Big Chiwaukum is the highest summit in the Chiwaukum Mountains, rising 8,098 feet in Washington’s Cascade Range within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Its slopes drain into tributaries of the Wenatchee River, reflecting a name from the Wenatchee dialect meaning “many little creeks running into one big one.” The mountain stands in rugged country marked by craggy ridges, deep glacial valleys, and granite-walled basins. Its schist bedrock was laid down about 210 million years ago, and later Pleistocene glaciation carved the U-shaped valleys of the region. Big Chiwaukum brings together the wilderness landscape, geology, climate, and watersheds that define this part of the Cascades.