Mt. Olympus 2024
Hoh Jam!
This year’s big climb was the highest point within Olympic National Park, Mt. Olympus. Standing at 7,980 feet (2,430 m) it is lower in elevation than many of our recent climbs like Grand Teton or Gannett Peak. Despite its lower elevation, it is still a journey because it is quite remote, taking about 20 miles of approach. The trip took five days and four nights.
Mt. Olympus sits near the center of the Olympic Peninsula, the large landmass making up the western portion of Washington.
Joining me on the climb was the full crew from all our previous climbs. Along with Natasha and Brandon, Mihir joined us from D.C., Matt from Chicago, and a jobless Doug stopped by en route to China.
Route Details
Our route started at the Hoh River Trailhead which sits about 30 miles east of Forks, WA. The route follows the Hoh River through the rainforest east for 15 miles before turning south and gaining the glacier for the mountaineering portion of the climb.
We started at ~670ft and topped out at 7,980ft. It seems my Gaia GPS (which I generally love) is counting every rock on the trail as +1 -1 ft of vert. 🤷♂ My guess is somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 ft of total vert.
Gear Check
Our weather forecast was spectacular so we got to ditch a ton of gear for the trip. Anything for heavy rain/snow/cold like long underwear, gaiters, big puffies, rain pants, etc. got to stay home. This really helped reduce our pack weight.
Pregame in Forks
After gear check, we grabbed some tacos at guide-favorite Dos Chamucos before getting on the road. Our AirBNB was in Forks, all the way on the other side of the Olympic Peninsula (see map above). Unlike me, Natasha hates the ferry [editor (aka Natasha) note: “hate” is a strong word here], so our two cars fought the SeaTac southbound rush hour traffic through Tacoma, braved Galloping Gertie, and met for dinner in Port Angeles.
Dinner was a quick affair since we still needed to get our groceries sorted for the trail, so we parked in a strip shopping center and had the freedom of choice between a variety of classy fast food establishments. After my McDonalds chicken sandwich, I also devoured a Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard from DQ which took me straight back to high school. Did you know that DQ has it’s own jingle just for Texas? 🎵#ThatsWhatILikeAboutTexas
That night was final gear check and snack packing before bed.
An aside on food…
During this trip there were three major schools of thought on food packing:
- The scientist — Measure out exactly how many calories of each snack are necessary to get to the expected calorie burn count for the trip. Scientists included Natasha, Brandon and Doug (after previously bring far too much food on Gannett).
- The eyeballer — Throw a bunch of shit in a stuff sack and call it good. Far more likely to overestimate and be heavy. Eyeballers included Mihir and Matt.
- The mooch — Grab a few things that you can find leftover from old trips in the pantry and buy exactly one pound of peanuts, then expect the eyeballers to have a bunch of extra food on the last couple days of the trip. Mooches on this trip? Just me*
*Normally I am an eyeballer, but my pack always ways a ton, so this time, on a less intense mountain with a great forecast, I wanted to try a different approach. It paid off! [editor note: Pat ran out of food on day 3…]
Day 1 — Hoh Rainforest Trailhead to Lewis Camp
Distance: 10.6 miles
Day one was special. Doug woke up with a case of ol’ crooked spine so we had to Theragun the hell out of it (he survived).
Quick breakfast at a bikini-less Bikini-Barista shack before an hour long drive to the trailhead where we met up with our guides, packed up our group gear, and used a nice toilet for the last time for 4.5 days.
The first day’s hike is always super fun because you get to learn about the guides during the first miles of the hike when there’s nothing to do but look at the trail and chat.
We had briefly met David the day before at gear check. He’s a young guy who’d been guiding since getting out of UW with a business degree. Originally from Maine, he now lives in Bellingham. He had a great knowledge of local flora and fauna. Apparently he had a lot of friends in the natural sciences at UW. They’d teach him about plants and trees and he’d teach them how to open an IRA. He and Doug became our berrymen on the trip (again, more later). With a lean 6'5" frame often carrying heavy packs, he takes self-care of the fascia seriously, and brought a few different PT balls and rollers that were heavily utilized by the group at camp.
Our lead guide was former fire-fighter, Andrew Bennett. He’s about the same age as us. He grew up down the street from our house in Seattle. He and his partner live in Leavenworth where he can run, bike, ski, and climb all in his backyard. Soft spoken, and super friendly, and willing to carry some surprises in his backpack.
Wow! Look at that Tree!
… was the refrain for all 10.6 miles of the first day, and really for the whole trip. The Hoh Rainforest is a magical place with enormous trees covered in droopy moss. It looks like where the fairies would live.
Because we hiked right next to the Hoh River, we would just pop out onto the banks to take our breaks and fill up water bottles.
Berries!
A boon for the scientists and the mooch, there were at least seven edible varieties of berries along the trial. Blackberries, blueberries, saskatoons, salmon berries, raspberries, huckleberries, and [my favorite] thimbleberries. David and Doug (our berrymen) were able to identify most of them. David having spent a lot of time in the PNW woods and Doug recognizing many from his family’s place in Canada. We spent much of the trip foraging along the side of the trail. It was sweet and glorious and inspired the name of our trip: Hoh Jam 2024.
River Crossing
Somewhere around eight miles in, we were able to give our feet a break by taking the boots off and crossing the river. The cold water felt amazing on the legs.
Ranger John
A few miles before Camp One we met the best NPC on the trip: Ranger John. He was a vibe. He had that kind of ultra-competent cool that comes with crunchy outdoors folks. Aviators, a sidearm, a huge mustache, and a tin mug that could have believably been coffee, soup, whiskey, or some mix thereof. Epic.
We got to see him multiple times on the trip, including on the summit since he took some young climbers up on the same day as us.
Camping in the Weirwood
At the end of our big day, we set camp in the Lewis Campground about 10.5 miles from the trailhead. We settled under a huge mossy tree that reminded us all of a Heart Tree from Game of Thrones.
Andrew prepared a lovely mac+cheese+veggies dinner for us while we set up camp and partook in David’s PT gear. We spent the night leisurely hanging out before getting a lot of sleep. We all commented on how comparatively nice it was to not be sleeping on snow or rushing around to set up/tear down camp quickly as one needs to do on some of the more intense climbs. This one was far more leisurely.
Day 2 — Lewis Camp to Alpine Meadows
Out of camp that morning we took a…uh…shortcut to get back to the trial from the camp ground. This shortcut had us cut through some dense bush, hop some logs, snag our bags on trees, etc. It reminded me a lot of letting Dad drive the side-by-side through the mesquite trees at the ranch. Luckily fewer thorns.
We crossed small stream (dry crossing) where we stoped for a bountiful berry break. Doug got way up in the bushes for a big pile of salmon berries.
More walking and a lunch at a 1920s era shelter. Andrew kindly heated up some water so I could be bougie and drink some afternoon coffee while sitting on my luxurious stump.
At this point we were somewhere around 15 miles in and had gained a bit of elevation, so we started getting some glimpses of the mountains.
At this point too some of the gradients off the side of the trail were quite steep. Andrew mentioned that the Olympics have some of the steepest terrain around because the dense root systems of the trees can hold it all in place like rebar.
Rope Ladder
Our last obstacle for day two was the rope ladder down a steep/loose section of rock and sand. It reminded me of one of those ladder games they have at Midways to take money from 10 year olds. Luckily when you put weight on this one, it touched the ground so it felt quite stable. You just had to watch out for tumbling rocks from the climber above you.
Alpine Meadows Campground
While shorter, this was a heftier day compared to day one, so our feet were happy to take the rest of the day off. We pitched our tents at the Alpine Meadows Campground and performed our ablutions and PT.
Alpine Meadows, like our first camp, was quite beautiful and had a nice potty for us to use. Another cushy amenity of this trip: no blue bags!
With an early rise the next morning for summit day, we ate some dehydrated meals and called it an evening.
Day 3— Summit Day!
If I recall correctly, our wakeup time was at 4am. We dressed, donned our headlamps and had some instant oatmeal. I think these climbing trips have really ruined instant oatmeal for me :(
In the early morning light, we started climbing upward on a rocky section to gain the top of the moraine.
Moraine
Gaining the moraine that morning yielded a truly stunning view. A lateral moraine is the rock and dirt that is pushed up on the sides of a glacier as it grows. This one was a few hundred feet tall, so it gave us breathtaking views across the blue glacier and our first glimpses of Mt. Olympus.
As nice as it was to come up the sturdy rocks and top the moraine, heading down the steep, sandy, rocky scree to get the glacier sucked. Everything was loose and sliding and you sorta skied down, but also had to not push big rocks down the hill.
Eventually we made it to the bottom and got our sharps (crampons and ice axes) out for glacier travel.
Dry Glacier
Crossing the Blue Glacier (both times) was one of my favorite parts of this trip. Unlike most of the other glacier’s I’ve been on, this one was “dry” meaning it didn’t have the layer of snow on top of the ice. Thus you could see all the crevasses, moulins, bridges, and other features normally hidden beneath the snow.
Snow Dome & Crystal Pass
After the break on the rocks, we started up the snow dome. The name is pretty self explanatory. It’s a feature on the mountain that is steep at the beginning, mostly flat on the top, and made completely out of snow 🤷♂.
The snow was still piled up on the slope of the snow dome on our way up. So even though it looks steep, you weren’t going anywhere if you fell.
This mountain was cool because when you topped out on the Snow Dome you were on this plateau with all the peaks arrayed in front of you. It was like doing all the work to climb the majority of the mountain first, and just choosing which peak to walk to and climb up.
We had to cross to the backside of the summit (from our perspective) to climb it because the direct route had been cut off by some crevasses opening up early in the summer. Thus, we followed the boot pack around a few crevasses, taking in views of Rainier and Baker, making our way toward Crystal Pass which would allow us to the back side.
On the other side of Crystal Pass we turned back west to go up the last steepish snow field. A short rock section across a ridge brought us to the base of the summit spire.
Summit
Mt. Olympus ends with around 100 feet of not-too-difficult (5.3/5.4) alpine rock climbing. When we got to the base of the summit spire, there was a group climbing ahead of us so we had some time to take a break, rehydrate, and take some pictures. Our weather on that day was perfect, so it wasn’t cold or miserable in any way.
After a short wait, we started the climb to the top. One of the guides led the route and set up an anchor. Then we climbed in tandem groups of three to minimize our time on the wall since other groups were behind us. This was …. interesting. You all have to climb at about the same speed, and be careful not to step on the person’s hands below you. I’m also not a super confident outdoor climber, so there were a few places where I was t-rex arming trying not to fall off the wall directly onto Doug’s head. [editor note: this was very funny to watch being the 3rd in this conga line.]
But after one full pitch and then another short pitch all six of us were on top of Mt. Olympus!
The top of Olympus is only about 10x30 ft. So once we got to the top we took some pictures and then found a comfy rock to sit on. We signed the summit register and chatted with Ranger John and his party for a while. Because the weather was so nice, we were in absolutely no rush. A few of us even took short naps at the top!
After about two hours, the guides lowered us down and we started the long walk back to Alpine Meadows.
Fun with Crevasses
We had one more adventure on the way back to camp. Those big crevasses on top of the Snow Dome caught our guides’ eyes on the way up, so they asked if anyone wanted to be lowered into one of them for fun. Natasha piped up first so she got to go in.
I don’t have any good pictures from inside the crevasse or of Natasha coming out because those on her rope team (Andrew, Doug, and Me) were on all fours bear crawling to haul her out. Luckily it was warm because we were all wet afterward. Thanks Natasha! [editors note: You’re welcome!]
Back to Camp
After the crevasse stop, we started back for camp in earnest. David’s group (Brandon, Matt, Mihir) hauled ass down the snow fields but ended up accidentally taking a more scenic route and didn’t get to the glacier until well after us.
As I mentioned at the top of this section, crossing back over the Blue Glacier was one of my favorite parts of the day because it was so easy to see all the different features in the ice. I wish I had taken more pictures!
Once we got off the glacier we were able to take off our crampons for the last time on this trip. The last obstacle was climbing back up the moraine (which really sucked). But again the top gave us great sunset views back toward Mt. Olympus.
Celebration Dinner at Alpine Meadows
It was a joy to clean up and take the boots off back at camp that evening. It always is after a long summit day. We stretched and napped and chatted until it was dinner time in which the guides again hooked us up with a wonderful dinner of doctored ramen noodles with teriyaki beef (jerky) and fresh vegetables. After dinner a liter of wine appeared from a certain unnamed backpack. We drank red from our Nalgenes and celebrated a truly wonderful day on the summit.
Day 4— Alpine Meadows to Five Mile Island
Day four felt long. It was almost all downhill but it was something like 12 miles and our feet and legs were a tired. With the summit behind you, it’s always a bit more care-free feeling. On the way in everything is new, whereas on the way out, you’ve seen it all once and there’s no summit day anxiety hanging over your head. So we walked and chatted and ate berries all day, enjoying the beautiful Hoh Rainforest.
We camped that night at “Five Mile Island” which is situated right on the side of the Hoh River. We spent a good portion of the evening hanging out on the banks or actually in the river. I didn’t partake, but it seemed the water was quite brisk.
That night we ate our last dehy meal and sat around telling riddles for much of the evening. That’s where we heard our favorite riddle of the trip regarding two penguins paddling a boat across the desert. Ask me about it sometime.
Day 5— Five Mile Island to Trailhead
Our final day on the mountain was a short one. We only had to do five miles to get back to the trailhead, so we woke early to get started.
We got our final fill of big trees before we started seeing tourists and day hikers coming in from their RVs in the parking lot. Back in civilization at last.
At the trailhead we celebrated with some 9am NA beers and some local ginger ale that David brought for us while turning in our rental gear and using the nicer toilet facilities of the visitor center.
Usually we get off the mountain in the afternoon and go get dinner and beers afterward, so this was a new experience: Small town diner breakfast with the guides!
Civilization — Table Pancakes, Beer, Olympics
We found a spot in Forks where we got our final breakfast with Andrew and David. We were all starving so we ordered giant meals for ourselves as well as a heaping portion of “table pancakes” to sit in the middle. I don’t think anything went unconsumed. Afterward we said our goodbyes to the guides and the Mt. Olympus portion of our trip was complete.
We spent the day in the area, visiting Realto Beach, watching the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremonies, eating pizza, drinking beer, and giving each other “superlative” awards.
The next day we made our way home to get back to our lives.
Closing thoughts
Though it was still a physical trip, the lack of elevation on the climb really made it feel different. Everyone was able to summit and other than a few blisters, no one had injuries or sickness during the whole trip. That, along with the perfect weather, made it feel much more like a vacation than many other climbs I’ve done.
This trip was really important to me. I’d been feeling crushed at work lately and greatly needed to get away from cell service. Hanging out with your best friends and enjoying the simplicity that comes with being in the mountains and focusing on the task at hand is therapeutic. I can’t say I’m always “fully refreshed” when getting back from one of these trips, but I can usually say I come back in a better headspace and with refreshed perspective on life balance.
While at the top, David read a poem that he likes to read atop every mountain. It resonated and eloquently expressed why I love doing these trips.
“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.” — René Daumal
