News Link: Colin Abercrombie and Leor Pantilat completed the famous Ptarmigan Traverse in the North Cascades of Washington in 14 hours 36 minutes in late July. The two men timed the route from the Cascade Pass trailhead to the Downey Creek trailhead. The previous fastest known time for this traverse, 15 hours 40 minutes, was by Joe Stock and Andrew Wexler. Abercrombie and Pantilat had previously done an 18:10 traverse in 2008. 

The Ptarmigan Traverse is an off-trail route that covers approximately 30 miles of glacial and scrambling terrain, with more than 10,000 feet of elevation gain. It is normally completed in about a week. 

See Cascade Climbers for Pantilat’s illustrated trip report, or watch his video:

Date of Traverse: July 28, 2009 

Sources: CascadeClimbers.com, SummitPost.org, sites.google.com/site/leorpantilat

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