Route: Washington Bulgers (WA)

Location
Washington, US
Description

This is the set of the hundred highest mountains in Washington, and is the premier peak bagging objective in the Pacific Northwest.

... Read more

1.

Mount Rainier

14,411

2.

Mount Adams

12,276

3.

Little Tahoma

11,138

4.

Mount Baker

10,781

5.

Glacier Peak

10,520

6.

Bonanza Peak

9511

7.

Mount Stuart

9415

Leaflet | Map data © Google
GPS Track

Comments

User Picture
Profile picture for user RandyR

I do not do FKTs myself but climb in Washington myself and followed his climb on social media so I am throwing my two cents here:
As Jason states, this was roughly 870 miles and 412,000' of gain in under 51 days.  These stats alone are flooring.
BUT THEN you take the step back to consider that these are not just peaks you drive to then walk up a trail. In fact only 4 of the 100 have trails to the top. So the number of insane Washington bushwhacking miles, crevassed glacier miles, miles of 4th and 5th class terrain, routefinding, multiple multi-day deep backcountry pushes, coordinating 3 different boat rides to gain access to peaks, the closed road to NCNP, the closure of Hwy 20, the record heat wave that rolled through, the fire closures he honored -making his access harder-, the border closure he honored -making the Chilliwacks significantly harder to access- and the incredible level of detailed logistics to even start this effort and suddenly the significance of this undertaking sinks in. Some of the individual mountains he climbed in a day -or even two in a day- are regularly 2 or 3 day trips by themselves. The other crazy part is there was no precedent of these peaks being doable like this, many people doubted he would succeed, even laughed hubris of such an attempt - I will admit, I was one of them, his persistence and dedication won me over.  It is my opinion, that this is one of the more inspiring and significant things to happen in the mountains, especially in the PNW, this year.

so kudos to you Jason! 

Randy,

I am honored and humbled by your high praise. I was chasing a challenge, curious to see if it was possible, and seeking to spend a summer in an amazing way. It means quite a lot that you found inspiration in it!  ...and yeah, it was quite hard. Thank you for bothering to write. This put a smile on my face.

with stoke and gratitude,
Jason