Washington Bulger List

Showing Chris Fink's first ascent dates for climbed peaks

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List Description

List Info

The Bulgers were a very informal group of climbers who set out to climb the 100 highest peaks in Washington State. This list was never "official", but it has achieved a certain legitimacy among Cascade climbers and it is the usual way to the Washingtion Top 100.

This site also has a list of the Washington Peaks over 8200 feet, showing 130 summits in the state over 8200 feet and having a prominence of over 400 feet. These lists are very similar, but do have some differences. While the Bulger list generally uses a 400-foot prominence cutoff, for volcanoes they use an 800-foot threshold, and for other well-known summits with less than 400 feet of prominence they make exceptions.

The differences are (thanks to Jeff Howbert for figuring all this out):

• The Bulgers drop Liberty Cap, Sherman, Colfax, and Lincoln becasue they are volcanic subpeaks with less than 800 feet of prominence.
• They also drop Mount Ballard, not realizing that it had a higher unsurveryed point to the north.
• They add Seven Fingered Jack, Sahale, Dark, Rahm, Horseshoe, Little Annapurna, and Blackcap Mountain, all of which have less than 400 feet of strict prominence.
• Having dropped five peaks and added seven, they also miss out on the bottom two of the strict 400-foot list, Luna and Castle.

Any way you look at it, this is a very difficult list to complete. Many of these peaks require serious mountaineering skill, including difficult rock-climbing ability. Consensus is that the highest of the Mox Peaks (Southeast Twin Spire) is the hardest to climb, but many of the other summits feature some combination of long approaches, bushwhacking, crevassed glaciers, steep rock pitches, and overall adventure.

The first to complete the Bulger list was Russ Kroeker in 1980.

Sources

Links

Selected Guidebook(s) for this List

  Summit Routes: Washington's 100 Highest Peaks (Stephenson, Bongiovanni)

  Washington's Highest Mountains: Basic Alpine and Glacier Routes (Goldman)

Caution: These books feature many of the peaks on this list, but may not have information on all of them.