Backcountry Explorer

Embedded into the backcountry areas of Zion National Park, the Sierra Nevada, Death Valley National Park, and the Mojave Desert, Courtney Purcell's ramblings have also taken him all across the country and the world. From hiking, climbing and peakbagging in the Rockies, the Andes, the high volcanoes of Washington and Mexico, into the depths explored in spelunking, and the canyoneering of the Colorado Plateau, here you'll find trip reports, route beta and "stuff" relevant to the world of...

South Early Winters Spire

Where: North Cascades, Washington
When: July 2008
Partners: DB
Route: South Arete (5.4)
Mileage/Gain: 5/2,600
Topo: South Early Winters Spire

The highpoint of the famous Liberty Bell Group at Washington Pass in the North Cascades of Washington, South Early Winters Spire offers a variety of interesting routes to its incredible summit, the most popular of which is arguably the South Arete (YDS 5.4).

Heading out one morning for a climb of the South Arete, we no sooner left the Blue Lake Trail and started up the climbers' trail on the final approach than we were approached by a large male mountain goat who was surely looking for handouts. And when he didn't get one right away, he began to follow us...just to make sure...all the way up the trail.

DB and her new friend

Eventually shaking our little groupie after we reached the base of the route and started up the beautiful rock, we awakened to the fact that we were back in that most spectacular of mountain ranges, my favorite range, the Cascades. And more specifically, the North Cascades!

The lower part of the South Arete from its base

Cutthroat Peak to the northwest

Blue Lake Peak to the south
As we neared the top, I put DB out on front as we approached a short knife-edge portion of the route and suggested she do her first lead. Without hesitation, she led out! Good job!

A couple moves into her first ever lead
With me retaking the lead after crossing the knife-edge, we worked our way up the supremely enjoyable route.

Fun climbing on the South Arete
The summit was soon within reach!

On the summit!
And, of course, eventually heading back down, DB once again led across the knife-edge, now the (somewhat) calm Zen master of granitic alpine knife-edges!

DB finishing up her lead back across the knife-edge

...those moments when time stands still. The catalysts are as varied as the individuals who pursue this path: a meteor shower; a night sky so star-filled that it snatches your breath; another rise of the sun over distant mountains vast and untouchable; dodging a rock careening crazily down a gully; a desperate icy struggle through whiteout and ground blizzard down to the safety of camp after an unsuccessful summit attempt; standing atop a mountain with a friend, the whole world at your feet, a blinding sun blazing out of a flawless sky, taking the time to watch that sun dip below the horizon even though camp is still many miles and many thousands of feet distant; stumbling over boulders and through brush in the darkness; watching the starlight and the storm wrest for possession of the night sky, seated on a narrow ledge beside your rope-mate with only the clothes on your back for shelter, shivering the night away, knowing that, sometime in a distant place you cannot now touch, the world will once again grow bright, the sun will rise, and you will look out on the infant day with new eyes.

-Bruce Binder

One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.

-Edward Abbey