In early 2022, Kaytlyn Gerbin called me with a wild idea. An elite ultra-runner with a penchant for long mountain missions, she proposed traversing the entirety of North Cascades National Park in a continuous effort, from close to the Canadian border to the tiny town of Stehekin near the park’s southern terminus. Her idea was to link several established mountaineering high routes, including the Whatcom-Redoubt High Route, the Northern and Southern Pickets traverses, the Isolation Traverse, and the Ptarmigan Traverse.

This style of travel has grown more popular throughout the last decade or so: Climbers want to go faster and lighter; runners want to go bigger. In Washington’s Cascades, long mountaineering routes have become common ground for those looking for that engaging cocktail of endurance and skill. Many of these—like the oft-traveled Ptarmigan Traverse—are attainable in a day. This one would be a whole different beast.

Kaytlyn and I started from the north, taking a boat to Silver Creek Campground near the head of Ross Lake rather than risking an illegal border crossing. With 27-liter packs loaded up for four nights, we entered the forest and bushwhacked west for roughly ten miles before reaching the high country at Silver Lake, less than a mile south of the Canadian border. Over the next three days, we traveled south through the Chilliwack Range, along the Whatcom-Redoubt High Route, across both the Northern and Southern Pickets ranges, and down Stetattle Ridge to a resupply near Highway 20. Each day was long—14 to 19 hours—and full of challenges, chief among them: a 36-hour whiteout, broken crampons, dead smartphones (read: no GPS navigation), steep snow descents, waterfall climbing, fifth-class rock bands, and—worst of all—swarming caterpillars.

After a few hours of rest and a resupply at Diablo Lake, we made our way up the Pyramid Lake Trail to camp below the Colonial Glacier. On this leg, our friend Steven Gnam and our partners, Ely Gerbin and Michael Hutchins, joined us to help document the trip. After traveling the most challenging section of the route alone, the second half felt like a victory lap, with fresh energy and mellower terrain. We journeyed over the Isolation Traverse (a route that’s become popular among skiers since Lowell Skoog gave it a name back in 1983) and down to Cascade River Road, where we were met by more friends and fresh food. On the last leg, Nick Danielson joined our clan as we ran and walked the Ptarmigan Traverse, wrapping over the shoulder of Dome Peak and across the Chickamin Glacier, eventually making our way to the Pacific Crest Trail and into the hamlet of Stehekin.

All told, Kaytlyn and I traveled 127 miles and gained (and lost) almost 60,000’ of elevation over seven days. We roped up on a few glaciers and pitched out five sections of rock and one section of snow.

Our route was not new in that it was a link-up of established traverses, but the speedy style in which we completed it was novel. We took inspiration from a few other parties, including Don and Natala Goodman, who, in 1990, completed a similar traverse over the course of 28 days, bagging 19 peaks along the way; and Jason Hummel and Kyle Miller, who, over 16 days in 2013, skied from the North Cascades Highway, through Holden Village, and onto Glacier Peak, a route they called the American Alps Traverse (originally envisioned by Skoog). Other noteworthy North Cascades mega-traverses include a 25-day ski traverse from the Canadian border to Lake Wenatchee, by Peter Dale and Aaron Mainer in April and May 2016, and a 34-day ski traverse from Snoqualmie Pass to the Canadian border, by Trevor Kostanich and Forest McBrian in 2017.

With hopes of enticing others to repeat our objective, we decided to call our link-up the North Cascades High Route (à la the Sierra High Route or the Wind River High Route). Perhaps other mountain athletes inclined toward sufferfests will want to get out there and give ’er a go.

— Jenny Abegg