[awilsondc]

I've wanted to climb Mt. Mystery ever since I saw it from Marmot Pass 10 years ago. Jake and I were originally planning to tackle some peaks in the North Cascades but the smoke forecast had us considering other options. The Olympics looked like they would be clear so we decided to head out to Deception Basin for a night to bag the peaks in the area. Mystery was the big prize for us, but there wasn't a lot of beta out there for doing this peak in summer conditions. There's a good reason for this, more on that later. We gathered what beta we could and met up at the Upper Dungeness Trailhead and started up the trail around 8am Thursday morning.

Trail to Royal Lake

Royal Basin area

The trail up to Royal Lake is pretty mellow and we cruised up fairly quickly, reaching Royal Lake in about 2 hours 50 minutes with a couple food and water breaks along the way. Just past the lake we encountered a couple slightly frantic campers. They asked if we had just come up from the trailhead with a concerned look on their faces. We replied yes, why do you ask. Because of the FIRE!! Did you see it?!? We looked at each other both confused and concerned. We asked, what fire? Over there!! They took us a few steps to where we could see down the valley we had just came up where we could indeed see... clouds / fog rising up above the valley. We assured them that it was clouds, not smoke and that we didn't see or smell anything on the way up. We were all relived. That was the way out!

The saddle we'd use to access Deception Basin

Jake at the saddle

Deception Basin

Descending into Deception Basin

Jake on the way to Mystery. Little did he know, the choss fest he was about to experience!

We continued on towards the upper basin where views of Deception started to come into view and we began to search for our saddle over into Deception Basin. We angled over towards the eastern basin where we would round a broad ridge and climb to the saddle SW of the 6600 mark on the topo map. Our route was still covered under snow, but it was soft enough to get some traction and not too steep. We were happy to have brought our ice axes. We topped out at the saddle and the views of Deception Basin were pretty impressive. We each took slightly different route into the basin, but soon met up and began to search for a camp site. A knoll looked like it had great views, but no water and not super flat. We dropped down a little further and found a nice flat spot near a stream. It was about 1:15 at this point and we took time to set up camp, filter water, and eat some food before we were ready to head off to our summits around 2:30. You may be interested in Mt Mystery in summer conditions if you enjoy any of the following: steep hard packed dirt, dirty loose gullies, choss, loose class 3 and 4 scrambling with high rock fall danger, high angle dirt and rock covered with kitty litter pebbles, excellent Olympic Mountain views. We knew it wouldn't be the most pleasant route but once we climbed up snow to the Hal Foss / Mystery saddle and looked up at the route, the reality of the situation started to sink in. We have to climb up THAT?! We both agreed on the route. Aim left towards an obvious gully that would lead up to a headwall. Head right under the headwall, then up hard packed dirt towards the U notch. From there, a final steep loose class 3/4 gully leads to the summit. The route sucked. As we neared the first obvious gully we decided on more scrambly terrain just climbers right which took us up to the headwall. It was loose class 3 with high rock fall danger and we had to go one at a time to mitigate any potential party induced rock fall. A fall here would not be good. We worked our way around the headwall and up more hard packed dirt and choss towards the U notch and our final gully. The final gully was the crux of the trip and featured more loose class 4 with one at a time only sections before we finally reached the summit! It was loose, steep, and horrible and we both agreed it goes straight to the do not repeat, do not recommend list. This is a spring mountain. Don't climb it after the snow melts. The views from the top were great though. From Constance and Warrior to Deception and Gray Wolf Ridge the panorama was superb. No summit register though which was a disappointment. It took us 1 1/2 hours to the summit from camp. We stayed for 20 before heading down and on to Hal Foss.

Taking in the views on the hard packed dirt

Jake scrambling one of the harder sections

Mt Mystery summit view

PHOTOSPHERE - click and drag to move, mouse wheel to zoom The descent sucked just as much with several one at a time sections and inward facing down climbing. I slipped on some of the hard packed kitty litter dirt and landed on my left hip and scraped my lower leg a little, but that was the worst mishap of the descent. As we started up Hal Foss we quickly realized what a crappy pile of choss this mountain is. We dubbed it Hal Choss. It was not a lot of fun either, but better than Mystery at least. Mostly class 2. We reached the summit at 6 and signed the register.

Jake descending the steep gully

On the way to Hal Choss!

Jake on the Hal Choss summit block

Whale tail tarn and our tent

Some Hal Foss choss

Our Hal Foss summit register entry

Now get this... Jake has been a serious choss dog this year. Mox peaks, Martin, Custer, Bonanza and Dark, and now this trip. This guy has packed in some of the worst chossiest routes this year and even after Mystery, on the way over to Hal Foss he starts talking, lets do Deception tomorrow! Deception in summer is also known for the awful steep chossy climb from Upper Royal Basin to the Deception Martin saddle. And this guy really wants it, starts lobbying to do it tomorrow. I wasn't having it. Deception is a nice snow climb and I was willing to wait, and wanted to wait. Not Jake. He is a choss boss. A Hal Foss choss boss even. We decided to head down to camp from here to enjoy the last remaining hour or so light rather than push on to Fricaba which would mean getting back to camp as the last light of the day was fading. We descended pretty much straight down the north face. On the way down we came across a mountain goat. He was huge! One of the biggest I've seen. He also dropped a deuce right in front of us which was a first for us both. We reached camp and enjoyed an hour or so of lovely evening light while eating dinner. There were some bugs, bad enough to use a little DEET but not horrible. We also decided to get an alpine start and hit Fricaba early to enjoy the sunrise from the summit. We were in bed by 9.

Mountain goat - he's a big'n!

Mountain goat dropping a couple pounds

Evening light on the ridge

Sun descending behind Deception

Evening light towards mystery

This never gets old

Fading light in a thin tarn

We decided to start hiking at 4:45 to give us plenty of time to reach the summit for sunrise at 6:30. We made it to the top by 5:30, a full hour early. Could have slept in a bit more but the dawn colors, gradual light increasing, and sunrise were amazing. The sun rose right over the left shoulder of Glacier Peak, which was fittingly the last peak Jake and I had done together. After taking in our share of views we headed down and packed up camp.

Awaiting sunrise

Firey skies over the cascades

Dawn colors over Constance

Dawn breaking over Deception and Co.

Hal Foss and Mystery

Deception and its basin

Sunrise over Glacier Peak

First light on Olympus

Alpenglow on Hal Foss and Mystery

Morning light on Stone, Skokomish, et al

Dawn colors over Mystery and Deception

Alpenglow at sunrise from Fricaba

We decided to try a different saddle on our way back to Royal Basin in the hopes of avoiding snow on the way down. Jake had packed crampons, but I opted to leave any traction at home so we took the obvious boot path up to the saddle directly north of the Deception Basin Lake. We did not like what we saw when we got to the top. Snow. And more choss. We eyed a possible steep choss descent before deciding to traverse snow over to a ridge that looked like it would go snow free from there. Jake kicked steps for me across the snow, which was a tad sketchy. From there is was, what else, more choss and steep hard packed kitty litter covered dirt all the way down to the upper Royal Basin tarns.

Water near camp

Gentle little cascades

'bout to pack up!

Deception reflection

Filling up on water before the hike out

Mystery reflection in a tiny puddle

Hal Foss and Mystery

Jake kicking steps

One final battle with choss

Jake nearing the tarns

Upper Royal Basin tarn

Jake was still all geared up for Deception. I wasn't going to do it in these conditions but was fine with him going solo while I headed back to my car. He sat there for a good 20 minutes eyeing the route and trying to talk himself out of it. He finally succeed and decided to save Deception for later, a wise choice IMO. We cruised down past Royal Lake and the remaining 7+ miles to the car pretty quickly. Deception Basin is beautiful, and I'm super stoked to have bagged Mystery but it was certainly some type 2 fun. If you're considering doing Mystery, do it in the spring not summer.

[Jake Robinson]

Great trip!

Heading up to Royal Lake

Royal Lake

Deception

Aaron heads up to the notch we used to access Deception Basin

Mystery

Heading down to camp

Deception

Mystery's dying glacier

Up to this notch to start the scramble route on Mystery. Let the choss begin!

Aaron prepares to earn his choss boss credentials

Off to a great start

Aaron on some steep, exposed, hard packed dirt.

Ugly chossy gully

Man vs. Choss...who will win?

The views are nice at least

Interesting rock feature near the summit. Brushbuffalo? Thoughts?

Beginning the chossy descent

Gnarliness

So much fun!

And fairly dangerous

Back to the saddle with Hal Foss, now for round 2!

Hal Foss choss traverse

Aaron definitely earned his choss boss cred.

Is there anywhere Fay Pullen hasn't been?

Views of Warrior and the Constances, both outer and Inner

Descending Hal Foss back to camp

This guy may want to consider a fiber supplement...

Fricaba

Camp views

Alpine start on Fricaba

One more pano!

Sunrise over Glacier

Olympus

Aaron and the heaping pile of garbage he summited yesterday

Up to the saddle with deception

Royal Basin

Surprise! More choss!

The effects of two straight days of choss on the human brain are demonstrated here.

[IanB]

[RodF]

Thanks for sharing your panoramic photos and the dawn alpenglow! The interesting rock bedding near Mystery's summit appear to be slate pencil structures. Roland Tabor of USGS describes them:

[meck]

Looks like great trip Aaron and Jake! Thank you for the info on Mt Mystery, its been on my list for a while.... though reading your writeup maybe not so much now! Fricaba and Hal Foss are absolutely fun ones in my opinion. You can also descend from (or ascend to) Fricaba via the Milk Creek or Heather Creek drainages for a day climb loop (that's how I visited both of those).

[awilsondc]

[Malachai Constant]

The whole area is much better in late spring early summer more photogenic also. IMO

[puzzlr]

Good read. "Hal Choss" is very appropriate.