[Jason Hummel]

I thought I'd share a story about skiing across the Olympic Mountains over 9 days earlier this month. It was an amazing experience in an fantastic corner of our awesome state. Plus, I haven't shared enough on here in awhile Enjoy! http://www.myadventurecrusade.com/2016/05/27/the-olympic-traverse/ Here's a blurb from the beginning: May 11-19, 2016 – By Jason Hummel

Out my front door three blocks down 30th St. is a trail that takes me to the shores of Commencement Bay and from there, in the distance, rise the Olympic Mountains. I’m not alone with my view; a million other doorsteps are similarly blessed. Yet there in those mountains are places no foot has tread and even where feet have trodden, no evidence remains of their passage, because over the bay from where I stand is wilderness. Not wilderness halfway around the world. Not wilderness lost in some place you can’t even pronounce. Instead, right there is wilderness that for the cost of a tank of gas, I can visit with my own two feet.

Not until the late 1800s were the secrets of the Olympics first unlocked, initially with the O’Neil Expedition and later, most famously, with the Press Expedition. Robert Wood in his book Across the Olympic Mountains quotes a local newspaper in which the writer challenges “Some of the hardy citizens of the Sound to acquire fame by unveiling the mystery which wraps the land encircled by the snowcapped Olympic mountain range.” The Press Expedition, funded by the very newspaper that challenged its readership to take on the Olympic Mountain Range, became in the winter of 1889 the first party to complete a north to south crossing of the Olympics, taking six months to traverse the relatively few, yet most rugged 50 miles, they would ever explore in their lifetimes. Six hundred miles of trails now crisscross what has become the 1422 square mile Olympic National Park, established and signed into law in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Between those miles of trails are the high mountains, glacier cirques and ridge lines where you forge, at least in part, your own trails. This wilderness I intended to explore on skis, but to do it right, I had to have a plan.

Two years ago, a friend, Justin McGregor, turned me on to the idea of a north-south traverse of the Olympics over beers at the Parkway Tavern. He told me about a high route he and friends had hiked and scrambled the summer before. I’d always imagined an east-west traverse that included the mighty Mt. Olympus, but I was struck with the possibility of a high route that left from Hurricane Ridge and ended at Lake Cushman. Almost immediately I roughly plotted my own path by merging portions of Justin’s summer trip with the glaciers and high points I was interested in skiing come springtime. A primary goal in my route planning was to ski the named glaciers in the area as part of my greater project of skiing all 213 named glaciers in Washington State. If it went according to plan, I’d ski glaciers 131 through 135, and in the process tick off several of the most remote glaciers in the state. But all wasn’t to plan. When the spring of 2015 arrived, it did so on the heels of one of the worst winters in recorded history for Washington State. At the end of March, 2015, the Olympic snowpack teetered at 7% of normal! A year passed and in March of 2016 I happened to read an article that stated that the Olympic snowpack was at a healthy 122 percent. Conditions were ideal, but then April struck a match to the snowpack, burning its way into the record books. In nearby Seattle April was the warmest it had been in 122 years of record keeping, breaking the previous average by 3.1 degrees! Snowpack was melting by the foot and soon flowers would be rising from newly exposed dirt. Before that happened, Tim Black and I set off to transform lines on a map into memories of a lifetime. On the outset of this trip I carried more baggage on my mind than usual. I sawed back and forth over the years of my life, trying to justify where I was and how I got there. The “So what if I’ve been single for 3 years.” Or the “So what if I don’t have a home outside an RV for much of the year.” Or, most spectacularly, “So what if I left a promising career as a financial advisor eight years ago to seek a life in the outdoors and photography.” Would I change any of it? Probably not. When I ask, “Would I go back?” I can’t imagine doing so. Ever. But there’s a price I’ve begun to realize. Giving up ‘stability’ and ‘home’ isn’t as easy as I’d thought and I fear I’ll never get the chance to have either and if I do I’ll never stop long enough to hold onto them. Tons more imagery and the rest of the story on my site: http://www.myadventurecrusade.com/2016/05/27/the-olympic-traverse/

[awilsondc]

That's pretty awesome Jason! I haven't had the time to read it all yet, but excellent pictures. Looked like lots of rough terrain, creek crossings, and bushwhacking and with skis on your back none the less! Epic. Well done!

[meck]

I love it Jason! That was an awesome adventure, thank you for sharing it! It was fun to see those places you passed through covered with snow. I've had the opportunity to cover a fair portion of that route in bits and pieces (day hikes, short backpacks), but mostly when the snow was completely gone. Your pics of down climbing rock cliffs using veggie belays, and crawling through slide alder are as about an accurate representation of off-trailing in the Olympics as you can get. What a cool journey!

[Jason Hummel]

Awilsondc, Enjoy! I try to make it a good read. Meck, Thanks. I've never had the opportunity to pass through any of this country, so it was a wild experience. I can't wait to return in the summer. Somehow I end up not going to the Olympic Mountains much, even though they are close to me. Besides several ski and hiking trips around Olympus and the Baileys, plus the classic beach hikes, I've a lot more to see.

[Rigafari]

Cool trip! I have done some snowboarding on constance and anderson so it's always nice to see a report from there. Bummer you got fogged out on anderson and company. Some nice lines in there.

[Jason Hummel]

Awesome Rigafari. You should join me on Anderson. I need to ski the Hanging Glacier and while there, it would be fun to ski that unnamed glacier on the other peak of Anderson.

[Jetlag]

Jason, I don't know that "unnamed glacier on the other peak of Anderson." Which direction does it face? (Great that you're posting your TR here. You already know what I think about the trip, text and photos!)

[Jason Hummel]

Jetlag, It's on the South Face of the West Peak of Anderson. It looks like a fantastic line that I had hoped to ski with an extra day or two there, but the weather didn't allow for it. Ha. I'll get out there one more time with skis in the next few years, though, so another chance will arise. Plus it'd be cool to ski on that peak in the sun!

[MesiJezi]

Wow--really enjoyed reading this TR and seeing your photographs. I'm curious as to how many/which cameras you bring with you on these kind of adventures!

[Jason Hummel]

MesiJezi, Thanks! Per your question, I bring a d810 Nikon with 4 lenses...usually, along with a tripod, plus other little nicknacks like a shutter release, filters and such.

[RodF]

Fabulous and awesome trek, Jason! You're a gifted writer. Thanks for gracing us all with your words and photos.

[mbravenboer]

Great report! I very much enjoyed your photos. I like how you've been doing trips in what is conventionally considered less interesting terrain this winter.

[Jetlag]

Thanks for the background, Rod F.!

[Bright River]

I've done this whole trip , but without the snow. What great photos, and interesting thoughts too. Congratualtions!! Also you got to find out about the Olympics "Nitty-Gritty": water slots, brush, and that "rock"; when your off the mountaintops and in the U shaped valleys, something is going to happen. Just can't figure out how you looked so fresh and clean at the end!

[Jason Hummel]

RodF, Wow, more books for me to read! I've not heard of Gods and Goblins. Great title. And the history on the Linsley Glacier is fantastic. Thanks about the writing. I just throw a lot of heart into it and sometimes I get it right Bright River, Awesome. I never did much research before the trip, besides talking to a friend who had done sections. While researching more would've been good...I loved the sense of adventure of knowing nothing outside what the maps shared. Ha. We looked fresh after a nice swim at the end...a damn cold swim.