Scenic flight
North Cascades - September 23, 2004
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| Earlier this season, Larry had the good fortune
of meeting Lew Miller on an Intro to Alpine Rock course in June.
Lew had mentioned that he was a pilot and had his own plane.
They discussed the possibility of a scenic flight through the
Cascades in conjunction with Lew coming back for another climb.
On a beautiful day late this September, the flight became a
reality. |
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| Larry picked up Lew at the Twisp Smokejumper
base. The plane was a Longeze that Lew had built himself.
It features a rear mounted prop and vertical stabilizers
on the wings. Here Lew performs the prefilght check. |
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| As we headed into the mountains, our
first view was of Silver Star and the Wine Spires. The
glacier seen in the middle was quite dry for this time
of year, though some new snow can be seen on much of the
shady rock faces. |
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| We flew right over Tower mountain and
its massive Southeast face above Pine creek. |
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| Here is the seldom seen Northeast face
of Black peak. It contains a small glacier and the abundant
new snow can be seen in this photo.. |
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| The next landmark was Mt Goode and its
huge Northeast face. The classic NE buttress begins at
the low point of rock and continues all the way to the
summit. |
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| This photo show a unique view of Sahale
peak (on the left) and Boston peak, with snow running
close to the summit. The Boston glacier can be seen below
with Ripsaw ridge running off to the left. |
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| This is a wide angle shot showing the
inspiration - Klawatti icecap. In the distance Mt Baker
(on the left) and Mt Shuksan can be seen. |
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| Closer up shot of the Inspiration glacier
and Eldorado peak. The East Ridge can be seen as the divide
between snow and rock in the center of the photo. |
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| Here is an overhead view of the North
face of Mt Buckner. The climb runs up the snow face in
the center of the photo. |
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| This is a view of the North
side of the Torment -Forbidden traverse. This rugged alpine
traverse requires a high degree of mountaineering skills |
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| This photo shows the North side of Forbidden
peak with the North ridge climbing the steep snow up to
the ridge on the center left, and the Northwest face following
the buttress right up to the summit of Forbidden. The
East ridge can be seen as the left skyline and the West
ridge as the right skyline. |
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| On our way home we flew over the Banded
glacier on Mt Logan, a seldom climbed 9000' peak in the
heart of the Cascades. |
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| The South Buttress of Cutthroat can be
seen here in the center of this photo with the North ridge
as the right hand skyline. |
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