[Paul M]

Mike C and I climbed Mt Deception Friday in less than ideal conditions. We left Thursday AM and after futzing around with obtaining a backcountry permit and bear canister at the Olympic NP Wilderness Information Center in Port Angeles finally hit the trail about 11:30am under blue skies and warm temps. The trails along the Dungeness and Royal Creek are well graded and largely in the shade making travel pleasant. We hit the first patches of snow at 4500ft but found a dry camp site at Royal Lake so decided to stop here rather than push to the upper basin which was still fully snowed in. David D was with us but he was still suffering the after effects of a grandkids induced cold so he decided to sit the climb out the next day. He followed us up into the upper basin later in the morning and met us as we came off the mountain for the return to camp. While Thursday was sunny we awoke Friday morning to a low overcast and threatening skies. It was misting when we made it to the upper basin but we could still see part way up our intended route (we had seen the upper part of the route from the lake the night before). We ascended directly up the face and into the 45 degree gully merging with Route 4 (Honeymoon Route) in the Climber’s Guide to the Olympic Mountains. The route went fine as we climbed into the mist. Visibility was only a couple hundred of feet so we inched our way from feature to feature that we remembered from earlier views. We had some rock fall and crossed several opening moats and sections of thinning snow. I am not sure how much longer this route will be in shape this year. We exited the snow gully around 7300ft and worked up some rock to the ridge crest at 7400ft where we were met with the full force of the wind and horizontal precipitation. A little while later we were on the summit where we stayed just long enough to take a few pictures and start down. Both Mike and I did not like the prospects of reversing the upper part of our route so we started down the standard route, crossing over the cornice saddle and the upper Deception Glacier and back to the Deception – Martin saddle. In the lousy visibility we hit the latter saddle a bit to the right of the standard deproach slope and were blocked from getting there by ridge pinnacles but we found a way down to the right by linking rock and snow until meeting back with our ascent gully part way down the face. We backed down the steep snow a few hundred more feet until the angle lessened enough to plunge step and continued down to the basin, relieved to be off this pile of a mountain. Almost on cue the weather started to improve and it was clear and sunny by the time we were back in camp. The hike out was uneventful.

Bridge at Royal Creek where it meets the Dungeness River

Park like trail along Royal Creek

First views of Royal Basin peaks

Mike taking a trail nap

Camp at Royal Lake

Morning gloom and the route to upper Royal Basin

View down valley

View of our lower route

Paul ascending lower route - Photo by Mike Collins

Lower NE face from route

Mike on summit of Mt Deception

Paul on summit of Mt Deception - Photo by Mike Collins

Desending at around 7000 ft with our ascent route gully slanting to the right - Photo by Mike Collins

Mike at the base of Mt Deception - we are glad to be off

Of course the weather begins to improve as soon as we are back down

Mt Decption from Royal Lake

Zoom view of our upper route

Martin Peak

Mt Johnson and Mt Clark

5600 ft and ~17 miles RT. 4 hrs from camp at Royal Lake to summit. We dropped off the bear canister at Wild Birds Unlimited in Gardiner on SR 101.

[IanB]

Wow! Your photos only hint at the situations and conditions you must have been in. A tip of the hat to you, gentlemen!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Nice work. I've been at least mildly curious about Deception for a long time, but never attempted it. I've summitted Mt. Clark and Fricaba in that area.

[Mike Collins]

Deception is more user friendly with lower angles on the southern slopes. The NE face which we did has witnessed at least two fatal falls. A Seattlelite named Ellen Marie Foster died in 1995 when she "lost her balance" and a British national named Darren Kitchen died in 1996 when his "footing gave way". Their deaths are mentioned to underscore the seriousness of this peak. The steps we kicked were bomber but if the snow conditions were less favorable we were prepared to place pickets. Our harnesses were on but remained unused. You definitely want a helmet as two baseball sized rocks were flaked off by the warmth of the sun. The whole mountain is a crumbly rock massif. The rock would easily break off in our hands for the short sections where we upclimbed on rock.

[Magellan]

Nice work on the mountain with a bad rep.

[Scramblin_james]

Thank you for sharing your experience and bringing me to this trip log!