Please make an appointment for bootfitting.
The Birthday Tour is the Washington Pass classic and is popular every spring when the highway opens. It is an easy but highly scenic tour that is a great introduction to this incredible backcountry zone. Start at the Blue Lake Trailhead and skin up to the saddle next to Blue Lake Peak, passing the cornice on the left. On the way up, you will pass the famous Liberty Bell Spires on your left, home to some incredible rock climbing. From the high point, gaze out at the heart of the North Cascades to Mt. Goode, the highest point in North Cascades National Park, Glacier Peak, Black Peak, and Mt. Baker far away. Next, rip down south facing Madison Avenue in the headwaters of Copper Creek before climbing up to the north shoulder of Copper Benchmark. Then enjoy a long descent back down the hairpin valley to the hairpin turn on Highway 20, 2 miles from where your tour started. An alternative option is to take the col just SE of Pika Peak, which makes the tour even shorter.
This is a short tour so one does not usually need to start terribly early to get good corn on the south-facing descent of Madison Avenue or the NE facing descent back down the hairpin valley.
There are a myriad of options to extend this tour with sick lines like Mapleleaf Couloir, the south face of Wallaby, Life is Good, the Bong, the Kang Bang, and others. A tour through this area will open you eyes and inspire you to explore this incredible, world-class zone!
The described tour requires a short car shuttle, although hitching a ride between trailheads is never an issue in the spring. To avoid a shuttle completely, one can start at the hairpin and boot directly up Spire Gully and then join the normal route near Blue Lake Peak.
There is no real crux for this tour. It is simple yet beautiful!
The highway usually opens anywhere from mid April to mid May and the tour remains viable for usually a month after opening.
