2024 summits
summiting done in 2024
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Saddle Mountain 11-29-2024
Clastop County, Oregon 11-29-2024 5.15 miles, 2300 ft (with Humbug Mountain) We decided to stay in Cannon Beach for Thanksgiving, a good time to utilize four days off without taking PTO because Anacortes is stingy and I only get 2 weeks of vacation for 5 years! There are a couple peaks around the area that we chose from. Ross has hiked Saddle Mountain as a kid and wanted to do it again. It is actually the highest peak in Clatsop County at a massive 3,284 ft a little less than 5 miles to the top. A little background geology this mountain was formed in the Miocene by Columbia River lava…
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Volcán de Fuego and Acatenango 11/11-12/2024
11/11-12/2024 This whole trip started on the 9th with a meeting at the OX expedition headquarters in Antigua. I immediately got bad feelings. They asked us to give them our IDs to hold for the trip for renting gear, Ross and I literally only rented a sleeping bag liner. I was NOT into giving my ID and I almost argued, but no one else seemed to have an issue with it at least it was not my passport, that would have been a hard no. Ross made a comment about the people in the meeting with us, being “its exactly the type of people I’d expect” which he meant Instagram…
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Stiletto Peak Lookout 10/25/2024
10/25/2024 10.2 miles 3900 ft We were looking for a hike that was about 3500-4000 feet of gain. I really wanted to try and find some larches if they were still larching around. Ross had suggested Stiletto Peak earlier in the week and I got my heart set on it, as I do. There was the idea of possibly trying to scramble the peak but we were going to have to see how it looked when we got up there, I had not read too many reports some saying class 3. Luckily, he was agreeable and we set off about 6:45 AM and got to the Bridge Creek Trailhead off…
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Tomyhoi False Summit 10/13/2024
Tomyhoi false summit 9/13/2024 10.3 3,200 ft Ross and I decided to head up the Yellow Aster Butte Trail. This was after a couple of unfortunately bad life weeks where I was not able to get out and do anything. But I kicked myself out of the funk and we really needed to start getting some hiking in before Guatemala. A fellow birder friend of our had gone up the previous day and saw a couple bird species that we would like to see so that gave us the idea of this one. We did not plan on leaving super early and got to the trailhead at 9:30 AM and…
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Driveway Butte 9/13/2024
Driveway Butte 9/13/2024 9.0 miles 3100 ft Picked this one to do on our way to Winthrop for a Hart’s Pass birding weekend. Hart’s Pass area has a tiny bit of Whatcom County still on the eastern side of the Cascades so it still counts for my Whatcom County list! This trail was nice because it was right off HWY 20 starting by the Klipchuck Campground, we were the only ones in the parking lot. Starting off on trail 481 and then take a right on the Driveway Butte Trail, there is a sign that says 4 miles to the top. Right away we were excited about the new birds…
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Coleman Pinnacle 8/4/2024
8/4/2024 10.0 miles 1400 feet For some reason I do not have a strava record of this so that annoys me I don’t have the exact numbers. This is one I’ve thought of doing since I started wanting to do summits. I was going to do it myself last year towards the end of the year but I got far enough to were the snow started and I turned around. This starts at Artist point and I was a beautiful day so of course everyone was out. The first mile of Ptarmigan Traverse is always crowded these days but once you get past the Chain Lakes Loop turnoff the crowds…
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Glacier Peak 7/11-14/2024
35 miles 12000 feet Day 1 North Fork Sauk Trailhead to White Pass Camp 9.5 miles 4600 feet. I decided to leave a day earlier than my friends that I was tagging along with. I wanted to give myself the best chances of a summit after coming off of a failing summit attempt of Mount Baker a couple weekends before. I took my time packing at the house and drove to the trailhead and was off right at noon. I knew this was going to be a really long day and probably the hardest day, so I came up with a plan of 1 hour and mandatory break. The first…
