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Trip Report    

Mount Olympus/Traverse

  • Sun, Aug 3, 2014
  • Mount Olympus/Traverse
  • Climbing

Incredibly beautiful, strenuous, and remote one way traverse of the central Bailey Range and Olympus Peaks over July 27th - August 1st, 2014. We successfully summited the middle and west peaks of Olympus, and came within ~100' vertically to the east Olympus summit (unable to make it due to snow moat conditions). Of the total ~56 miles and ~13,600' of elevation gain, ~23 miles were off trail and included ~7 miles of glacier travel. Of note to others considering this trip, the snow moat on the east side of the middle peak of Olympus is very deep and crossing it was only made possible by a ~1000 lb block of ice wedged between both sides of the moat. It is unclear how much longer it will remain given recent high temperatures, and its absence would require exiting by way of Glacier Pass with its associated ice fall hazard. Major milestones of our route included Whiskey Bend, Goblins Gate, Dodger Point (1st camp), Ludden Peak, Lone Tree Pass, east side of Mt Childs (2nd camp), Bear Pass, Dodwell-Rixon Pass, Humes Glacier, Blizzard Pass, Camp Pan (3rd Camp), Hoh Glacier, middle Olympus Peak, Five Fingers (4th camp), Snow Dome, Blue Glacier, Glacier Meadows, Lewis Meadows (5th camp), and Hoh Ranger Station. A more detained trip report (with links to pictures) to follow.