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Early Season Cascade Options

PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:57 pm
by chadbw
Hi all,
My climbing partners and I are looking at climbing somewhere in the Cascades in late May. That's earlier than we would ordinarily want to go, but due to the military commitments of one of our group members we're fairly constrained in terms of timeline. I'm looking for suggestions of good climbs in late May, in particular for this year (2022) given the snow load of this past winter. For reference, we're looking at mountains along the lines of Olympus, Shuksan, or Glacier, though we've heard reports that some (maybe all?) won't be accessible in May. I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

For reference, we climbed Rainier in early July of last year (DC route) and have some other experience, including some glacier classes, between us. So while we won't claim to be experts, we're not complete novices either.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Re: Early Season Cascade Options

PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:07 pm
by Sierra Ledge Rat
The spring of 1987 was a year of heavy snowfall, and there were a lot of avalanches. So here are the routes we did that we thought were fairly safe:
Mt. Adams North Ridge
Mt. Rainier, Success Cleaver
Forbidden Peak, West Ridge
Glacier Peak, Frostbite Ridge

Re: Early Season Cascade Options

PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:48 pm
by anthbmarra
In my opinion, May is one of the best times to be climbing in the cascades. Crevasses are filled in, snow travel is easy (as long as there has been solid freeze/thaw cycles). May is one of my favorite months for climbing in the PNW, but I also tend to use skis. Even without skis, I still think it's a great time to be climbing. The main issue is road access and you could get skunked by weather. A list of mountains that I think are great options in May:

Mount Baker (Coleman Deming/Easton/Boulder Glacier/North Ridge)
Mount Shuksan (White Salmon Glacier/Sulphide Glacier)
Eldorado (East Ridge)
Mount Adams (Plenty of options)
Mount Hood (Plenty of options)
Rainier (emmons, DC, Fuhrer Finger, Kautz)
Whitehorse
Silverstar
Ruby Mountain

I could probably list 100 more.