Mt Baker, Sisters, Shuksan
We have been talking and planning this trip for some time. Schedules and weather, not to mention a few extra bucks for the plane, needed to all come together to see some of our past climbing adventures from the air. Our ultimate goal was to see the North Ridge of Baker that Andrew and I climbed in July
LINK TEXT HERE, Shuksan from different trips, the Pickets which Nick and I have been into the previous 4 years and this year's Ptarmigan Traverse in August! The sun setting, we had to put off flying south to the Ptarmigan Traverse, but we had an amazing trip from Baker to the Pickets, no complaints. Off we went with our pilot, Omar, from the Bellingham Airport at 6:30PM. We flew straight to Baker, over Lake Whatcom, good views of Twin Sisters Range and Shuksan. All of these we would revisit nearing sunset after a quick fly over of the Pickets.
The Pickets
It seems impossible to truly appreciate the Pickets if you have not been there on foot. Fred Beckey said in his book, " CHALLENGE OF THE NORTH CASCADES", "Those who bivouac appreciate the nigh more than the tourists; the loveliness is paid for partly in the currency of suffering."(page 127) He and his brother Hemley were climbing in the Pickets when he makes this quote. I agree completely. Now we were covering more territory in less than two hours than accumulative weeks of hard travel from past trips into these mountains over several years. There was no suffering on this trip.
So, from Baker/Shuksan we headed for the Pickets North to South and around a couple of times. With day light running low, we got our views and pictures in a hurry. We have to do this again with more mid-day light. We'll see how long that plan takes to come together.
Return trip by the North Faces of Shuksan, Baker and Twin Sisters
The Sun is setting much sooner, but the air was very clear this evening. We were taking all of these pictures through the glass of a rental airplane. However, even with our point and shoot cameras and auto focusing, we had good success. Hope you enjoyed what I could share. We sure live in a beautiful place. Thanks to Omar for his great piloting!!!
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