The North Cascades holds a significant place in the history of the Beat Generation, with figures like Jim Wickwire, Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder spending time at lookouts in the area in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Their experiences in the North Cascades influenced their writing and contributed to the development of Beat culture, particularly the emphasis on nature, spirituality, and countercultural ideals.
Written by Ron Dart, author, hiker and mountaineer, and member of the Chilliwack Outdoor Club.
“A braid of circumstances ties the Beat generation to the North Cascades. In the early 1950s, a weary America turned its attention to getting ahead after enduring the Depression and World War II—and in that era of the man in the gray flannel suit, a group of literary rebels hit the road and the trail. While the Lost Generation found its refuge and inspiration in Paris, the Beats found their safe harbor in the North Cascades as well as in San Francisco’s North Beach.” -James Martin, North Cascades Crest: Notes and Images from America’s Alps (1999) p. 58
“Ever, ever be on the lookout.” -Daita Kokushi
“The two of you (Arnold Shives & Ron Dart) are quite a pair of mountain men. All best regards to you from Seattle.” -Email from Jim Wickwire
“Hozomeen, Hozomeen, most beautiful mountain I ever seen… Over 70 days, I had to stare at it.” -Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels (Chapter 1)
TThe North Cascades are one of the finest mountaineering meccas of sorts that border the USA and Canada. And it was from the North Cascades in the 1950s that most of the significant Beat writers (that shaped the counter culture of the 1960s) worked as lookouts—Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Philp Whalen and Jack Kerouac—Allen Ginsberg (who I have corresponded with) was also in the North Cascades area, joining Gary Snyder. The Chilliwack Outdoor Club (and other Clubs) often take to Ross Lake (just south of Hope in the Skagit Valley) to do kayak-canoe-hiking trips but many, when making the trips, do make the trek to Kerouac’s mythic and fabled lookout on Desolation Peak (where he was a lookout in 1956) from the trailhead at Ross Lake. Many are the Kerouac keeners I have led to Desolation Peak lookout to spend the day and linger for a few hours, perched on the high knoll.—most of Kerouac’s books are safely stored in the lookout, Hozomeen, climbed from Manning Park, ever present and gazing down on the lookout from the north (just south of the border in the USA). I enjoyed a scramble to the roof of Hozomeen in the mid-1970s and, from such a perch, gazed down at Kerouac’s shrine. The many trips I have led to Kerouac’s lookout have often been spent, either in the lookout or outside, photos aplenty, reading from the varied writings Kerouac did when at Desolation—alas, his descent back into the Valley and lowland life (to quote from Mann’s The Magic Mountain was also a descent of Kerouac into a variety of self-destructive tendencies and addictions, his mountain idealism turned painful and tragic realism.
The scramble to the summit of Hozomeen can be done via Manning Park and it is a pleasant one, the sights seen oxygen for the soul, nights spent in the area under a full moon or star-packed sky a paradise.
Kerouac thought Hozomeen was the “most beautiful mountain I ever seen”, his earlier book, The Dharma Bums, a more in depth read of Kerouac’s journey to Desolation Peak and Hozomeen’s razor edge to the north from the large Beat gathering in the mid-1950s chaired by Kenneth Rexroth. Snyder was banned from being a lookout in the mid-late 1950s given the rise of John McCarthy, McCarthyism and the “Red Scare” from 1947-1959, Snyder being identified with being on the questionable left wing of the ideological spectrum—so ended his lookout summers at Sourdough, trailhead at southern Ross Lake—hints indeed of the emergence of the counter culture of the 1960s, North Cascades the midwife, mountains the larger vista from which the political Beats engaged and challenged the right of centre politics of the USA in the 1950s.
Jim Wickwire is considered one of the most significant American mountain climbers and he was the first American to summit K2 in 1978. Jim has also done many a climb of Everest, Willis Wall at Rainier and Denali (also witnessed many a high mountain death). Jim is also an admirer of Kerouac, Hozomeen and Kerouac’s Desolation Angels. Jim is now in his mid-80s, but in a recent email to me he mentioned he was keen to take to Kerouac’s lookout in the summer of 2025, the 9.4-mile, 4,400 feet upward trail trek, worthy of the destination reached. Jim has kindly sent me copies of two books describing the K2 expedition, Addicted to Danger: A Memoir and a 1st edition, original copy shrink wrapped of The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2. Both books describe in graphic, raw and readable manner the challenges (inner and outer) of demanding high-end summits, rock hard, glacier thick climbs at high altitudes. Jim has spent the last few decades as a lawyer in the Seattle area, but the mountain life dwells deep within him. Sadly, the film K2, although marginally based on the 1st K2 ascent, seriously distorts the actual climb of K2 that Jim and others were on. But, Jim’s high end climbing skills plus his interest in the North Cascade Beats has brought is together as we have a perennial interest in both aspects of mountaineering.
Jim and I both share affinities with the Beat writers and Thomas Merton (also an admirer of mountains as an icon of our all too human journey), and in our varied email exchanges, books shared and gifts given, the language of mountains and mountaineering life factors large. But the Canadian-American North Cascades remains one of the most iconic literary sites in North America given the fact that the Beat writers that did much to shape a distinctive American-Canadian counter-culture began their emerging vocational life journey on the border of Canada and the United States in the North Cascades, Manning Park a fine cathedral door to Hozomeen, Canada’s gift to the larger tale.
I was fortunate in 2012 to take in a reading of Snyder’s Danger on Peaks (more than 1000 at the reading)—also some good photos of Snyder with myself and a few friends. Snyder (immortalized as Japhy Ryder in The Dharma Bums book) is now in his 95th year, the last of those living of the more prominent Beats, his early life as a lookout at southern Ross Lake at Sourdough lookout (another fine lookout worth the trek to).
Those who have some interest in the Beats, Kerouac, Merton, North Cascades and mountaineering could not help but enjoy a read of Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades or the thinner and less substantive book Arnold Shives and I did, Thomas Merton and the Beats of the North Cascades. And, of course, the significant climbs of the most demanding nature about Jim Wickwire have a unique way of bringing together K2, Hozomeen, Beats and the North Cascades. Jim, in a recent email (May 30, 2025), mentioned he and his three “strong granddaughters” (with their fathers) will be taking to Kerouac’s fabled Desolation lookout, if all goes well, Saturday, September 13, granddaughters carrying much of the needed water for the more than 4000 feet elevation gain. So, first American to ascend K2, Everest climber, mountaineering life at the highest level, will, with family, take to Desolation lookout, Merton and Kerouac icons for Jim now well into his 80th year. I might even join them for the ramble up the mountainside if all goes well. Jim might be making a trip to Vancouver in the summer, and Arnold Shives (probably our finest Canadian mountain painter), Jim and I might do a lingering lunch together, Arnold also a keener on the Beats. Arnold and I have done three books together, he doing the sketches and artwork, I the text, Cascades close to our trekking times together, Arnold always has a sketch pad with him.
Reflection
But, let me reflect, if I may, briefly, on many summers living in lookouts and leading trips and retreats at Ross Lake and visiting, with others, the sacred historic sites of the Beats when in their emerging years. There were also the retreats done from South Ross Lake Resort. Sourdough Mountain Lookout is where Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen spent summers as lookouts, and on the retreats, we did treks to Sourdough Mountain Lookout—not for the faint of heart—5200 feet elevation gain, 10.4 miles return—upon return, celebrative candlelight dinners-wine aplenty and readings from Snyder and Whalen’s published prose, poetry and creative lives lived. Needless to say, each day on varied trails in the Cascades walked us into the heartland and centre of Beat culture, lookouts both a literal site of watching for summer fires but also looking out for the state of public and political life in the USA at the time and looking out (better looking in) for inner attitudes and addictive tendencies—in short many are the types of mountains worthy and needful to climb at many levels. Jim Wickwire certainly describes these well in his autobiography, Addicted to Danger. One of the retreats was sponsored by the Thomas Merton Society of Canada, so the conversation ranged across the terrain of Merton, the Beats and Mountains—a topic of much interest to Jim Wickwire. My missive, Thomas Merton and the Beats of the North Cascades, was an assigned reading text for the retreat and course—each of the chapters sits with the North Cascade Beats, their time as lookouts and journey thereafter into the 1960s forward. But, there can be no doubt the iconic nature of the area is ripe with historic and literary significance. Merton was, of course, no mountaineer, but his constant use of mountains as a layered metaphor of our challenging life journey through time cannot be missed, Kerouac penning a couple of poems for Merton’s short-lived poetry journal, Monk’s Pond.
Ways to Access the Lookout
There are a variety of ways of trekking to Kerouac’s lookout on Desolation, some at a day alpine style fast pace, others a 2-3 day trip.
There is also the trip to Snyder’s lookout at southern Ross Lake, Sourdough and the lookout Rexroth assisted in the building well told in his autobiography, An Autobiographical Novel. Rexroth was part of the crew that built McGregor lookout (the Siberia of all lookouts) north of Stehekin in the Stehekin Valley—the year 1924. Rexroth was a model and mentor for many of the Beats and part of the emerging poetic-literary-ecological-visionaries of his time. Rexroth made many a trip to Skagit Valley and into Canada in his younger hiking and yomping days. Alas, Crater and Sauk lookouts where Snyder and Whalen were once lookouts but are no more. Those who have had the privilege of rambling and overnighting to the free lookouts in the High Cascades such as Winchester, Hidden Lake, Lookout Mountain, Park Butte, Pilchuk and Three Fingers cannot but be held spellbound by the visual feast in all directions.
There is a definite thread that binds together the layered tapestry of the Beats, Thomas Merton, North Cascades, Hozomeen, Jim Wickwire and K2—such a tale needs both more telling by those who have done such trips and who understand the connection between high level mountaineering and the deeper and more significant reasons for it.
Post Script
Jim Wickwire kindly, in his gift to me of his autobiography, Addiction to Danger: A Memoir About Affirming Life In The Face of Death (1998), inscribed:
“To Ron Dart: With the high regard and great admiration for your many years of commitment to furthering the lasting impact of Thomas Merton on all our lives, and what will follow when we’re gone. As ever, Jim Wickwire.”
montani semper liberi
-Ron Dart, a member of the Chilliwack Outdoor Club
Photography by Ron Dart and Adventure.com
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