Washington

Climbing Mt Rainier Emmons Glacier Camp Schurman

Climbing Mt Rainier via Camp Schurman & the Emmons Glacier

brooke brisbine·July 13, 2021

Growing up in the shadow of Mt Rainier, the most glaciated peak in the continental US, it seemed...

N America USA Washington

Long Beach Washington Coast vanlife diaries

Vanlife Diaries #1: Washington & Oregon coast

brooke brisbine·March 18, 2021

In case you missed it… it’s official, I LIVE IN A VAN!! After months of tireless organising, coordinating,...

N America Oregon USA Washington

Ingalls Lake golden larch leavenworth hiking

Frozen Larch Hike: Ingalls Lake & South Ingalls Peak

brooke brisbine·October 14, 2020

Alpine Lakes Wilderness never fails to impress, particularly during the magic of mid-autumn when all the leaves have...

N America USA Washington

Lake Chelan Summit Trail sawtooth traverse hike Stehekin

Chelan Summit Trail (days 3 & 4): Star Lake to Stehekin via Boulder Butte & Purple Pass

brooke brisbine·October 12, 2020

Following an eventful two days on the trail with multiple summits and millions of golden larches, our adventure...

N America USA Washington

Lake Chelan Summit Trail hike golden larch Stehekin

Chelan Summit Trail (days 1 & 2): Prince Creek to Star Lake via Star & Courtney Peak

brooke brisbine·October 12, 2020

For only a few spectacular weeks every autumn, the otherwise unremarkable alpine larch trees in the Pacific Northwest...

N America USA Washington

Maple Pass Loop Wing Lake Black Peak hiking

Maple Pass Loop & Black Peak (days 2 & 3): Lewis Lake to Wing Lake & Black Peak Summit

brooke brisbine·October 8, 2020

Following a spectacular day along the Maple Pass Loop trail yesterday, we’ve left the crowds behind to trek...

N America USA Washington

Maple Pass Loop & Black Peak (day 1): Rainy Pass to Lewis Lake via Heather Pass

brooke brisbine·October 8, 2020

As one of the most popular day hikes in Washington, Maple Pass Loop makes nearly every “best of”...

N America USA Washington

Copper Glance Lake Pasayten Wilderness day hike

Golden Larch season at Copper Glance Lake, Pasayten Wilderness

brooke brisbine·October 6, 2020

Located in the far northeast of Washington State, about 1hr from the Canadian border and just beyond North...

N America USA Washington

Sunrise at Mt Rainier: hiking & camping at Summit Lake

brooke brisbine·October 1, 2020

An indisputable Seattle icon and Washington’s best-known peak, the snowy summit of Mt Rainier (originally called Tacoma by...

N America USA Washington

Bullseye Traverse (day 3): Frosty Pass to Whitepine via Lake Grace

brooke brisbine·September 20, 2020

On what would originally have been our penultimate day circumnavigating the Bull’s Tooth before returning back to Stevens...

N America USA Washington

Bullseye Traverse (day 2): Chain Lakes to Frosty Pass via Bull’s Tooth summit

brooke brisbine·September 20, 2020

Our second day of what we’ve termed the Bullseye Traverse (in the spirit of all the bull-themed waypoints)...

N America USA Washington

Girl hiking autumn Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Bullseye Traverse (day 1): Stevens Pass to Chain Lakes via Josephine Lake

brooke brisbine·September 20, 2020

After an incredibly painful 6 months of lockdown in Melbourne that recently restricted all outdoor activities to 1hr...

N America USA Washington

Back in Seattle for a limited time only

brooke brisbine·March 25, 2016

After more than 3 years in Australia on a student visa, my time has finally run out and...

N America USA Washington

Narrowly-Avoided Death in the Cascades: High Camp 2k16

brooke brisbine·March 20, 2016

This weekend, as part of a longstanding family tradition, the Brisbines & Co. packed up into the car(s) and...

N America USA Washington

Seattle, my beautiful home town

brooke brisbine·July 27, 2014

It’s been a year and a half since I moved from Seattle to Australia and this will be...

N America USA Washington

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I first heard about Shoshone Falls in an Idaho tourism pamphlet that we picked up from a visitor centre during our drive. Alongside a spectacular photo of the gushing falls (more than enough to impress me), the editor described this spot in Twin Falls as the “Niagara of the West” and it was sealed— we had to make the detour 🚐 Not having seen Niagara myself, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that comparison, but I can say this is one of the most beautiful waterfalls I’ve ever seen— dwarfed in my own memory only by Iguazú in Argentina/Brazil and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe/Zambia. The photo hardly does it justice. Even at low water levels (rare for spring, but everyone seems to be in a drought this year), Shoshone is a real gem state GEM 💎

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Lakes on lakes on lakes 💦

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Bagging peaks together since 2000; the only difference is that now I have to carry the rope 🏔

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HIKING THE ENCHANTMENTS IN 1 DAY ✨ Located in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of Eastern Washington, the Enchantments is one of the most unbelievably SPECTACULAR (and popular) areas to hike in the state— it’s virtually impossible to score a backpacking permit these days, but you can actually complete the entire 20+ mile trail in a single day without ANY permit 😱🤩 🏔 TRAIL DETAILS 🏔 Trailhead: Stuart Lake TH to Snow Lakes TH (near Leavenworth, WA) Fees: NW Forest Pass, $5 for a day Distance: 20 miles (30km) Elevation gain: 4820ft (1470m) Trail hours: 12-14hrs, including breaks 🏔 HIKING TIPS 🏔 👉🏼 I’d suggest hiking up Aasgard Pass (from Sturt Lake TH) and descending to Snow Lakes, since you’ll do the steepest part of the hike as an ascent and the more gradual part as a descent (trust me, your knees will thank you). ALSO, since most of the lakes are clustered in the first 2/3rds, you get to spend the bulk of the day in the prettiest part of the Enchantments— and if you do have to hike the final miles in the dark, you really don’t miss anything! 💡 👉🏼 Park your vehicle at the Snow Lakes TH and then hitchhike up the road to the Stuart Lake TH to begin the hike. There are heaps of people headed that way— it took us about 3min to get picked up and then we ended the hike already back at our van! 🚐 👉🏼 You’ll need a NW Forest Pass, so if you don’t already have one, pop into the Icicle Quik Stop (76 Station) in Leavenworth and you can buy a single day pass for $5 to display on your dash! 🎫 👉🏼 Save yourself the weight of a heavy pack and bring only one water bottle (~1L)— there are literally HUNDREDS of excellent fill-up points throughout the hike and you’ll have no trouble finding cool water (filter optional, but recommended) 💦

5 days ago

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I spent 5 days last week on an amazing expedition through North Cascades National Park: trekking up to Sahale Arm, climbing Buckner Peak, carrying-over Sahale Peak & then descending the summit all the way to Boston Basin 🏔 As with all good adventures, it was wildly complicated by terrible conditions (a marine layer that reduced visibility to little more than 20ft on the glacier), miscalculations of time (canning Shark Fin Tower at the last minute), and near-disasters (slipping out of my steps on steep snow and frantically arresting before we all fell off the mountain ⛏)— but it was also amazing for many of the same reasons. Every trip like this develops my skills, builds my resilience, and pushes me closer to becoming ~a true mountaineer~, and for that, I wouldn’t trade any of the stress or ice-burns or moments of fighting back tears. I’m filing it all away and climbing up to the next peak stronger, more determined, and with a greater appreciation for these incredible mountains 💪🏼

6 days ago

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Fresh on the heels of climbing Mt Rainier, and I’ve already topped it in terms of difficulty (and terror) with this week’s ascent up the SW face of Buckner in the North Cascades. To be fair, the ‘ascent’ wasn’t actually the hard part— it was the descent, a white-knuckled 1500ft drop along an impossibly steep snow shoot with a runout that would have sent us all right off the mountain. I didn’t like the look of things as we started down off the summit, but the anxiety got a lot worse after I took (my first) fall on the ice, pulling our entire rope team off their feet before I could get my axe dug into the snow. Thankfully everyone emerged fine and we continued downwards, but it was enough to really shake me— an important reminder that climbing is no joke and every single move counts, both for you and your team. When we later reached another awful section of the descent and dad called down to me that this was ‘no-mistakes territory’, you better believe I took it seriously 😳

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Lost in the flowers 🌸🌻🌷🌼🌹

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🪚🦷

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Approaching Mt Rainier via an incredibly long and scenic route over Burroughs Mountain, down to Glacier Basin, up the Inter Glacier, and finally to our base camp at 9,400ft, Camp Schurman, gave me the greatest appreciation for just how MASSIVE this climb is. And for every ounce of physical exertion to get onto that summit, I expended 5x more mental energy just trying to make sure that I moved carefully & made no mistakes when it counted most— there were moments that a small slip could have cost us all our lives, and that reality was not lost on me. For that reason, the days leading up to our summit push were absolutely crucial. We hiked hard through the day to limber up and rested just as hard each night to recharge, particularly on the day leading up to our midnight departure. Roping on the Inter Glacier also granted me, dad & Dan time to learn each other’s rhythm and settle into the quiet solemnity that our impending climb demanded. As much as I just wanted to GET THERE at the time, I wouldn’t trade a single minute of preparation looking back. By the time we did leave Camp Schurman in the dead of night, we were a well-oiled unit who hardly needed light or proximity to communicate— and that’s the only way we made it to the summit. Slow & steady.

2 weeks ago

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