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Trip: Mt. Olympus - summit success - Blue glacier, snow dome, crystal pass Date: 7/3/2015 Trip Report: We set out to conquer Mt. Olympus on July 3 starting at 4:45 AM from Seattle area to catch the 5:35 AM Edmonds-Kingston ferry. We needed to get to the WIC in Port Angeles for permits early enough to ensure that permits were available. We got there around 7:30 AM and waited until 8:10 AM when the rangers started giving out permits, the line for permits grew drastically within a few minutes. We traveled to the Hoh River Visitor Center, parked, geared up, and started our long, long hike to Glacier Meadows at 10:30 AM. From the start of the trail head to about 12.4 miles the trail is virtually flat. The remaining 5.1 miles you gain about 3000ft that with a heavy pack are going to test your limits of endurance due to the distance already covered. It gets very warm in the valley and mosquitoes are everywhere, at around mile 16.5 we spotted a black cub bear, the mother fortunately never showed up. We reached Glacier Meadows around 8:00 PM and although we had permits all the campsites were taken, probably because some of the people there did not have permits which is annoying to say the least. We had to make our our camp, cooked, hanged our food, went to bed, and around 2:30 AM on July 4th we woke up and got ready for the summit bid. We headed out from camp at 3:00 AM. To get to the Blue Glacier follow the lateral morraine trail for about 1.3 miles. At the end of the trail there will be a faint booth path descending a scree/landslide field to get down to the blue glacier. Watch out for rock fall from your fellow team members and other climbers. At the start of the blue glacier, I suggest you rope up although it is solid ice there are many crevasses. Once we crossed the ablation zone there is some rock scrambling needed to get to the start of the snow dome climb. The slope is never more than 30-40 degrees. We followed the path already done by previous parties and had no issues in traveling the upper part of snow dome which is very flat and a nice spot to snow camp. There are several crevasses along the route but as of this trip report snow bridges and walking around them works fine. The bergschrund below crystal pass has a solid snow bridge at least for two more weeks. Once we were over Crystal Pass we saw several peaks but we knew none were the true summit from research so we followed the booth path until we crossed over the false summit and finally saw the West Peak and the summit block. At the false summit we unroped and took off our crampons, we descended in the scree field to the saddle and saw another bergschrund to our right. My two partners decided to climb the north face of the summit block and I decided to scramble to the top in mostly solid rock but lots of loose and false handholds. I reached the summit around 8:28 AM, my partners reached at 9:50 AM because the north face is a bottleneck especially when there's 30 people trying to get to the top. We took a break at the false summit and reached our camp around 4:30 PM. Our plan initially called for camp at Glacier Meadows the second night, but being crazy and all we decided to head down the same day. We reached Lewis Meadows camp around 9:00 PM at 11.2 miles from trail head and decided our feet had enough suffering for one day. The following day we woke up at 4:30 AM and reached the trail head at 10:15 AM, after covering ~47 miles and 10,000 ft of overall elevation gain, we finished it in a little less than 48 hours. For a gpx track of the trip, if interested, get in contact with Adventure Explorers through facebook. Adventure Explorers was here Gear Notes: Standard glacier travel equipment + two glacier ropes for summit block. Approach Notes: Road paved all the way to trail head. Approach to Glacier Meadows campsite is long.

Yes, that was us with the red wands. Glad it help others.

Trip: Mt. Rainier - Summit Success - Emmons Route Date: 6/20/2015 Trip Report: Our team of 4 attempted to climb Mt. Rainier via the Emmons glacier starting on 6/20/15 and returning home on 6/21/15. We left the Seattle area around 5 AM and got to the White River Ranger station around 6:50 AM. The station is supposed to open at 7:30 AM but the Ranger that was there open the door for us around 7:10 AM. We got our climbing permits, $45 per person good for one calendar year. We started hiking at 7:28 AM from the White River Campground on the well maintained and wild flower infested Glacier Basin trail which is 3.1 miles to the basin. At the basin, we kept on hiking on the climber's trail leading to the start of the Inter Glacier, which appears like a snowfield but as we saw it is an actual glacier because it has man eater crevasses near the top of the glacier so watch out for those. We reached the point of the Inter glacier and we found ourselves in a bit of a pickle because we had missed the easy way to get down to the Emmons glacier. The easy way to get to the Emmons glacier is on the left side closest to Mount Ruth. Once we were at the Emmons glacier with vast visible crevasses we decided to rope up. We reached our base camp at Emmons Flats at 2:28 PM along the way we passed Camp Schurman which has a working toilet and blue bag deposits and is only 300 feet lower than Emmons Flats. We prepared our snow campsites which took us around two hours to do. We boiled snow for cooking and water and we finally went to bed around 6 PM. We woke up at 12 AM on 6/21 for our summit bid. We ate breakfast, gear up, and left camp around 1:20 AM. From Emmons Flats the route that other climbers have done is visible most of the time except when fresh powder has erased it. There are several crevasses along the route, none have a ladder. There are two snow bridges that don't appear to be super solid and might not have more than 2 weeks left before they cave. There is also one section along the route that involves a traverse in a small climber path that on your right side if you were to fall is a giant crevasse and on your left side there is chunk of ice that would be wise to use your ice axe for a self belay. As we continued our climb, the parties on the route started to dwindle in numbers, one party of 3 turned back around 11,000 ft. Once we were at the Emmons bergschrund our lead climber found a path that leads to a snow bridge that allows you to cross that giant bergschrund. We reached the summit of Rainier around 7:00 AM. Our descend took us around 3.5 hours. At base camp we took a 2 hour break and we finally reached our vehicle around 5:40 PM. For a gpx file, if interested, get in contact with Adventure Explorer on facebook. Adventure Explorers WA Flowers along the Glacier Basin trail: Little Tahoma and big brother: Inter glacier climb: Emmons glacier, somehow we had to get down there: Camp Schurman: Emmons Flats (false advertisement) Sunrise along the route: Adventure Explorers was here: Gear Notes: Standard glacier travel equipment. Approach Notes: Maintained trail, road paved all the way to parking lot at White River campground. Climbing permits available at White River Ranger Station.

Trip: Upper Enchantment Lakes - Isolation Lake - Stuart Lake TH, Colchuck Lake, Aasgard Pass Date: 4/4/2015 Trip Report: We (group of 9) from Adventure Explorers started from about 0.5 Miles away from the Stuart Lake TH, the last gate to the TH was blocked. So only 1 more mile of hiking RT. We were on the trail geared up by 10 AM, we left Seattle area around 7:00 AM. Our plan was to hike to Colchuck Lake and camp around the lake with an intent to do an alpine start (~2 AM on Sunday) to Aasgard Pass. The trail to Colchuck lake is nearly snow-free with a few spots along the trail with snow after you cross the creek the first time; however, there was significant ice after you cross the creek the second time. It made the hike interesting especially without traction on the way up (on the way down, I was wearing microspikes and it made a big difference) We arrived at the lake around 2:00 PM and we camped next to the lake in one of the many available camping spots. No permits are required yet. We had a water source almost next to our camp which made it very easy for us in terms of our water needs. Colchuck lake frozen solid, we walked on the lake. Many of the climbers that day also walked on the lake. Frozen Colchuck meant that we didn't have to go to the Boulder field to get to the base of Aasgard Pass which was very nice. We started our ascend around 2:30 AM on Sunday and part of our group made it to the top of the pass by 5:30 AM. The ascend to the pass is pretty much completely snow covered, the usual summer route that makes a S to get to the pass was not necessary as you can just go straight up to the pass. Part of our group took the summer route approach and part took the straight up approach, the consensus was that both were very steep. Once at the pass the wind and low temperatures made it difficult to enjoy the enchantments. Every lake up in the core enchantments is still covered in snow. Part of our group spent around 2 hours up there while others spent about 30 minutes. Cold and windy conditions made it a bit unpleasant. On our way back to camp, almost all in our group had to use our ice axes to down climb as the climbed seemed steeper on the way down than on the way up. I made it up and down wearing microspikes only, although I had my crampons with me in my backpack, but others in my group were wearing crampons. There were stretches of snow that were very icy and others very soft. Some of us were back at the car by 2:00 PM(Sunday), afterwards we enjoy some good food and beer at Leavenworth's Munchen Haus. Gear Notes: Ice Axe a must. Approach Notes: Gate is closed about 0.5 miles from the Stuart Lake TH.

Bryant was even more sketchier according to him, but with a full day he did it. No one else was attempting to summit the peak that day.

Trip: Kaleetan Peak - South Route Denny Creek Approach - South Route Denny Creek Approach Date: 3/7/2015 Trip Report: Our climbing party of 6 started hiking from the trail head around 10:00 AM with backpacking gear for Saturday and Sunday, we reached Melakwa lake around 1:15 PM. We had intended to climb Kaleetan Peak on Sunday 3/8 but since we reached Melakwa lake before 2:00 PM and our energy reserves were still relatively high we decided to attempt Kaleetan peak the same day. The trail to Melakwa lake is easily followed but there is patches of snow starting around 3500 ft. Once at Melakwa cross the outlet to a faint trail leading to the toilet to the left of the lake and keep on this trail until you climb to a ridge line. Beware that the longer you stay on the ridge line the more dangerous it becomes. We were unsuccessful in reaching Kaleetan peak as our day light was beginning to be a concern and we stayed on the ridge line for too long making our approach sketchy at best. We decided to turn around at 4:35 PM to go back to our camp at Melakwa lake. The following day we decided to camp out and head home safe and sound knowing that nobody was injured. One of our climbing members stayed and summitted Bryant Peak on Sunday. Cheers. Approach Notes: Don't stay on the ridge line the entire way to the peak as it will only lead you to some unfortunate situations.