still really early, but plan to traverse pickets july 25'ish thru august whatever, 2013. would love to find some company. a flexible 7 to 10 to 13 days planned to play, depending on how exactly it shakes out. love to ooh n ahh, take pics of teh pretty, work hard and relax hard.

boat to big beaver hike to bb pass
pass to eiley/wiley ridge
wander
e/w ridge to luna basin
luna basin to luna pass
luna pass to picket pass
pp to azure lake
azure lake to... terror basin ? stetattle ridge ? both ?

really got a bug up my ass to camp at azure lake, that would be really cool.

Unless you have a 1000 foot repel line, you won't be camping at Azure lake. You can access Azure by going up the valley of Steattle creek, but that is nowhere near elevation wise anyways, your route.

Camp above Luna Pass:

Bri Tent S Pickets by footeab, on Flickr

Ok, so you are just traversing and not climbing the peaks I take it? If so, at least go up E. Fury as it won't even require glacier gear to hit its top. On said traverse you will have to traverse the E. Challenger glacier, though its really just a snowfield, but certainly does turn into a glacier if you screw up and stay high. If you want to hit Picket Pass without glacier gear, you can do so by going down the West side of E. Fury and then traversing to Picket Pass. Getting off of picket pass requires a rope though unless you go back up and over E. Fury. Personally I think someone would have to be barmy not to take a repel rope into the pickets as getting off track is easy to do and invariably requires repelling over cliff bands.

http://www.summitpost.org/picket-range/171088 Has many of the routes needed to traverse. If you are just traversing and for ease of transportation fiascos, traverse from luna pass to Terror lake, Terror lake to Elephant butte high route/Steattle ridge high route and back to your car at Diablo. IE drop car at Diablo, hike 2miles? to boat(Ross Lake resort) or just hike the 7 miles from the Resort to BB landing on easy flat(boring) trail. Take boat to BB landing.

Any peaks on the agenda...I might be interested. I'd be looking to ascend Luna, Whatcom, Challenger and Fury if possible

thanks for the info and words of caution wastral. having read a number of conflicting reports on the difficulty of the traverse my final plan is dependent on if it is a "my" plan or a "we" plan. having partners would be a different trip than if i wind up solo. i have heard conflicting reports on getting to azure lake as well. my personal experience is that people tend to greatly overstate difficulties. but by no means am i going to attempt something on the ground that is beyond my personal comfort level, which seems higher than some. the picket pass portion seems the most problematic from what i can glean 2nd hand from others statements. and the page you referenced on the pickets i am very grateful for ! that and accounts i have read on nwhikers and cascadeclimbers were really helpful. but until you go you never really know, and i really wanna go !

matt. definitely peaks. all you mentioned would be great ! and pt 6984, "little beaver", and pt 7374, "big beaver" along e/w ridge. then rhino/hippo/elephant butte on the way to stetattle ridge. it seems luna peak is not far, or hard, from the pass, but a bivi on top if feasible sounds really cool. i'd love to bivi on top of a peak, seems like it'd be a really cool experience.

As someone who has climbed all those peaks, I haven't been up Swiss and a few others, but all the main ones, yup; you will literally be walking over manay peaks points on E-W ridge to get to Challenger and several others along the way. You won't be Bivying on top of Luna either. Top of Luna peak, some say is actually class 4, I digress and say class 3. Its sharp and pointy even though its West ridge is gentle. It is shattered large rock up there and ain't a flat spot to be had unless you like serious sufferage.

Hey, I have been in there solo. Not a big deal. I still took a rapel rope though(6mm). Its easy to get off track, especially in unfavorable weather conditions. If sunny, no I doubt you would, though others have... Yes, you can futz around for half of forever figuring out how to get past said cliff bands, but its far faster unless you already know how to get past said cliff bands, to just rapel. Assuming you can see the bottom. As I have said before, you can get through the pickets without a rope and rapeling. The original party did after all. Just do not expect to go all the places one reads about without said rope.

PS. IMO The more interesting parts of the pickets are available to those with a rope though.
PPS. Azure lake may be possible from the East and maybe west... Otherwise check a topo map. My recollection is its ringed by cliffs and parts of cliffs on top of more cliff bands.
PPPS. Whatcom peak is way out of your way from E-W ridge. If you really want Whatcom, go in via little Beaver, to Whatcom pass, climb Whatcom, cross Challenger glacier, climb Challenger, traverse over to Luna Lake/Luna Pass Climb E. Fury, backtrack go down to Terror Lake, traverse to shoulder of McMillan, look DOWN DOWN DOWN at Azure lake, traverse out either Goodell creek or Elephant bute.
PPPPS. Challenger glacier is actually a real glacier with varied crevasse problems changing from year to year. This ain't your CA/WY/CO snowfield they call a glacier. You can bypass it by going down below... Haven't done it myself, but did contemplate it when I went in solo.
PPPPPS. If I wasn't sick lately and would rather spend 2 weeks in BC, I would gladly go with you.

http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/nws/ ... p?num=4776

Topo of azure lake.

http://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/nws/ ... p?num=4776

Topo of azure lake.

Goofball...I am very interested. I should be able to plan on this as well. Is July 28th firm? Something like July 25th would be a little nicer as I have a trip to Canada in the works for August sometime (would be right after this probably).

Lets exchange information and talk about this a little more in a bit.

BTW, I love your work in Utah...Poe Canyon and No Kidding in particular really strike me as two canyons I MUST do!

thanks again wastral. i am used to going things alone, just sux being the one having to shoulder all the gear. becoming less willing to carry the extra weight anymore, and more willing to do it the long way if that's how it goes.

sounds good matt.