Knight's Reward

-My girlfriend Ruby summed it up when she said, "It's so beautiful here, I feel like I'm in a fairy tale!" It was true, the terrain defied imagination with it's lush growth and towering, ice plastered peaks. And no myth either, nearby there lay a "dragon" that resisted showing too us, it's face. We would have to climb to the top of a glaciated peak just to get a glimpse of it's tail.
The journey had begun on a cloudy Saturday morning this Labor Day weekend. Four of us, all with a deep thirst for adventure and awe-inspiration, meandered steadily up Hannegan Pass Trail until Ruth Mountain came into view.
Ruth Glacier is a true moderate and perfect for introducing friends to the exciting activity of mountaineering. For such an amazing area, it is surprising more people don't venture to this far away corner of the North Cascades. But then thankfully, the masses have never been the type to seek out unique and remote areas. Only the few, represented as one courageous soul, that knight in shining armor, ever come face to face with the mystery, and only he can claim the beautiful reward that awaits if he perseveres.

-This fairy tale continues with each of us pushing our tiring bodies up Ruth Glacier, still fantasizing of the long-rumored reward that awaited our arrival. Some effort later, our tents went up just 15 feet below the summit while North-Westerly winds tossed clouds and snow at us, as if breath from the dragon. It was giving us the expected fight, and it was up to us to utilize our modern armor to survive the blast.
Early the next morning, while we nourished ourselves with back country style beans and rice, the ancient monster began to show it's rugged face. Clouds scattered to reveal our uncanny camp right on the tip of it's tail. A rightward arcing curve of a narrow and jagged ridge led slowly around a cirque to the bulky body of Mt. Shuksan. A massif of a mountain inspiring all of those brave and persistent adventurers who willingly fight the battles of the human mind and body that prevent so many from even an attempt.
The effort of the battle made the reward even more beautiful than the knight had ever imagined! Now the next battle begins: How would he ever convince people the truth of the glories of his adventure and the worthiness of the battle.