Traversing In Washington!

Whether we are climb­ing in the Cas­cades or the Olympics, Moun­tain Mad­ness has been lead­ing a num­ber of climbs across tra­vers­es and com­ing out with great results! 

Bai­ley Range Tra­verse — Out­side Mag­a­zine’s Best Trips of 2010! 

Guide Jason Bro­man reflects on the trip: 

“It was def­i­nite­ly the most stren­u­ous trip I’ve ever guid­ed in the North­west. We had phe­nom­e­nal camp­sites and could­n’t have asked for bet­ter weath­er. But I’m sure no one ate a freeze-dried meal for quite some time after the trip.” 

A fair­ly new tra­verse to the Moun­tain Mad­ness climbers is the Bai­ley Range Tra­verse in the Olympic Range. Guides Jason Bro­man and Tino Vil­lanue­va took six clients to this awe­some loca­tion in July and were met with per­fect weath­er and chal­leng­ing con­di­tions. All of the clients came with strong climb­ing and back­pack­ing skills, which helped on this nine-day climb. Every­one did well with the var­ied con­di­tions of nasty loose gul­lies and hor­ren­dous bush-wacking.

The group had some hot days on the snow and encoun­tered bears, goats and elk. One enter­tain­ing and mem­o­rable moment on the trip involved cross­ing the Hoh Riv­er when one climber, Tom, lost his water shoe down the riv­er when try­ing to throw it across the riv­er for the oth­er climbers to use. The shoe has prob­a­bly reached the Pacif­ic Ocean by now. Great trip everyone!

Iso­la­tion Tra­verse — check out our blog post from ear­li­er this summer!