Explore one of the the North Cascades’ most classic, storied alpine routes.

There are few routes in the Cascades that capture everything that defines classic Pacific Northwest alpine climbing. The Fisher Chimneys is one of those few. From breathtaking hanging glaciers and ice faces to soaring rock walls and sharp ridges, this route will challenge the budding alpine climber with all the tools they have.

The route starts with a beautiful overland trek through the forests and meadows beneath the west face of the mountain, passing alpine Lake Ann on the way to the Chimneys themselves. Complex scrambling and rock climbing over dizzying exposure down to the Lower Curtis Glacier gives way to a steep snow and ice slope (depending on the season) and leads climbers to an incredible perch at a crow’s nest-style campsite high on the mountain overlooking hanging seracs of the Upper Curtis Glacier. Climbers get a complex, big mountain feel that may feel like they have been transported to the middle of the Alps!

Though the prolific Northwest mountaineer, Fred Beckey, described this route as “tortuous” during his ascent in the 1940s, modern day climbs of the route are anything but that! If your skills are up to the task, the Fisher Chimneys is a worthy objective that will be a feather in any budding alpine climber’s cap!