Even though I went to college at the University of Washington, I was always too busy studying to do any climbing in the North Cascades. Except for a hike to Cascade Pass in 1991, I'd never even SEEN the range until July of 1999. That's the thing about the NC's - they're essentially invisible from any road or inhabited place. You really have to get up amongst the peaks in order to see the alpine terrain.
During the amazingly snowy summer of 1999, my friend Tom and I climbed the standard route on Eldorado Peak, after bailing on the Ptarmigan Traverse. I was very excited to have finally climbed a peak in the NC's. I also took a flight with my friend Joan, and we had some nice evening views of the mountains. Unfortunately, both trips took place in fairly hazy weather, but the photographs seemed decent enough to put on the website.
I took another trip to the NCs in the summer of 2000, and had another good bail on the Ptarmigan Traverse, this time in even worse weather. My friends and I climbed Mt. Maude, though, which had some wonderful summit views.
As always, photographs do very little to show the true three-dimensional grandeur of the mountains. Even though the NC's don't top out at terribly high altitudes, they are IMPRESSIVE. It's as though someone had taken a big chunk of the Pennine Alps or the mountains of New Zealand and hidden them away in a forgotten corner of Washington State. No offense to the rest of America's mountains, but a trip to the North Cascades will make you realize that this is the only really alpine area in the 48 States. Everything else is gentle rolling mountains and dry crags. Nothing wrong with that, but that's the way it is. They don't call the NC's "America's Alps" for nothing. Go climb Eldorado, Forbidden, or some other summit and you'll see what I mean - just don't expect to see any of this from the car!