Mount Olympus: July 2007

This one was a biggie. Mount Olympus. Tallest peak in the Olympics at 7965 feet. That might not impress you too much, but just remember that you start hiking at only 600 feet. It would be five days on the trail, even longer than our Skyline hike! We had a great group for this trek. Scott and Kristine joined Anton and me. And we even convinced fellow staff member and marmot Andrew Bodien to drive up from Portland for the adventure. Scott had climbed Olympus numerous times and we were relying on him in part as a guide. We snapped this picture to memorialize the start of our trip:

Several things were new for me on this hike. First, 5 days would be my longest trek. This would (obviously) be the most elevation gain I'd attempt. I had no experience in maneuvering ice and snow, or even climbing. Not to mention I'm deathly afraid of heights, but I tried to ignore that fact on this hike. This was also the largest group I'd hiked ever hiked with. We all had different levels of experience, prefered hiking speeds, dietary needs, etc etc. But it was a good group of friends so I knew we'd have fun. Finally my pack was the heaviest I'd carried yet. I brought two pairs of shoes, climbing gear, extra clothes and food, and the weight different was signifcant. I could really feel it on my feet as I hiked. But enough about all of this, on with the hike!
We started off with the long but beautiful trek up the Hoh river. The first 13 miles only have about 1000 feet of elevation gain. And while you are hiking through lush old growth, you are basically pounding out mile after mile on your tender feet with the weight of your pack bearing down on you. In short, I didn't exactly feel "fresh" on day #2 when we started the significant elevation gain.

There she is, just taunting us:

Mentally it was pretty wild to look at the hills all around and think "there's nothing I can see that's taller than where we are going!" In other words, the ridges above might look tall, but where we're headed is even higher! We got to the high Hoh Bridge, sang the "Heigh Ho" song, and snapped a few photos.

Then we climbed up to Glacier Meadows (17 miles from the trailhead) where we would camp for two nights. The meadows sit at 4200 feet and only clear of snow by mid-summer. The route to get to this point gets significantly more difficult after the Bridge, with steep elevation gain and a more difficult trail. I was definitely tired by the end of day 2. Were I to attempt this climb I probably would have inserted a rest day at this point. But instead, we climbed into our tents to rest up for our summit bid the next morning. Here's Scott and Kristine at our G.M. campsite:

This mountain goat wandered in and out of our campsite several times. I thought he was cute and was eager to get pictures. Only later did I hear that these guys occasionally charge and last summer killed one hiker. Whoops.

This next morning we rose, ate, and packed for our summit day early, but not as early as we planned. Later on we would realize that an earlier start would have served us well. But anyway, we hiked up to the viewpoint of the Blue Glacier. What a site! Scott laughed when I complained about my boots fitting right and Anton helped re-tie them. Scott calls this photo "The Queen's Boots."

Kristine opted to remain at base camp and let the rest of us "crazies" attempt the summit. Andrew and Scott gave me a quick lesson in basic ice & snow safety, such as how to self-arrest. I have to say, crossing a glacier is pretty cool.
I was told by my fearless leaders than if any one of us was to fall into a crevasse, the rest of us were to immediately self-arrest (this includes splaying on all fours on the ice). About halfway across the glacier, I saw Andrew go down, so I immediately self-arrested. When I looked up, Andrew had only fallen in to his knees and Scott and Anton hadn't self-arrested at all! In fact, all three of them were laughing at me, as I lay face down on the ice! The nerve. I tell you, hiking with men has its drawbacks.
Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day and we had the mountain to ourselves! We then climbed up the side of the snow dome, zig-zaging our way in the snow. It was tiring, but mostly because of the concentration involved not because it was so physically exhausting.

Here's the snow dome from below, so you can see dome-like feature. Some parties even choose to camp on the snow dome. From here we had an amazing view of the Olympics and the straight of Juan de Fuca.

Finally we got up near the summit. We were just a few feet below it, and we were high enough that we could see over the edge to the Hubert glacier on the other side.

At this point I started making some quick mental calculations. I was getting very tired at this point and we were low on food and water. The culmination of 3 days of strenuous hiking was hitting me. I knew from my experience on the Appleton ridge trip that descending is often more tiring than climbing up. At this point I felt I still had enough in me to get down safely, but if I continued up, I wasn't so sure. So I made the decision to wait on the false summit while the three boys attempted the very top. They were gone quite a while. (They stopped for a long photo shoot and to have some fun glacading.) I wasn't able to hear or see them for over an hour. It was a very strange feeling to basically be standing on the top of a mountain all by myself. It was cool, but strangely eerie. By 5pm I was starting to get worried, not that something had happened to the guys but that it was getting so late in the day. Finally they reappeared.

We climbed our way down (glacading part of the way which was an adventure in itself) and made it into our campsite about 10 PM. We scarfed down our dinner and crashed for the night. The climb down was definitely exhausting and in retrospect I think I made the right decision to take that break while the guys hiked on. The following morning we slept in :) and then hiked down to Elk Lake. The shelter had seen better days:

But we did opt for a swim in the lake. It wasn't quite as refreshing as Lake Beauty but it's still always a good feeling (and a good time!) to go for a swim on a hike.

At the end of day #4, we camped on the sandbar. We were jovial, almost rummy at this point, joking around and enjoying our last day on the trail.

Here's me, striking a pose on the sandbar.

Back at the trailhead we said good-bye to Andrew as he made his way south. Anton and I drove back to Scott's family cabin in Union before heading back to Seattle. I was looking forward to getting in line first for a warm, soapy shower... but the lure of the Hood Canal was too great. Scott and Anton and I dove into the water for a swim. Soon we were playing around like kids: splashing each other, jumping off driftwood, and screaming with laughter. We probably looked like idiots, but it was great fun. The perfect ending to a great Olympic hike. We finally showered and headed back to Seattle. Anton and I had these sweet faces to return to that night: