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Trip Report    

Basic Glacier Climb - Mount Olympus

Hot but fun trip with a good group. Great views and summit all to ourselves.

Patrick McLaughlin Patrick McLaughlin
July 18, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

    • Trail to High Hoh Bridge is still in good condition. Two creek crossings required before Guard Station. First has a tricky log crossing just upstream that felt like scrambling. Use poles if needed and take your time. The second one requires going up stream again and following the worn path on the log pile. Not nearly as concerning as the first crossing.

    • Trail from High Hoh to the Blue Glacier Moraine had one easy log crossing at Martin Creek. The ladder bridge just before Glacier Meadows Camp has a couple broken rungs already since it was replaced in 2021. There's no working privy at Elk Lake, just a roped off privy and shovel leaning against it. There are two working privies at Glacier Meadows (the last place to make a deposit before heading onto the glacier).

    • Blue Glacier is melted down to ice just off the moraine until it starts to pitch up at about 5,525 ft elevation before the right turn into the notch. Snow Dome had dinner plate-sized sun cups that were easy to use as steps to climb up using our own switchbacking even starting at 4:00 a.m. According to other climbers, the direct route (4th of July route) to the summit had its last snow bridge on the bergschrund collapse Sunday, July 13th. That left Crystal Pass as the route to take.

    • Crystal Pass had a few crevasses/ bergschrunds that were easy to navigate around and give wide berth. The entry to the pinnacle just east of the West Peak had a bergschrund just below it, so we short roped teams through the notch. The pinnacle had no snow and deteriorating scree throughout that requires tight grouping or going one-at-a-time to avoid rock fall/rolling. Steep snow up to the base of the summit block was manageable kicking steps and using sun cups. No pickets required.

    • Summit block hasn't changed. No big moat. Still a single pitch 5.4 trad climb (40m rope is more than enough to lead it). Snow picket used to anchor belayer. Bring #0.3 - #3 and some mid-sized nuts. You can bring less cams if you are a confident climber. Surprised some of the tat is still up there being used for rappelling despite not being replaced in a while... Michael Walther removed his old PUR line from previous summit in 2022 and added brand new 6mm Petzl PUR line for 2025.

Day 1 - 15 miles - 2,168 ft climbed

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Hoh River Trail

The Olympia Mountaineers group of nine (4 leaders, 5 students) left from Hoh River Trailhead at 7:30 a.m. We made sure to recite the Hoh Helper Pledge and got on our way heading to Elk Lake Campground for the first night. It was already 60°F and anticipated to be a warm weekend/summit day. Our first stop was 5 Mile Island Camp to filter water and dip into our snacks and the river. For the first creek crossing most got their feet wet and brought sandals, a few took the log crossing.

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First Creek Crossing

Everyone took the log crossing for the second creek. Next stop was the closed Guard Station at 10 miles. Filtered water behind the guard shack, used the nice privy, and had a leisurely snack break. Filtered more water at the creek crossing right before High Hoh bridge and Martin Creek crossing. Log crossing at Martin Creek was pretty easy. Arrived at Elk Lake around 7:00 p.m. Thankfully most folks had used the privy at Guard Station because the privy at Elk Lake was roped off and only had a shovel lying against it. Mosquitos were not too bad but some Picaridin is recommended so you can hang out outside your tent. Some folks did bring head nets to wear from High Hoh Bridge to the moraine. Cached a couple bear cans for the group with Day 3 dinner and Day 4 food at camp to lighten our load even a little bit.

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Guard Station Break at 10 Miles

Day 2 - 4.4 miles - 4,221 ft climbed

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Decending the Ladder
Left camp at 8:30 a.m. bound for CalTech Rocks Camp just below Snow Dome. Another clear warm day ahead of us. The wire ladder wasn't too tough although a couple rungs are broken. Helmets were worn and only one person was on the ladder at a time. Stopped at Glacier Meadows Camp to use the two privies before continuing up to the pool just below the lateral moraine for water filtering and a dip.
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Cool Dip
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Down the Moraine
Went up and over the moraine and onto the Blue Glacier where we roped up and donned our crampons. We said hello to the Tacoma Branch just coming off the glacier before heading across the ice. It was a fascinating glacier walk over blue ice, walking around deep blue pools, runoff, and stepping over thin crevasses. At the notch, we climbed up a bit but traversed around and found our camp and snow runoff to filter.
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Crossing the Blue Glacier
We arrived at camp around 4:30 p.m. With no more shade of the tree canopy, the sun felt extra searing, so did our best to hide from the sun until it went down behind the mountains. Tried to be asleep by 9:00 p.m. for an alpine start.
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CalTech Rocks Camp
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Happy Climbers

Day 3 - 10.5 miles - 2,888 ft climbed

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Alpine Start on the Blue Glacier
Summit day had finally come! We awoke to prepare for a 3:30 a.m. departure. The moon was nearly full and bright, so visibility was not difficult. We ascended up Snow Dome making switchbacks up the steep slope. The snow was soft enough as it had not gone too close to freezing the night before. The sun cups made for decent steps to get up on the glacier. As we crossed the upper Blue Glacier, the sun came up and so did the wind at about 10-20 mph or so. (The wind stayed on strong all throughout our summit morning until we rappelled down). We made our way to Crystal Pass having learned of the snow bridge collapsing on the "4th of July" route from a guide atop the moraine. Thankfully there were not too many crevasses, so the climb was straight forward. There was one large one developing right near the opening of Crystal Pass and one right at the notch to climb up into the pinnacle east of the summit.
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Crevasse Outside Crystal Pass
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South Side
We short roped our teammates through the chute down to the base of the summit and up the steep slope to the summit block. Snow was now softer and easier to kick steps into to reach the summit block at 8:00 a.m. Climbed up the big crack with the alpine rack brought along and on the 8mm glacier ropes as twins. We used everyone's single runner as draws. Stayed straight in the crack and ended up doing a 5.7 chimney maneuver to get to a small ledge. Better to go left or right to keep it 5.4. (Go right if another group wants to rappel down while you're climbing). Once the vertical climbing was done, made way climber's left to scramble around to the left side of the rappel anchor and built a gear anchor just behind it using #0.3 and #0.4 cams as well as a 'Jesus' nut. Belayed the whole crew up. Brought a tag line to make pulling the ropes down to reset for the next climber easier from the belay anchor.
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Summit Block 5.4 (5.7)
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Summit Lounging
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Petzl PUR Line Replacement (from 3 years ago!)
No other parties were summiting that day, so we had the summit to ourselves and hung out atop for an hour together. (Crazy after hearing other teams having to wait 3 hours before they could even summit). We replaced the PUR line and the last person rappelled off the summit at 1:30 p.m. We stayed unroped descending the steep snow using ice axe self-belay and over to the scree chute. On the pinnacle east of the summit, we roped up and then dropped through the chute back on the south side of the ridge.
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Down Climbing From the Summit
Reversed our route back through Crystal Pass and over to Snow Dome. Glissaded down on the soft snow from Snow Dome reaching camp at 4:00 p.m. We packed up camp, filtered more water, and at 5:30 p.m., got going back to Elk Lake. Some folks stopped at Glacier Meadows for privy use while others continued on. The ladder felt easier to ascend vs descend. Many folks stopped at the second to last creek crossing before Elk Lake to filter water for dinner. By this time, it was getting pretty dark, so the last push to Elk Lake required headlamps reaching camp at 10:15 p.m. Unfortunately, we found many camp sites occupied with stacks of gear but no tents or people around. We then found the best place we could to set up camp, quickly ate dinner, and went to bed after a long day.
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Looking Back at Snow Dome & Panic Peak

Day 4 - 15 miles - 562 ft climbed

Left Elk Lake at 9:00 a.m. stopped at Martin Creek to fill up on water. Saw Seattle Branch headed up to Glacier Meadows. Stopped at the usual spots (Guard Station and 5 Mile Island) to top up on water and take much needed rests. Some folks left the Guard Station early because of the long drive ahead while the rest left later and arrived back at the trailhead at 6:00 p.m. Stopped at Denny's in Aberdeen to top up on Calories and arrived back in Olympia at 11:30 p.m.
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Thanks to all for making the trip awesome, especially the leader, Michael Walther.
Photos provided by: Patrick McLaughlin, Michael Walther, Janna Goulding, and Rose Agbalog