Hikers, scramblers, serious climbers and Northwest rescue organizations, alike, have relied on Fred Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guides for decades to lead them through this wild mountain range. In addition to their comprehensiveness, the books provide a rare combination of aerial photos with route overlays, three-dimensional illustrated maps, and climbing topos.

The section of the North Cascades covered in this volume is roughly a pie-shaped area in the northern section of the range, stretching from the Lake Chelan area up into Canada and west to Bellingham. Except for glaciers and some year-round snow fields, it's mostly dry, lonesome, open country, with beautiful granite spires jutting to the sky.