[Martin S]

Mt. Lawson, in the southern Olympics, is a relatively obscure peak whose primary claim to fame is that it has 2521 ft of prominence, making it the 80th most prominent peak in the state. Reports from the only people I know who have been there (Roper et al and Klenke) include tales of difficult river crossings and steep, brushy, cliffy terrain and in general don't make in sound like much fun. Roper concluded his trip report with the question "Is there an easier way?" Dave Creeden and I set out this weekend hoping to find one, and I think we did. On Saturday we made the long drive around to Lake Quinault and hiked 10 miles up the North Fork Quinault River trail. The trail was badly damaged by the two back-to-back 100 year floods a couple of years ago and hasn’t been completely restored yet. The rangers may try to warn you away from that trail with tales of the destruction, but it’s not that bad if you don’t mind a couple dozen windfalls across the trail and having to do some creative boulder hopping and log shimmying at several creek crossings. We made it all the way without having to do any fords. Still, the destruction wrought by the floods is quite a sight, and serves as a reminder that in the southern Olympics the term “creek” is not synonymous with “babbling brook”; it means something more like “raging torrent capable of moving large boulders and leaving 6 ft diameter logs lodged in remarkable places”. We reached the area on the north side of Lawson where the previous parties had crossed the river and started looking for a place to cross, but the water level was simply too high. Fate smiled upon us and we found a log which offered a safe, dry crossing.

Dave crossing on the miracle log

Log crossing and camp

You have to understand what a miracle this log is: We hadn’t seen any other log crossings anywhere along the North Fork because the river was either too wide or the floods had scoured them away, and here was one easy, level log with a nice campsite on the trail side of the river and our intended ascent route beginning exactly on the other. If it weren’t for that log we wouldn’t have climbed Lawson this weekend. If you have designs on climbing Lawson, you should do so before the next flood carries it away. You can’t quite see it from the trail but it should be easy to find – it’s just before the short switchbacks above the first “u” in “Quinault” on the topo, only a few hundred feet below the big avalanche fan coming down from the north face. We walked up the trail a bit to scout out the route, set up camp, and turned in early, popping in earplugs to dampen the roar of the river. Sunday morning we chevalled across the log to cross the main channel of the river and rock hopped across the remaining channel, and started up the rubble in the stream gully on the right side of the avalanche fan. We hit continuous snow at around 2000 ft and booted up to take a right at the gully junction at 2300 ft. Here’s the most illustrative picture of the route I have, even though much of it isn’t quite visible.

Lawson N side

Upper route; steepest section is at right

Route up hidden gully

Starting at the bottom right, there’s a snow-filled stream gully hidden between the brushy avalanche fan and the woods that ascends diagonally to the snowy gully just left of center. Then a hard right leads to a hidden gully that diagonals up and right below the cliffs.

Starting up the stream beside the avalanch fan

Gully fork at 2300 ft. Take the right fork.

Looking up hidden gulley

Ascending hidden gully

The crux is getting up from the gully to the skyline where the ridge appears level for a bit. From there the route curls around the far side. From this picture it’s hard to believe this was nearly an all-snow route. Heading up the gully we found firm step-kicking snow and made rapid progress. At 3700 ft we veered right at another gully fork, not obvious from the map and possible to miss if you’re not paying attention. At 4000 ft the crux was how to get out of the head of the gully and onto the gentler ridge above and to the right.

Right fork in the gully at 3700 ft

Snowfinger to crux

We went straight up and found a steep snow finger leading to the top; there was one awkward move that we both decided we’d rather not repeat on the descent. Without snow that section would probably be at least class 4 and unpleasant. The map shows the ridge here as a gentle, rounded ridge between 4000 and 4400 ft, but don’t believe it. It’s a narrow spine with exposure off both sides. At 4400 ft we traversed right a few hundred feet and booted up through the open forest the remaining 800 ft to the 5200 ft sub-summit a half mile NNE of Lawson. Here we put on crampons, traversed across the SW side of the first bump along the ridge, then over the top of the second, and then dropped S into the flat saddle area before getting to the third.

Summit area

Nearing summit

Fine cramponing up final 400 ft to Lawson summit

Martin on Lawson summit

Marine layer filling Quinault valley

From there to the summit was pure delight – cramponing up firm Styrofoam snow, the difficult portion of the climb behind us, and the early morning sun sparkling on the snow. We topped out at 9:15, three hours and ten minutes after leaving the river, and spent a half hour basking in sunshine and taking in the views. We retraced our footsteps on the way down, except for the crux section where we continued to descend the ridge down to 4100 ft where we could break right into the gully. That section is probably class 3.

Ridge at 4200 ft

Descending

Descending

Descending

Descending hidden gully

Descending stream gully

We made quick work of the rest of the descent and were back in camp by noon. We had planned spending a second night there, but with nothing else to do for the afternoon, we packed up and made a leisurely hike out. All in all, I thought this was a delightful trip into a seldom-visited area. We never had to get our feet wet, and found a route that was completely brush-free except for a few brief spots where we were thankful for the green belays. Times: 5 hours on the trail each way, 3:10 up from the river, 2:10 down. Elevation gain: 3800 ft from the river. Other useful information: The Quinault River flow can be found here. That’s the flow below the lake and is obviously not the same as the flow in the upper North Fork, but if you assume they’re proportional it might be useful data for trip planning. On the day we were there the flow was around 2400 cfs. I wouldn't recommend attempting a ford at any higher flows than that.

[Hoosierdaddy]

Very, very nice! My kind of trip!! In your second picture, I can see your shelter. What is it?

[iron]

[Ancient Ambler]

Awesome trip, TR and pix. Thanks for providing so many descriptive details and photos on your route.

[Magellan]

Great details, thanks for posting it Martin.

[Eric]

Great info Martin. I was actually thinking about suggesting this one for this past weekend but I figured that with the sun and warmth that the creek would just be running too high. I figured you probably headed off to another spring type P2000, perhaps Liberty, instead.

[Justus S.]

Very informative and great read, thanks.

[Martin S]

Yup, that's Dave's Clip Flashlight. I had one just like it a few feet farther back in the woods. They're (supposedly) two-person tents, but he has a tendency to snore and I have a tendency to shove snoring tentmates into the river, so... two tents. HJT, yes, I believe this is the perfect time of year for this route. Any earlier and you'd hit snow on the trail and risk avalanches in that gully; any later and the snow in the gully would be rock hard and discontinuous, and there could be brush to contend with up high. That said, the spring runoff is a bad time of year to plan on fording the river. We got lucky in finding that log.

[puzzlr]

Wow, we get perfect Memorial Day weather and the astounding trip reports just keep rolling in. Nice job route finding. I see you walking down in all the "descending" shots -- no glissades?

[Stefan]

Great going! great to hear you had a log crossing!

[silence]

VERY NICELY DONE ... WAY TO GET ER DONE!!

[goats gone wild]

Well written TR and great pictures. I love reading off trail in the Olys reports. Good job on finding the log and the navigation up the mtn.