Washington mountains

Washington is the epicenter of mountaineering in the lower 48 US states with more technical and glacier ascents than anywhere else outside of Alaska.
The rugged, volcanic Cascade Range runs north-south across the state with hundreds of major peaks including Mt. Rainier (Washington's highest peak and the only US 14er outside of Colorado, California, and Alaska), Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker, Mt. Shuksan, Glacier Peak, and Mt. St. Helens of 1980 eruption fame. The Pacific Crest Trail passes 500 miles along the length of the range across Washington on its way to the Canadian border
The Olympic Mountains in the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington only rise up shy of 8,000 ft but look much higher because they lie only 12 to 22 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The western slope of the range is the wettest place in the US.
Washington has 3 mountain-centric National Parks: Mount Rainier National Park, Olympic National Park, and North Cascades National Park. All 3 lie within a couple hours drive of the Seattle metro area.
Get away from the crowds and head to the North Cascades, a particularly rugged and vertical part of the Cascades with a multitude of incredible peaks to climb.
Over 4 million acres of mountainous wilderness areas protect vast trail networks leading to a lifetime of peaks to climb. An incredible place to explore.

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Latest summits

"Intended to do Virginia Peak and a few others off the Mowich Road, but the road was too slippery for my hatchback. I turned around and decided to do Florence as a back-up. There was about a foot of snow at the summit. I was the first person up there since the snowfall, so I didn't need the microspikes I brought." — TynanRammGranberg • Nov 8, 2020

"Benson and I headed up to Vesper today for our first attempt and for me besides Mount Pilchuck, the first peak on the Mountain Loop Highway. We met the people who wrote the prior two trip reports today (we were slow and hiked out in the dark) NodR and his climbing partner on the way down and Comma - passed us up and down. How embarrassing, or more a compliment to your fitness and skill on the trail. Both NodR's and Comma's trip reports are very comprehensive and accurate. Snow level was about 4000 feet on the way up and 3400 on the way down. I estimate up to 6 inches of new snow from the past few days. Maybe 2-4 new inches today. Very dry and powdery - Too much snow to grip the granite on the final summit push. Too fluffy for spikes and axe. Not ideal. We followed someone's tracks up the final 500 feet of the summit. This was not ideal as they ambled a bit, but avoided some exposure. This section was no joke in these conditions. There was frozen water ice on much of the granite slabs, covered in 6 inches of fluffy, unstable snow. I had to ice axe arrest a couple of times, as with or without crampons, you either lost purchase or risked punching through the snow into a rock..." — markhadland • Nov 7, 2020

"We were gonna hike in the Glacier View wilderness, but weren't aware of the washout on the FR-59. This was a pleasant enough back-up, but there were more people than we were comfortable with." — TynanRammGranberg • Nov 1, 2020

"No appreciable snow (though the grass in the meadows was notably matted down from the last week's storms). Wind was whipping enough at the top to give me a brain-freeze and encourage a hasty retreat. Jed the Peakbagging Pooch accompanied me." — TynanRammGranberg • Oct 19, 2020

"Another great summit along Grand Ridge: a short hike off trail to the crest of the ridge, then a short climb up the ridgeline eastward to the rocky summit. Overall rating 7/10: great views from the peak and another fun, worthwhile detour from the Grand Ridge Trail" — MountainQuest • Oct 17, 2020