Hi Eric,

It’s a great trip and a wonderful tour of the North Cascades.

With a subscription to The Big Outside, you get full access to all of my blog’s stories, including the trip planner section at the bottom of stories, including this one, where I share details of the itinerary and other logistics and tips on planning this trip.

I also offer Custom Trip Planning, where I’ll help you plan this or any trip you read about at my blog, including a digital map I’d draw for you, if you’d like.

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Hi Nina,

Yes, thanks for asking. That’s because this story, like many at my blog, is partly free for anyone to read but requires a paid subscription to The Big Outside to read in full. A subscription gives you full access to all of my blog’s stories, including the trip planner section in stories about specific trips (like this story), where I share details of the itinerary and other logistics and tips on planning that trip. I also offer Custom Trip Planning, where I’ll help you plan this or any trip you read about at my blog. I hope one of those options is helpful to you. Thank you.

And you have clearly done your research, Maxwell! The St. Elias Range is no surprise to me and the specific location must simply have greater orographic lift favorability than neighboring spots. The Southern Patagonian ice cap seems another obvious location for abundant snowfall. It’s interesting to contemplate this data, I think, but I tend to geek out on this stuff. Thanks for sharing all of it.

Hey Michael,

Thanks for getting back to me here and via email, I really appreciate it.

I have to say, you know your stuff vis-a-vis conditions for maximal snowfall! I’ve done a lot of research on exactly this subject, and based off of the most detailed gridded snowfall models we have (the best is PRISM, a product of the NW Allliance for Computational Science and Engineering out of OSU) the snowiest single spot in North America is probably the south Saint Elias range. PRISM specifically identifies Mt. Crillon, but I suspect it’s Mt. Fairweather — either way, estimates for annual snowfall here are in the range of 3-4x that of Mt. Baker.
There are other good candidates, including high on the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap. Each of these locations gets much stronger prevailing winds and has significantly more available moisture to fuel massive orographic lift. I’d love to get a weather station out to each of these areas someday.
Keep on keeping on,
Maxwell

Hi Maxwell,

You make two good points. Yes, the presence of grizzlies in the North Cascades is debatable and we might reasonably expect that there would be credible, verifiable sightings periodically if that were the case. But as has been the case with the extirpation of grizzlies and other species in mountain ranges around the U.S. for a century or more, the final word often cannot be issued for years. The jury seems to still be out on that, even though the fate of the grizzly in the North Cascades seems grim without governmental action to reintroduce it.

Yes, it’s true that Mount Baker’s record is for a competition between weather stations and there are many points on Earth where we do not know the annual snowfall. However, weather data is sufficiently prevalent around the globe that we have a very good idea of snowfall totals in most of the world and there seem to be very few regions, if any, that compare for annual snowfall totals over long periods of time with the Sierra and Cascade ranges of the U.S. West Coast and the Coast Mountains of western Canada and Southeast Alaska, thanks to the combination of an enormous ocean carrying large volumes of moisture to those mountains, the effects of orographic lift, and sufficiently cold temperatures for long winters (at least, for now, although that’s obviously changing rapidly). Many of the coldest parts of the world—the Arctic and Antarctic and many of the highest mountain ranges—are deserts or arid regions without huge snowfall amounts.

The real question is whether Mount Baker deserves specific recognition as the epicenter of huge snowfalls or another specific location somewhere in that long divide of mountain ranges stretching along the west coast of North America. But the data does tell us to expect a lot of snow throughout those mountains at higher elevations—for as long as it lasts at the rate that climate change is reshaping the planet.

Thanks for the comment.

Also, I’d love for more coverage of the Baker annual snowfall record to mention that it is likely far from the snowiest locale on Earth; there are dozens of incredibly remote spots around the world that may have annual snowfall multiple times that of Mt. Baker. It would be more accurate to say that Baker has the record for the “Earth’s snowiest weather station.” This is definitely a nitpick, as it’s an extremely common mistake, just a pet peeve of mine 🙂

Either way, you have me raring to visit every possible site in the North Cascades.

Adam, I’m quite sure you’ll be very happy you decided to go to the North Cascades and I’d be happy to help you figure out the best route to hike there. See my Custom Trip Planning page and get in touch if you’d like. Thanks.

Thanks Kevin, and yes, the North Cascades are a treasure.

Thanks for sharing that story, Stephen. I’m not surprised that was the greatest trip of your life.

Thanks for asking, Doug, but I don’t have plans to publish an e-guide to this specific backpacking trip. However, with a subscription to The Big Outside, you get full access to all of my blog’s stories, including the trip planner section at the bottom of stories like this one, where I share details of the itinerary and other logistics and tips on planning this trip. I also offer Custom Trip Planning, where I’ll help you plan this or any trip you read about at my blog.

I hope one of those options is helpful to you. Keep in touch.

I didn’t see an Eguide for this area. Are you planning to make one?

Yes, Doug, I agree that’s a beautiful road. I’ve always felt the North Cascades is one of those mountain ranges that can be difficult to fully see and appreciate from the road, so dayhiking or backpacking into it really gives you a more complete experience. Do it. Thanks for the comment.

Thanks, Dustin. I hope you get to check the North Cascades on your bucket list soon. If you’d like my help planning that trip, to make sure you have the best experience possible, see my Custom Trip Planning to learn how I can do that for you.

Thanks, Bob. I can help you plan one if you’d like. https://thebigoutsideblog.com/ask-me/