Pics from the past...

taken during an ascent of the classic West Ridge of Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades in the early 1990s with terrific climbing partners CC and JD.  I'm standing at the rocky summit where the exposure is significant, plunging about 4,300 feet behind me down to Moraine Lake, with Eldorado Peak looming in the distance (click to enlarge):

Here's a snap of Johannesburg Mountain across the valley to the south, with its imposing Northeast Face and hanging glaciers, which rises about 5,000 feet in only 0.9 miles.  Awesome rock:

Wildfires elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest modified the atmospherics and created spectacular sunsets:

And we had a couple of curious natives follow our progress upward:

My climbing partners will tell you that I frequently comment that "life begins above tree line."  Perhaps you can see why I hold that philosophy.