Northern Pickets 1

Other trips to the Pickets:Northern Pickets 1    •    Northern Pickets 2    •    Southern Pickets 1     •    Southern Pickets 2    •     Complete N-S Pickets Traverse    •    Mystery Ridge Enchainment    •    Twin Needles (Thread of Ice, FA)    •    Whatcom Peak (South Side, 3rd) 
Category: Washington (HWY 20)Summit Elev: 8,207 ft (Challenger) Rock Type: Gneiss / Granodiorite
Date: July 22-26, 2007 (Sun-Thu)Trip Report #: 47Partner: Ed Hobbick

"Northern Pickets 1":

Route: Big Beaver - Wiley Ridge - Luna Creek

Climb: MT. CHALLENGER (glacier+mid-5th rock)

Found this on a post a couple of years after this trip report....some of the details are inaccurate (for example, I am a female), but the basic gist is spot on: 

... two climbers were bushwhacking out of the Pickets and got separated in the green hell of the descent. The first climber stumbled out onto the Big Beaver trail and waited half of a day for his buddy. At long last he was spotted, stumbling packless out of the brush. "Hey, where the F^&% is your pack?" "F&^* that stuff (tent, rope, ice ax, crampons ...)," he replied. "I ditched it!"

The following page details this infamous "picketed in the Pickets" adventure. But at least I got to climb Mt. Challenger! 

(In August 2008, I revisited my plans to complete the north to south Pickets traverse, and a phenomenal adventure this turned out to be.)

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