[Dustin Trails]

Mount Olympus It's been a long time since I've posted a trip report. This one is inspired by a few things. I have been doing more trips with Fletcher this year and have loosely pledged to him to be more of a contributor. Then, following the tragic passing of one of the great contributors to this site, Jake Robinson, I thought it seemed fitting to do my part with some pictures and beta. I did not know Jake personally, but read so many of his trip reports both on nwhikers and peakbagger.com. He has been a valuable source of mountain beta for me and from everything I have ever heard from his friends, he was a damn good guy. May his soul rest in peace and may we all hold on to the passion he had for the mountains. Finally, Steven took some great pictures and I generally take very few. So here goes. Steven flew in from Golden, CO on Thursday night, just in time for the apocalyptic smoke event. We deliberated late into the night, figuring out where the least smoke and best weather would be. That led us to the Olympics, not in the original plan but seemingly a good alternative. While driving towards the coast on Friday the smoke situation was not getting any better. Our stoke was low.

Making some use of the helmet

A slow, pondering walk

From there, we decided to head up to Mount Muller to get an idea of the smoke situation. There was a heavy inversion that day and we could actually see to Mount Olympus from the summit area on Mount Muller. However, we descended back to the smoke and headed for a campsite. We got the last campsite at the Mora Campground and had a lovely dinner at Rialto Beach, albeit smoky.

An alright place to continue deliberating

We went to bed unsure of the plan for the next day. When we woke up we decided it at least made sense to go to the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center and continue our deliberation at a new location. Checking updated forecasts (LTEs in the parking lot) we gained hope for a decent summit day. So around 9:30am we took off. Our original plan was to bivy on top of Snow Dome, but we were moving a touch slow on account of the smoke. It took us 7h30m to get to Glacier Meadows and we were still in heavy smoke, so we just laid the pads and bags out there and went to sleep. At least we had chipped off 18+ miles and 3800'.

A log bridge

A bridge bridge

At 5:15am our alarms went off. While beginning to make breakfast we were aware of the fact that the smoke seemed just as bad as the day before, lacking the improvement we had hoped for. We realized this climb wasn't going to happen so we went back to bed for a couple more hours. Around 8am we awoke and began packing for the long trip back to the car. But neither of us really wanted to give in. After yet another round of deliberation we convinced ourselves to at least walk up to the lateral moraine. We knew that if we descended into the forest and then looked up to see blue sky we would kick ourselves. Hope was still pretty low, but upon arrival at the moraine the mountain was visible just above the clouds! After a moderately condescending and unsolicited line of questioning from some goat hunters, we got some space to ourselves and decided to go for it. It was now 10am so we huddled, I delivered the pep talk and we took off.

We might actually do this!

Clouds and smoke settling

Crossing the Blue Glacier

Knowing it was late season for this route, we both brought steel crampons. On the steep pitch ascending to Snow Dome I was happy to have my BD Cyborgs. It felt good to get some confident front pointing. Above Snow Dome some of the crevasses had opened up huge. However, the walking was good and temps were reasonable. This time of year Crystal Pass is the option for getting to the summit. It is slightly circuitous but scenic nonetheless.

After topping out Snow Dome

Looking towards the summit

A long rope interval here

Beyond Crystal Pass

We really responded well to our pep talk and were standing on the summit 3h30m after leaving the lateral moraine. The "chossier" scramble (looker's left) on the summit block was a nice option for us, it was exposed 4th class at a maximum.

Mount Tom

Many of the usual suspects in here

After hanging out for a bit we headed down. The walking on the glaciers was simple, with the crux being the icy bit below Snow Dome.

Just through Crystal Pass

Heading towards Snow Dome

Steven trying to drop his nice camera

Much happier than I look

After 2h45m we were back on the lateral moraine, eating bagels with pepperoni and cheese and getting ready for the long walk back to the car. It was 5:00pm so we knew it would get a little midnight sloggy.

Scenic with the smoky brown hue

It was nearly midnight when we returned to the car. We were tired so I slept in the car while Steven poached a flat spot on top of a picnic table. We woke up early to avoid being hassled and headed back to Seattle. 46 miles 8500' cumulative gain A leisurely two days in comparison (https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8027218&view=next)

[awilsondc]

Holy **** those Blue Glacier pictures gave me a mountain *****!

[Fletcher]

Excellent! Robinson would approve. Really cool to see what it’s like out there late season. Mount Tom has slowly crept up and up on my own personal list for years.

[JeremyJ]

Incredible! I rarely post or contribute but this is great! Thanks!

[benneke]

Unreal photos, great post! I spent years working for ONP, it really irked me that fear tactics and condescension were the most common response to those with ambitious plans, sounds like its still the MO. It wasn't very effective at preventing incidents in my experience...

[RichP]

[Dustin Trails]

[NBL]

Beautiful photos and TR. Love that this trip also snuck in a night at Rialto Beach which is just worth doing anyway. The peninsula is magic.

[geyer]

These pics are awesome! If you guys need another partner for that spring Mt Tom trip, I volunteer myself

[bobbi]

fantabulous! happy your pep talks worked to get you to the summit. did you notice how far back, date wise, climbers registered their climb? I climbed august 2002. anyway, awesome photos, too!

[silence]

Stunning!

[Dustin Trails]

[silence]

We met Dave on that climb. We camped on Panic when he wandered up to the summit to watch the sunset. He invited us to join him after our climb the next morning for refreshments. When we returned he had chairs out on the research hut porch and ice cold lemonade waiting. We talked story for a good 2 hrs and regretted having to finally pack up and leave, but we had to get to Glacier Meadows for the night so we could hike out the rest of the way the next morning. Anyhow, he’s a good man and a good friend. He’s devoted to the Olympics and has spent most of his life hiking, climbing (gotta be at least a hundred summits of Olympus), and doing trail work. Dave on Panic Peak at sunset

Dave is 2nd from the left

We featured him in our film Out of the Mist. Here is his section in the movie: Out of the Mist Film Excerpt - Dave Skinner from Crest Pictures on Vimeo.

[raising3hikers]

I also want to climb mt Tom! Way to get a late season climb of Olympus. Great pics, that area is so cool

[Brushbuffalo]