Ptarmigan Traverse

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The Ptarmigan Traverse is a famous high route in Washington State's North Cascades. It is a mostly trailless route between Cascade Pass and Dome Peak.

The first traverse took 13 days in July of 1938. The group consisted of four members of the Ptarmigan Climbing Club: Bill Cox, Calder Bressler, Ray Clough, and Tom Myers. The second traverse was in 1953 and consisted of Dale Cole, Bob Grant, Mike Hane, Erick Karlsson and Tom Miller. Miller took high-quality photos of the peaks, valleys, glaciers, and lakes, which were later printed in a book by The Mountaineers.

The book, called The North Cascades was published in 1964 and proved incisive in the bid to create the North Cascades National Park.

Coleman Leuthy and others made the third successful traverse of the route in the late 1950s.