Beautiful terrain -- we didn't see any of it

August 27, 2024 4:15 PM

The High Route (SLYT). Two climbers set out to traverse the entire length of North Cascades National Park in Washington on foot in just under a week.

Here is a written account of the trip, from one of the climbers.
- A high route is a route between two places that goes and stays above treeline, as much as possible.
- An FKT is a Fastest Known Time, a pseudo-formalized record system of how fast people are known to have done something
- NorthFaceBlue

posted by yeahwhatever (10 comments total)

Isn’t this just an ad for NorthFace?
posted by Ideefixe at 4:35 PM on August 27

I've taken that boat up Ross Lake to go backpacking!

And that is where the similarity between my experience and their experience ends.
posted by gurple at 5:03 PM on August 27

Isn’t this just an ad for NorthFace?

I mean, I would describe it first and foremost as a very cool alpine traverse, but yes it is an ad. A lot of the more niche athletics endeavors will be funded this way, and I guess I differentiate between athletes finding sponsors for projects they're interested in and like a thirty second Pepsi commercial. I do understand that some might not agree with that distinction and apologize if this post rubs you the wrong way.
posted by yeahwhatever at 5:37 PM on August 27 [6 favorites]

6:18: Fuck. Me. No freakin' way. (as if the rest were a piece of cake)

Maybe I'd do it if I could just, y'know, get a helicopter to drop me off at a nice flat spot near the top of a mountain so I could camp there and contemplate the spectacular views for a couple days before getting picked up again and taken home...
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:06 PM on August 27 [1 favorite]

Walking over snow covered slopes is what gets me. I know it's no problem for real alpinists, but I find it scary. 6 days for a route like that is so, so fast. Even if they had done it on trails that distance, elevation, and snow is pretty fast.
posted by surlyben at 6:19 PM on August 27

Pretty cool, although it would be cooler to see this route go unsupported. That would make this, in my opinion, a true adventure.
posted by alex_skazat at 7:09 PM on August 27

I watched the whole thing. Awesome views. Happy for the athlete-bonding. It is not a documentary or a docudrama or a docuanything, though. An ad for Northface? Well, it is kinda ad-adjacent. There is nothing about how they spent their nights (not glamping, I hope).

Their stats are fucking impressive. The video makes their trip seem like a walk in the park. I wonder how it really felt to them.
posted by kozad at 8:02 PM on August 27

I forgot a link (and emailed the mods to include it), but here is a writeup with a gear list. Includes a tent.

I don't think it would be possible to glamp on this route, with maybe the exception of where it crosses US-20.

(mods please feel free to delete this if you add the link to the FPP)
posted by yeahwhatever at 8:07 PM on August 27 [1 favorite]

Sounds amazing; this is my local hiking region, so i’ve probably done.. pieces of this? Or at least seen peaks and ridges that they traversed. I’m so spoiled for hikes now, since i started semi-seriously hiking in this region; i’d love to get into more alpine stuff. So that is, doing 10% of this in half the time, at best.
posted by supercres at 10:33 PM on August 27

I quite enjoy the North Face films. Yes, they sponsor the series, but i would hardly call them ads.
As a hiker who has spent the past 25+ years bashing around the North Cascades i found this to be incredible. The very first seconds were a lovely surprise (I won't spoil it), much respect to those two athletes.
I've only been on one true section of the route, the Ptarmigan traverse, and seeing it again brought back great memories. We stayed over at Trapper lake to watch the Perseid meteor show and it was spectacular that deep into the wilderness.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:01 AM on August 29 [1 favorite]