The Free Beer Goddesses of Mt. Pilchuck

The latest disturbing news out of Mt. Pilchuck about the skeletal remains discovered there recently is pretty hideous and bleak, regardless of whether or not there's any connection to the tragic murder of hikers Mary Cooper and Susanna Stodden a few months back.

All the bad news associated with the popular trail is in sharp contrast with all the good times Seattlest has enjoyed up there this year, particularly this one bizarre adventure we had back in April:

We finally made it to the summit, after having failed on two earlier expeditions (white out conditions in January, exhausted dog and ominous rain clouds in March). Just east of the famous Mt. Pilchuck lookout, we were shocked to discover these two beautiful girls with a sign that said "Free Beer" and all these bottles of Red Hook packed in the snow. It was like some beer commercial fantasy. They told us that they do stuff like this all the time and it's no sweat for them to haul all this beer up the mountain. They somehow managed to do this in shorts and sneakers, whereas the Seattlest party barely made it to the top and we were over-equipped with snowshoes, gortex, ice axes, etc. Had this been a solo journey without cameras to document the miracle we would have sworn we were tripping.