[Fletcher]

I left my house before 5am on Tuesday morning having no idea what I was going to climb that day, I just knew I was getting out. I haven't done a whole lot in the Olympics this year, and the call of The Peninsula was strong, so I found myself forking over the cash and driving onto the ferry. Thanks to Puzzlr's awesome report from 2009, these peaks above Royal Basin had been on my radar. It was 8:15 when I started hiking up the Dungeness Trail. Just over 2 hours later, I was having a snack break at Royal Lake. I have been to Upper Royal Basin before but never over to the large tarn en route to Surprise Basin, what a place!

I think thats Clark on the left, from the Royal Basin Trail

Royal Lake

Tarn with peaks I am about to climb

The route into Surprise Basin is easy although there was a little bit of annoying scree to contend with. The basin is still snow-filled.

Route to Surprise Basin with peaks

Johnson on the left, Clark on the right

I made pretty damn good time up to the pass at the head of Surprise Basin. This is where the route up Clark starts. From the pass, take the obvious large ledge that cuts across the south side of the peak. The ledge will sort of turn into a large gully, continue up and to the right until the gully ends and scramble around the corner to the left. The route was gratuitously cairned up to hear, then the cairns stopped right when I could have used them.

almost to the pass

the ledge

Around the corner, I seemed to be at a dead-end. I climbed this class 3 crack in the rock up 20 feet but that wasn't the way.

not the right way

Then I peered down to the north. It looks like the terrain just cliffs out, but there is actually a class 3 break in the rock that leads to another wide ledge below. From above, you can tell this ledge leads around another corner to the north side of the peak. Getting down to this ledge is pretty airy, but I didn't find it intimidating. The last move onto the ledge felt like class 4 when I was down climbing, but definitely was just class 3 on my way back up.

go down here

Down at the next ledge, continue corkscrewing around the peak until another gully opens up to your left. Now you're getting close! This gully was still partially snow filled, so I climbed class 3 rock to the left. Just a few minutes later, I was at the base of the final class 3 break in the rock that leads to the summit. I was pleased that it was actually really easy and didn't feel too exposed.

corkscrewing around Clark

class 3 terrain below the summit

break in the rock, final bit before bagging Clark

It was a clear day, and the views were amazing. Olympus, Baker, Glacier, Vancouver Island, The Straight. I was stoked!

Olympus

Mystery, Deception, Martin

Constance Massif with Rainier peeking

Greywolf, Baldy, and Tyler

Baker and Shuksan above Puget Sound

Johnson from Clark

flying ants on Clark summit

Clark summitshot

Flying ants occupied the Clark summit so I didn't stay for lunch. I went back the way I came.

down here (not as bad as it looks)

across the north and east ledges

up here

While still high on the route, I stopped for 15 minutes for lunch and enjoyed more views.

Glacier Peak

Stuart!! with Snoqualmie Crest Peaks

Then I made my way the rest of the way down to the pass.

down this

down this and around the corner

Mount Mystery

I wasn't really planning on doing Johnson and didn't save the beta to my phone, but it was right there and it is higher than Clark so I decided to go for it. It ended up being quite the adventure in route finding for me. The start of the route was obvious enough. From the pass descend slightly and over to an obvious ledge with grass and moss on it. This ledge takes you above cliffs into a large area of scree below Johnson. This area is too broad to call a gully, but too much of a depression to call a face.

skiing in August

Johnson access ledge

The rule of thumb on Johnson is to stay right. I ascended the right side of the scree area, then took a class 3 rib up to just below Gasp Pinnacle and Sweat Spire. It was easy enough up until this point.

I stayed right up through here

The obvious way to go was up through the gap between Gasp Pinnacle and Sweat Spire. Although I didn't have a route description, I remembered that there was class 4 on the route. It looked really intimidating but I tried it. I climbed halfway up (maybe 20 vertical feet) to where it looked like the climbing eased up; it didn't. It just got stiffer. I got nervous here. I did not want to continue climbing and have to come back down this way. I didn't even want to climb down what I had already climbed up. I basically threw in the towel here and carefully down climbed. One hold that was solid on my way up moved. I think it almost came out. It was a basketball sized rock. If it would have came out, it would have knocked me off the rock. It scared the sh## out of me.

I climbed up to where it looked like easy passage, but it was just more class 4, and more exposed than what I had done before. Being solo, it was very intimidating

Framed shot of Constance from where I turned around

Back down to relative safety, I started looking for a better way around these pinnacles. I looked left first. It looked like it might go, but more than I wanted to contend with solo.

the left option

Having pretty much given up, I hopelessly checked out the right side... It went! Work around the right side of Sweat Spire and you'll come to a large chockstone. I climbed over this on the way up and under it on the way down. Shortly after this, you'll find yourself above the class 4 gap between the pinnacles. I found some old tat above here that I packed out.

route around the pinnacles is marked by this small tree

the chockstone

working around the pinnacles

looking down what I bypassed

old tat

From here, it was just a few more minutes of easy scrambling and I was at the base of the summit block! I might just summit after all!

Johnson summitblock

I climbed up the class 4 crack and summited Johnson at 2:40, I was stoked!

class 4 leading to Johnson summit

Johnson summit

Clark, Sweat Spire, and Gasp Pinnacle from Johnson

Johnson summitshot

I found a register on Johnson but the contents were wet and the pencil was in a sad state. If I was going to hang out up there, I would have tried to dry it out.

Johnson register

Not wanting to down climb the 4th class bit, I decided to find an easier way. The terrain just north of the summit area looked fairly friendly so I went to check it out. It didn't look like it was going to go at first, but I found a class 3 ledge that worked around the summit block and took me back around to the SE side.

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looking back at Johnson summit

So remember if you climb Johnson, if you encounter class 4, there is an easier way. Go right. I picked my way down the route back into Surprise Basin, happy that I had easier terrain ahead.

more Needles

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you can really see the lower route on Clark in this one

looking back up through the spires

Johnson descent

I left this here and it was much needed on my return

Surprise Basin

Johnson

Clark and the Sundial

Royal Basin

I got back down to Royal Lake at 4:35 and had a quick snack. Then I cruised out to the car in an hour and 35 minutes. Great trip!

Marmot

nice end to a great day

~18 miles ~6,000 feet of gain ~10 hours and 9 minutes car to car

[IanB]

Wow! Awesome adventure - admirable perseverance! Great report and photos!

[b00]

[meck]

Very cool trip! I'd eyeballed that route up Mt Clark last year from the head of surprise basin, but couldn't convince myself to pull the trigger and climb it. So for Mt Johnson, would you say the route you went down was class 3 (high end class 3 or 4)?

[Fletcher]

The way I came down Johnson avoided all class 4. It was actually all easy class 3.

[NorDub]

[Just_Some_Hiker]

[Fletcher]

I would estimate it to be about 8.5 miles or so.

[puzzlr]

I'm impressed you did both of those solo, and glad my TR helped. Your class 2/3 bypass on Johnson will be helpful to people as well, but that 4th class chimney was fun and none of us felt the need for a rope, even though I'm usually a wimp about that. Solo would be a different thing, however.

[vtdoc]

Repeated part of your trip today! Took the climbers path on approach to the left of the waterfall as described in Olympic climbing guide. I got Clark(main objective), but really wanted to get Martin and was short on time! I was a little longer but did get Martin, made a loop coming back down on the trail vs. the boulder field to waterfall. The last step on the northside down was a reach for me...there is a crack to the left or a ledge to climbers right while looking down. The summit was interesting on the last section....class 3 but be careful! I could still see your skiiing from last week(but no foot prints up-how come you didn't kick deep steps for me?)! I brought 'one' crampon just incase the snow was too steep or hard, fortunately didn't need it! The ranger followed me up to Surprise Basin, but I think he had enough and wasn't really interested in the summit. Thanks for your great report-much better than the guide book! Now I've got to go back up sometime with some friends and pick up Mrs. Johnson!

[cascadetraverser]

The Pickets, the Olympic coast and now the Olympic mountains! You get around Fletcher. I have enjoyed reading your posts... Cool solo climbing trip!