cascades

I did a quick hike up to Lake 22 in the Cascades near my house yesterday. A well packed trail meant I didn't need snowshoes, but micro-spikes were very nice for the icy descent. I brought the drone and got a great view over the ridge and up to the summit of Mt. Pilchuck. Lake Outlet, Sony...

X-skiing up The Mountain Loop was an icy snowmobile churned mess, so my wife and I headed home early. This gave me time to fly up and take a look-see at the NW face of Hall Pk.

Didn't look spectacular from my house this morning, but it only takes a couple minutes to get the drone up a few hundred feet to see the big view. Drone-Sunrise-2.16.19-105-Pano-4k-2 by Jim Dockery posted Feb 16, 2019 at 9:39 AM

13 shot RAW pano with DJI Mavic 2 Pro, processed and stitched in ACR, Silver FX Pro 2 B&W conversion. Snow-drone-sunset-2.9.19-001-Pano by Jim Dockery posted Feb 10, 2019 at 7:28 AM Two more clicks for larger image

I already posted two drone shots from last night, then I got up above my house again this morning to find this. Drone-Sunrise-Lk-Steven-1.31.19-05-Pano by Jim Dockery posted Jan 31, 2019 at 10:12 AM Click through for Gallery image

It seems like I may be one of the few climbers participating on this site, and likely the only NW alpinist. What follows is an insight into the hardest part of climbing many peaks of the North Cascades - the off trail approach through brushy complex terrain. Climbers in the Rockies and Sierras...

Not much of a sunrise at my house, but just above I found this. Sunrise-fog_Panorama1 by Jim Dockery posted Jan 27, 2019 at 8:44 AM Click through for larger gallery image

I could only see a sliver of Big Four from the road, but with a drone the views open up.

The snow wasn't great, but we got a good work-out, and some nice views when the clouds parted on a ski tour yesterday near Stevens Pass, WA.

I got an early start and made it up to the Heybrook Ridge viewpoint well before sunrise to get this shot of one of the most dramatic peaks in Washington.

I went up in the Cascades on Saturday. I saw the fog coming about 30 miles away, to the east. I didn't think that it would ever get up to where we were, near 5000'. But right before dark, it went by, down below us, several hundred feet. Then suddenly we were in the middle of it! I got these...

Unseasonably warm weather wasn't good for our normal x-skiing so my wife and I checked out the snow free, low elevation, Heybrook Ridge trail near the town of Index WA. A very pleasant easy 2 miles through 2nd growth forest leads to a good view of Mt. Index (which was in shade when we got there...

We took advantage of the only government shutdown benefit I can think of - the forest service didn't have the $ to shut down the road to Mt. Pilchuck yet so we managed to drive all the way to the trailhead parking lot for a rare easy winter climb. Due to recent rain then freeze cycles the snow...

Sunset ski run, on Three Fingers Mt., WA

Drone view down onto the avalanche path that makes the snow/ice pile where the Big Four Ice Caves develop. This was taken on a low risk day, I wouldn't venture up there later in the winter when the chance of big slides increases (I've seen debris piled up all the way to tree line).

Drone View, DJI M2P

Taken at the base of Big Four's north face looking north. Big-Four-trail-22-Pano by Jim Dockery posted Dec 31, 2018 at 5:05 PM Click through for larger gallery image

Drone-sunset-12.30.18--00-Pano by Jim Dockery posted Dec 31, 2018 at 6:00 AM Click through for larger gallery image