want to do a "big one", I would just need arrange a different partners. |
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You should 100% go to The Bugs! I think it'll tick all your boxes (and your gfs) |
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Hi Scott- I've been based in the Seattle area for the last decade + and have climbed at all the areas you're thinking about. Send me a DM if you want to chat about your trip planning. |
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I'm assuming summer season here and GF friendly routes per your info... Olympic NP - Olympus as a backpack Ranier NP - Kautz or Emmons Leavenworth - Outer Space Index - just crag with the lady, not much she will be comfortable doing but some TR laps could be educational Darington - Dreamer North Cascades NP - TFT, Goode NE Butt, W MacMillan Spire, Fischer Chimneys on Shuksan are all good options greater Bellingham - just go to Squamish and climb something on the Apron to Butt Light Okanagan - SE Butt of Cathedral The Bugaboos - Pigeon W Ridge, Surfs Up BC - Yak Chek Vancouver Island - summit Colonel Foster (Actually no idea on this one, but it's on my radar and looks cool) Banff - Kain Route on Mt Louis, but actually you should just come in winter and climb ice. |
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I had a few spare minutes today, so I put together a few thoughts. I tried to take into account that if your gf doesnt fully identify as a climber, you may want some lower commitment stuff. I also included a few less steep mountaineering climbs that are still really cool experiences, which kinda fall into the category of technical treks. Ranier NP: North Cascades NP/Bellingham: Okanagan: The Bugaboos: BC: Honestly, I'd skip: No opinion because I havent climbed there: I've blogged a bit about my climbing in the PNW (and outside) here. Not trying to get clicks, but it may be helpful for you to get a "feel" for the climbing around here. |




