Bushwhacker Climbing Club

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Bushwhacker Climbing Club

The Bushwhackers is a fun, friendly Pacific Northwest climbing club who strive to foster and educate a community that enjoys wilderness adventures.

The Bushwhacker Climbing Club is a non-profit organization created by Pacific Northwest area climbers. The club was founded in 2004, but the Bushwhacker community has been hiking, climbing, skiing and socializing together for many years prior to that.

05/01/2026

🔔🔔🔔CLASS IS IN SESSION! 🔔🔔🔔
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Our 2026 Basic Glacier Climbing Course is in full swing! Students have started learning key knots, orienteering, and equipment considerations to minimize risk in the backcountry. They have also begun to appreciate the power of the team. Speaking of which, please welcome this year’s THREE new teams of students: Weaner Train, Ruty Šuty, and Cluster Busters! Stay tuned to follow along on their journey and climb on! 😎🫵🧗‍♂️⛏️‼️
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03/10/2026

Oh you thought we were just a climbing club?? Think again. Pics from two recent Bushwhacker ski trips to Alaska for both Alyeska and the backcountry!! They don’t call it The Last Frontier for nothing 😎😎

01/13/2026

The application for our Basic Glacier Skills Class is open Feb. 1 - Feb. 28! If you or a friend is interested in learning skills such as navigation, self arrest, rope travel, snow camping, and crevasse rescue, this class is for you. If you already know these things and just want a group to climb with, we are also here for that! Feel free to DM with questions or visit our website. 🤗🤗 Climb on!

01/11/2026

‼️PSA‼️Trying this post again with the *correct* dates for our annual Basic Glacier Climbing Class! If you or someone you know is interested in learning how to mountaineer and joining a fun, active community to do that with, please save and/or share this with them! Applications open February 1st. Must be able to attend all lectures and outings. DM or visit our website (linked in bio) for more details. Hope to climb with you soon! 😎🏔️🏕️🧗⛏️🪢

10/03/2025

Shoutout to everyone who came to our monthly climb night last night! If you missed it, we host a climb night every first Thursday of the month, and we’ll see you at the next one! Day passes at $10 if you are a member of the Bushwhackers! Climb on! 😁💪🧗‍♂️🧗‍♀️

09/26/2025

Trip Report: Bonanza Climb and Martin, July 25-27, 2025
Adam, Kate, Said, and Bjorn

Day 1 – Friday, July 25, 2025: Journey to Holden Pass and Martin Peak
We kicked off our adventure boarding the Lady of the Lake ferry at 8:30 AM. We disembarked at Lucerne, where we helped unload luggage from the boat and hopped on the bus that wound up a twisty road to the charming Holden Village. By noon, we gathered our gear and began the trek to Holden Pass. The trail involved switchbacks, overgrown trails, and refueling with delicious trail blueberries. We reached Holden Pass, set up camp, and then Adam, Kate, and Bjorn headed off to tag the nearby summit Martin Peak. The ridgeline to the base of Martin had flat spots that made for pleasant hiking, but the scramble up was challenging with loose rock and plenty of route-finding. We summited, soaked in the stunning views of surrounding peaks like Glacier peak and Bonanza (oh and also Glacier Peak), and returned to camp by 9 PM for dinner (thanks to Said for filtering enough water to fill a small pond) and some rest before Bonanza.

Day 2 – Saturday, July 26, 2025: Bonanza Summit
We were up before the sun, fueled by a quick breakfast, and started for Bonanza by 5:30 AM. We traversed boulder fields and Crossed waterfall slabs, leading us to the Mary Green Glacier. We roped up at the glacier’s start, Adam led and navigated (some would say “perfectly”) around and over some amazing crevasses. At the glacier’s edge, we unroped, and stashed some glacier gear. The final 1,000-foot scramble up Bonanza was on sturdy rock, a nice contrast to Martin’s looseness. Staying left was critical—we noticed another team veered right and missed the true summit, a knife-edge ridge connecting the main peaks. We reached the top, signed the logbook, ate, and savored the panoramic views from the highest non-volcanic peak in Washington. The Descent involved one rappel from the summit, followed by downclimbing back to the glacier and waterfall slabs. We returned to camp, packed up, and hiked to the camp just outside Holden Village, where we ate, made a friend, and camped for the night.

[CONT IN COMMENTS]

09/25/2025

Summer may be officially over but we still have a few trip reports to catch up on!

The team: Awesome Adam, Amazing Alison, Kind Kate, Sweet Said, All Powerful AP

Adam’s Strava track: 17.12 miles, 10,282 ft gain total

Day 1: TH to Camp
We left Seattle around 5:30am. The group started hiking on Friday around 9:30am, it was a chill 4ish miles to Lake Ann before the uphill towards the chimneys. Blueberry fields forever!!!! We stopped several times to graze the hillside. As we approached the chimneys, we had to find our way across a huge moaty snow cave. It wasn’t feasible to cross over, so we ended up going under the cave. As I was making my way through, I considered the injuries that I would sustain if it were to collapse on my head.
We scrambled up the chimneys, then headed over to Winnies Slide, where a mother and baby mountain goat peered at us from the top of the ridge. The slide was pretty vertical (~50 degrees) and required some front pointing, but once we topped out, we were rewarded by getting the best spots at the most beautiful camp maybe ever!!! (Upper camp #2). We set up our tents, took a little rest, ate dinner, marveled at the beauty of our surroundings, and AP taped Kate’s side shields onto gas station sunglasses while Adam told me all about his experience getting snow blindness. The makeshift glacier glasses held up surprisingly well for the duration of the trip!!

[SUMMIT AND TRIP FINISHED IN THE COMMENTS 🏔️🌅]

09/16/2025

West McMillan: 7/3-7/6 - Ben, Hannah, AP, Alison, Said

A long-awaited revenge climb for the 2014 leadership grad (Said), this year’s crew of multi-leadership grads (2023, 2025) had their hearts set on getting Said to the summit!

Day 1 – Goodell Creek TH to base of climber’s path: A very chill 4ish mile hike with a 1k feet of gain to the bottom of a climber’s boot path. Though chill, 100 yards in, you quickly realize where the love for bushwhacking comes from for our beloved club!

Day 2 – Terror Basin Camp: We promptly left camp an hour after planned departure time (lol) with nothing but uppity up gaining 4k ft in 2 miles thru steep boot path, lots of down trees, tree ladders and ample berry bushes along the way to lift the spirits! Once above the tree line, you can finally see the pickets on display including, of course, the main object West Mc! We reached the top of the k**b above terror basin around 5pm (it’s a slow-moving terrain people!). Again, the conditions to get down were slightly different than over a decade ago. Had to do a bit of faced in steep down climb then a short steep dirt/rock before descending into camp by 6pm!

Day 3 – Woke up at 5am to low clouds and poor visibility and decided to wait it out a bit. Left camp at 8am and made it thru some fun terrain transitioning back and forth between snow and slabs before ascending the steep snow gulley below the ridge col. We made it to the col by noon and the summit by 1:30pm. We safely made it back to camp and enjoyed truly one of the most beautiful camps I’ve been to. We all clumsily carried our quilts up the slippery slope of the little k**b while wearing slippers and crocs to watch sunset across the Goodell Creek valley. It was a special way to celebrate the day.

Day 4 – Back to Goodell creek TH: Left camp at 7:30am and safely made it back to the cars by 3pm. Everyone participated in the required creek bath in Goodell Creek before grabbing food at Marblemount.

The total trip was about 14ish (slow) miles and 8500 ft of gross gain. Fun fact: the West Mc team and the Inspiration Traverse team had a lot of fun on the rockie talkies. Let the videos do the talking!

09/14/2025

Inspiration Slam - Klawatti, Dorado Needle, Eldorado, Primus, Austera - 7/3-7/6 - Adam, Kate, Shannon

Day 1: Woke up at 5am and made the approach up the steep trail with heavy packs. It was warm and clear. Filled up on water at the Eldorado camp and roped up for the traverse to Klawatti Col. We made it there before another group (who seemed to be racing us) and snagged tent spots on the rocks. They went for Klawatti while we watched and made commentary. We waited until they were higher up and set out ourselves, opting for a different route. The scrambling got easier the higher we went. Shannon found her favorite rock on this summit. Scrambled down and rapped the hardest section back to our ice axes. Adam filled our water bottles and dromedaries from a tiny stream below our camp. Beautiful sunset. Saw the moon over Eldorado.

Day 2: Woke up at 5am. Roped up and headed across the Inspiration Glacier to Dorado Needle. Climbed steep snow up to the first anchor. Adam led 3 short pitches and one reallllly short pitch to the summit. There was one optional au cheval section featuring an old piton and one mandatory au cheval section near the summit. Most exciting butt scoot of yr life! Reached the splitter crack block we had read about. This was Adam’s favorite rock. There is a light spot where another (probably super helpful) rock used to exist. We went around to the right. Good feet and minimal hand holds. This was the really short pitch. Enjoyed amazing views of Eldo and more on the summit.

[continued in comments]

09/12/2025

Dumbbell-Greenwood: 6/28-6/29
Humans: Preston, Megan, Ashley, Alex, Said

Dog: Bowie

Was looking for a chill climb to enjoy beginning of summer and the early season low crowds. And one that was also dog-friendly. So enter: Greenwood Dumbbell double tag. Or as we like to call it: Greendum Bellwood.

The approach was straightforward starting at Phelps Creek TH and hiking about 7 miles and 2400 ft up Phelps Creek Basin before climbing up the last 0.5 mile/1000 ft NE towards some nice flat benches at 6800 ft for camp. The trail was mostly melted out but the creek were thundering! We had a full range of footwear from hiking Teva’s to mountaineering boots! The views from the meadow looking up Spider Gap were stunning and another reminder of this beautiful place we call the PNW!

Next morning we left camp at 6:30am towards the south ridge of Dumbbell. We were on snow up to the 8k contour before transitioning to some fun loose scree and onto the short class 3 gulley that’s the most direct route to the ridge up to the summit. We summitted at 9:30am and enjoyed the views! We transitioned back down the same route to the “ledge” towards Greenwood. The ledge was snow free and once we got off it, it was basically an easy walk up and we summitted Greenwood at 1pm. Based on the summit register, we were the first ascent of Greenwood in 2025! It was fun to see other bushwhacker summits from back in 2021!

We mostly glissaded to camp and made to the cards by 8:15pm. So no creek bath, which was sad, but we had to get to food! Everywhere nearby was closed for food, so after 3 failed, we had dinner? at the 24-hour IHOP in Monroe, which I highly recommend for future food options. Back to Seattle at 12:40am on Monday! In total we did around 20 miles and over 7kft of gain.

Bowie did an awesome job of hiking 15 miles and 4K ft! We also had amazing humans that embodied the camaraderie of mountain travel including our non-official but basically proxy Bushwhacker Ashley. Great weekend.

Address

Seattle, WA
98117

Website

https://bwcc.clubexpress.com/

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