[awilsondc]

A friend from college who I hadn't seen in almost a decade contacted me because he was going to be in the area and wanted to go for a hike. He wanted to do something on the Olympic Peninsula, so I decided to take him up Mount Washington. I had been there twice before, and it's one of my favorites for a shorter day in the Olympic Mountains. We met up at a park and ride at 5 am and got to the trailhead about 6:30. There was another group there getting their gear together. They were doing a Washington, Peak A, Peak B, Ellinor traverse. Sounded like fun! They took off to drop a shuttle car off at the Ellinor upper trailhead, while we hit the trail!

The lovely Mount Washington trail

Emerging onto the scree field

Hiking past the horn

The trail was steep like I rememberd and the roots and rocks were quite slick with morning dew. We hiked for a bit until my friend needed to take off his coat. We stopped and a solo hiker passed us. We continued on up the trail until we reached the gully. I knew there was supposed to be an easy route, but I couldn't find it so we just hiked up the gully which was challenging in spots mostly branch ducking and steep dirt trail. There was one small rocky headwall before reaching the meadows above the horn. I was glad to be out of that gully and the meadow was gorgeous! View larger size in new window Somewhat poorly stitched Photosphere. Sorry about your head Rusty!

Above the meadow

Snow melt cave

Hiking the ledges

Nearing the summit block

There was really not much snow to contend with. There were a couple easily avoidable patches as we made our way to the ledges. In the past I've just picked a scramble line up the rocks, but with my friend with me I stuck to the well trodden path through the ledges. Soon we reached the saddle and views of the inner Olympic Mountains produced a "wow" moment for both of us. View larger size in new window Another poorly stitched Photosphere. I gotta try harder and check these when I'm done... grrrr. You can zoom in (mouse wheel) and see Johnny on the summit! A bit more scrambling and we were at the summit! There were two solo hikers at the summit when we got there, Matt and Johnny. A couple of cool dudes... we chatted for a bit about mountains and lounged around for about an hour. There was a summit register in a plastic bag inside a rusted metal box. I didn't bother signing it, but Johnny said it was full anyway. If you're heading up bring a new summit register or notepad! Matt had left a bit before us.

16 labels

Mount Washington summit panorama

Pershing

Warrior, Constance, and The Brothers

The Needles, Deception, and Mystery

Mount Anderson

Mount Stone

Mount Skokomish

Mount Olympus

As we were descending some clouds rolled in making for some interesting scenery. As we were descending we again came across the group doing the traverse. I hope they had a good time!

Clouds rolling in

Matt descending

Parting horn shot with Rainier

We went back the way we came, only we took the easy route down past the horn rather than gully. 5 hours car to car. It was a great trip, and nice to see my friend again.

[meck]

Beautiful Pics awilsondc! Lots of good condition information in those pictures too (looks like a lot of the surrounding peaks are just right for visiting). I'm really digging the photospheres. Thanks for posting the TR, that is one of my favorite "short" mountain climbs.

[puzzlr]

[Gimpilator]

Lovely photos. That's one of my favorite hikes in the Olympics and a good place to bring a friend.

[Fletcher]

Nice. This one is on my list. I have heard from those who have done it ^^^ that it's an Olympic gem.