Olympic Penninsula: Marmot Pass and Buckhorn

Our most recent climb was near the Quilcene Ranger Station in the northeast part of the Olympic Penninsula. A friend recommended Buckhorn Mountain near the Marmot Pass as a good peak to scramble up to enjoy the views of Mt Constance, Deception, and Mystery and some potential wildlife. To the left is a picture of the Marmot Pass, a 6000 foot trail intersection.

When we arrived at the Big Quilcene trailhead (#833), there were quite a few day hikers that I would characterize as a good representation of the Medicare Advantage demographic that I have blogged about. When they talked about their day hike to the Marmot Pass, I started to wonder about my selection of an overnight backpacking trip or fear that these seniors were getting steroid prescriptions instead of Viagra.

The Big Quilcene trail is well-marked and follows the Quilcene River. After 4 miles and 5500 feet of elevation, I reached Camp Mystery which was my intended campsite. Camp Mystery is not marked but there are several obvious campsites with flattened areas, sitting logs and nearby water sources. According to the climbing guides, I could either scramble up the scree slope pictured below and to the left or hike towards Marmot Pass for a southwest ascent. Summit Post recommended the scree scramble so I followed that web site's advice.

The scree slopes were steep. I looked for an opening among the trees at around 5300 feet of elevation. I followed what I thought were other climbers' tracks through the scree but was probably goats. It was steep, like quick sand, and pretty painful. I moved towards the southwest corner since the slope looked more forgiving and I was hoping to find that trail to Buckhorn Mountain (pictured below to the right).
















I happily took the trail the rest of the way up and was glad that I did not have to go down the scree slopes on a return trip. I told myself that the scree slopes were a good way to avoid the fierce marmots who surely must inhabit Marmot Pass. Luckily, there were no wildlife sightings in camp as I had heard that bears visit Camp Mystery. Only wildlife incident somehow involved the nuts that I left in the car being eaten and the bag being torn up. Next time, I'll take the path most traveled and leave the scree slopes to the goats.

Olympic Penninsula: Mt Washington/Ellinor Traverse

This weekend was my final climb of the season with my climbing club. It was a new twist on two climbs that I've previously done in the snow as we climbed up Mt Washington and traversed the scree slopes below the ridge that connects to Mt Ellinor.

Mt Washington is a very enjoyable climb with some route finding challenges. The route we took concludes by circling the summit block on a comfortable ledge and a 30 foot class 3 scramble to the top. It takes 4-6 hours to summit and I included some details below.

Here's a picture of on the summit block ledge that I mentioned above:









For climbing up Mt Washington, here is some data that will hopefully help with route finding on the climber's trail or Big Creek trail or Route 1 in the Climber's Guide to Mt Olympus that the Mountineers produced.
1. Trail starts in between the turn off for the Mt Ellinor trailhead and the waterfall that is Big Creek. It's easy to miss but look to the left of the big mossy rock.
2. Trail is pretty straight forward until you reach 4800 feet of elevation. We went right and stopped at a steep scree section when we should have gone left through the woods. Look for discreet orange tape on branches of some cairns. The path will cut through the woods and follows a gully to a basin.
3. One you reach the basin (5000 feet), you will see an appealing gully to the far right. Resist and look at the paths in the ridge on the left or to the right of the highest point in the picture below. The path is straight up from the green backpack of the person farthest to the right.

4. Once you go over the ridge, you will pass a memorial cross (land mark for the traverse route) and see the summit block with ledge to the right. Follow the ledge for a short distance and look for the section for the summit scramble. You will not follow the ledge completely around the summit block.






The Mt Ellinor route from the trail head is a fairly straight forward hike to the top and a good beginner climb. During the winter it features a luge-like glisade route in the snow (I believe that glisade is Swiss for "sliding down the snow on your butt).

However, if you go via the traverse approach that we did, it involves ascending a pretty impressive scree slope. The scree slope is pictured below and it's the gully to the left of the snow that looks steeper than it is. Sometimes the footing was almost North Sister-esque but you would only fall down a few feet if you slipped.

I managed to fall down while just standing still and got a nice bruise and impressive cut on my fore arm. It looks like I was in a knife fight.















For the start of the traverse route, you descend from the Mt Washington summit and cross over to the back of Mt Washington at a white memorial cross that was dedicated to fallen climber. It's around 5800 feet. Keep descending until you reach the lake at around 5220 feet and make your way up that scree slope above to Ellinor. Here is a picture of the lake:


At this point, the only thing standing between you and Mt Ellinor is 700 feet of scree. Hopefully, you'll see some goats along the way.

Lake of the Angels Backpack: Olympic Peninsula

Due to weather and assorted injuries, my planned Mt Adams climb was canceled. With the weekend free, I headed to the Olympic Peninsula to backpack up to the Lake of the Angels. I wanted to see Mt Stone and Skokomish and possibly summit Stone. A tweaked hamstring limited me to just backpacking in and scrambling around the basin.
A herd of mountain goats joined me at camp and were quite interested in anything that had any trace of salt on it. Needless to say, they followed me quite closely whenever I went to the bathroom which I thought was fairly undignified.

You can see how close the goats got.






For anyone interested in the details of the backpacking trip, here's my beta:

Driving: Forest Road 25 or Hama Hama is passable all the way to the trail head so you can ignore the "Road Closed Ahead Sign". A slide in 2008 had cut off the last 1.2 miles. It's still not completely cleared but it's possible even in a small sedan if you have a lot of confidence.

Hiking Stats: It's a 3.5 mile hike to Lake of the Angels with 3200 feet of elevation gain (4800 feet at the Lake). It took me 5 hours to hike in which included an hour of resting and 3.5 hours to hike out with a similar hiking:resting ratio. The path is fairly clear but steep. At about 2280 feet of elevation, there are 2 crossing over dry creek beds. At about 2400 feet, the trail briefly joins a logging road for about 30 feet. Right above 4000 feet of elevation, there are 2 class 3 scrambles on the trail which are fun but challenging with a 40 pound pack. At Lake of the False Prophet the trail forks to the right but head left, cross a log bridge directly north of the lake and continue up to the Lake of the Angels.

Camping: There are about 3 campsites near the lake and a few further up on the high ground. A marmot had claimed one of the campsites. We had a spirited conversation about squatters vs hiker rights but to no avail.

The park service has great info on road conditions, trail conditions, and even bear canisters if you were so inclined. Since there are no berries up there, it's unlikely that bears will make an appearance but the canister is good for goat and marmot protection. There are a few numbers of the various agencies so try 360-565-3100, 3131, or 3000.

As you can see, it's a beautiful mountain lake and well worth the hike in:














For anyone interested in the 2 peaks around the Lake, a colleague of mine has some extensive photos of Mt Stone and Mt Skokomish from their climb in early June a few year ago. Notice the difference in the amount of snow between June and July!