Good high elevation climb for 1st timers - WA

[Ryno5150]

Hello all, I am a newbie to Summitpost. I am a hiking/climbing enthusiast, yet still haven't done anything very technical yet. I live in Atlanta, GA area, so not much in the way of "real" mountains down here, but some great places for very challenging rock scrambling. However, it is WAY better than what I had to deal with when living in the Chicago area.
Anyway, I'm planning a mountain climb in late May/early June in WA. I will be joined by 3 or 4 friends from various parts of the country. None of them have high level technical experience either, but are active hikers. I was browsing the 2000+ ft prominence list of peaks in WA trying to decide which one would be a good challenging high elevation hike, but not too crazy. Obviously Rainier, Baker, Olympus are off the list due to the technical difficulty. I am crossing Adams off the list as I have hiked to the summit twice ('04, '14) and want a different experience. We would be interested in some decent snow climbing, and some good rock scrambling. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thank you.

[seano]

Eldorado. IMHO it's the best reward/effort ratio in the North Cascades, either as a dayhike or an overnight.

[ExcitableBoy]

Eldorado is a good suggestion and in the same neighborhood you might consider Snowfield Peak and Sahale Peak. Further down HWY 20 would be Silver Star Mountain.

Further south you should take a good look at the Stuart Range/Enchantments. Big mountains, good rock, sweeping buttresses, hanging glaciers, very alpine with reasonable routes to the summit. Mt. Stuart via the Sherpa Glacier (harder) or Cascadian Couloir (easier) might be up or alley as would Colchuck Peak via Colchuck Glacier. Lying east of the crest, the Stuart Range often enjoys better weather when the west side is getting rain.

Further south, Mountain Loop HWY has some interesting objectives including White Horse Peak, Vesper Peak, Cadet Peak and Monte Christo Peak.

All of these mountains involve glaciers, exposure, and/or rock scrambling. Everyone should be versed in crampon and ice axe use as well as scrambling and easy rock climbing. Folks have died on most, if not all of these peaks so take them seriously, consider a rope if you know how to use one, don't be afraid to back off.