[TR] Graywolf Ridge to Walkinshaw - Standard 07/16/2023

[JasonG]

Trip: Graywolf Ridge to Walkinshaw - Standard

Trip Date: 07/16/2023

Trip Report:

When it looks like a hot and hazy weekend, I often catch myself looking west to the Olympics.  If the Cascades are baking and smokey, the Olympics can often be a good deal cooler and clearer.  Such was the case a couple weekends ago when I was casting about for solo trip options for a couple days.  After reviewing a too warm (for me) forecast for the North Cascades, I settled on a traverse of Graywolf ridge to Walkinshaw.  My brother, @ZakG , signed on last minute, gear considerations and meeting time discussed, and we met early on a Saturday to catch the Edmonds ferry to Kingston.

The hike up to Baldy was uneventful, if steep, warm and muggy.  We lunched on the lower false summit and headed up to the true summit for mug shots and a gander at the route ahead

We had only seen a couple people so far on the trip and we headed off into solitude to the top of Graywolf

For whatever reason, the USGS marker on Graywolf looked immaculate and solid gold, despite being placed in 1930??!

And then it was off to South Graywolf, and our bivy for the night.  Strangely, we couldn't find any flowing water below the large snowfields on the peak, and had to scrounge slushy water from a depression near the base of one.  Water is an issue on this ridge!

We arrived on the summit of South Graywolf in the late afternoon and settled in for a beautiful evening.  Great flat summit for a bivy, but no shelter and no water nearby.

The night was clear and relatively calm, with no snaffles.  We awoke to another beautiful day, though it promised to be warm.  Off we headed to Walkinshaw.

We stopped at the col south of South Graywolf to drop our overnight gear.  Lo and behold we ran into a soloist, Derek, from Longview, WA.  I'm not sure who was more surprised.  And so, being neighborly, Derek offered to join forces with us to keep rockfall under control.  We had a great time getting to know each other, while conferring over the best way upwards.  It was a bit steeper than any of us were expecting but never really severe.  There was maybe one small section of 4th class low down on the face, but mostly it was reasonable, if exposed, Cl. 3 ground.  The rock was solid, for the Olympics, but a helmet was definitely warranted.  Within an hour or so, we found ourselves on top.

Anybody know who these "Truckers" are who placed this register

Cool peak history in there...

And great views into the Needles

After almost an hour on top we carefully retraced our steps down the peak and back to our gear.  We bid Derek adieu as he headed up South Graywolf, and we hammered the knees down to the Royal Basin trail.  No brush on the descent from the South Graywolf-Walkinshaw col (if you are on the right path), but plenty of hard dirt and cemented scree- we were glad to be down that slope and onto the unexpectedly pleasant trail.  I had forgotten how nice it is!

And then, the usual- chips, beer, change of clothes at the car, followed by battling the masses back to the busy Puget lowlands. 2 hour ferry wait!  But a pleasant weekend all around....

 

 

Gear Notes:
Boots, poles, helmet, maybe ice axe and crampons early season

Approach Notes:
Baldy trail up and Royal Basin trail out

[olyclimber]

Love it @JasonG !  I was up in the Silver Lake/Tull canyon area with Kiba that weekend.  Crazy amount of cars at the Dungeness trailhead.  Great job finding were they (mostly) aren’t! 
 

I’m ready to test my shoulder out btw.

<edit> I’m mixing up my weekends. This was when Kiba and I where up by Marmot pass! 😂

[olyclimber]

was this on the road that weekend? I imagine it has been there for a while… 

[JasonG]

Yes it was! It definitely got my attention.  And yes,  let's test that shoulder out in September!

[emilio taiveaho pelaez]

That photo of the Needles is unreal, so good. Thanks for sharing such quality photos again and again! 

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Sweet!   Done that route twice now, just love rambling around that ridge.  Cool bivy up there where you can watch the sunset and sunrise from your bag.  
 

we were up past Camp Handy over 4th of July weekend on our first backpacking trip with baby.  I was actually surprised how not crowded it was that weekend.

Edited August 15, 2023 by OlympicMtnBoy

[Dave 1970]

You asked if anyone knew about the truckers. I was a part of that organization a long time ago. I remember when we placed the register on the Citadel, but I don’t remember which other summits we put registers on. We climbed lots of mountains in the Olympics as well as many of the minor peaks and even some unnamed peaks. The truckers were active from about 1970 to maybe 1977 or 78. Most of the time our membership consisted of 3 - 5 guys. Our name was inspired by a common phrase of that time: “Keep on Truckin’. “ we generally avoided common routes up mountains. We referred to our routes as “truck routes,” and the leader of a climb was referred to as the “mother trucker.”

Almost every September, we would take a cross country route across the Olympics, following ridges as much as possible, and climbing any peaks, we ran into along the way.

If you’d like to know more, you can email  me (Dave) at sciguy300@gmail.com  

Nice pictures, and nice to see the register is still there after all this time  Thanks for the memory.

 

[JasonG]

This is amazing history @Dave 1970!  I never would have thought that register would yield such rich memories....please post some photos and stories from those trips if you have any!!

I would love to see what a 1970's mother trucker looks like!

[olyclimber]

On 11/7/2025 at 12:45 PM, Dave 1970 said:

You asked if anyone knew about the truckers. I was a part of that organization a long time ago. I remember when we placed the register on the Citadel, but I don’t remember which other summits we put registers on. We climbed lots of mountains in the Olympics as well as many of the minor peaks and even some unnamed peaks. The truckers were active from about 1970 to maybe 1977 or 78. Most of the time our membership consisted of 3 - 5 guys. Our name was inspired by a common phrase of that time: “Keep on Truckin’. “ we generally avoided common routes up mountains. We referred to our routes as “truck routes,” and the leader of a climb was referred to as the “mother trucker.”

Almost every September, we would take a cross country route across the Olympics, following ridges as much as possible, and climbing any peaks, we ran into along the way.

If you’d like to know more, you can email  me (Dave) at sciguy300@gmail.com  

Nice pictures, and nice to see the register is still there after all this time  Thanks for the memory.

 

Thanks Dave I would love to hear more from you, anything you can share about your time in the Olympics!

[Dave 1970]

You should tell me what you'd like to know more about.  Differences between climbing in the 70s and climbing now?  Cool traverses across the Olympic Mts?  Idiosyncracies of the Truckers?  Rock Climbing ?  Climbing Tahoma? Environmental advocacy?  Climbing particular peaks? I have quite a few photos that I digitized from slides that I took with a Canon AE1 SLR.I didn't digitize them until they were 40 - 50 years old, so some of them aren't great quality, and, of course, some were just too deteriorated to save. I'll send a few here. 

 

Breakfast on  an approach to Mt. Lincoln from Wagonwheel Lake.

The core group of Truckers: Dave, Rich, and Scott; looking appro

priately tough with their Animal Crackers before a grueling climb up some damn peak.

Rich chimneying on one of the spires on Jabberwocky Ridge.  He went through to the other side to finish the ascent.

Scott drew the short straw and therefore, was chosen as the mothertrucker to be first across the Hoh at flood stage on an ill-fated attempt at a winter climb of Mt. Tom. 

 

[olyclimber]

I would love to hear all of that stuff. I grew up out there, born in Forks till first grade, then Quilcene from first grade to half way through high school, then PA for the rest of high school and junior college. Via scouts I hiked all over the Olympics.

i love those pictures! Reminds me of the pictures of my early scouting days, nobody in Quil had any money and you could see it on the clothes on our back and the gear we had. That was early 80s.

tell us about the truckers!

[JasonG]

3 hours ago, Dave 1970 said:

Cool traverses across the Olympic Mts?  Idiosyncracies of the Truckers? 

YES!  Post up some TRs from whatever Truckers adventures you remember!!

[Dave 1970]

I suppose a good place to start the story of the Truckers is with how we got into climbing in the first place.  Rich and I were friends in junior high school in the mid-60s, and we began hiking on the North Fork of the Skokomish and other hikes in that area around that time, usually with one or more of his eight brothers coming along. The first indication that we were heading toward climbing, was when we hiked to First Divide.  Coming up out of the forests into more open country – the beauty of the meadows, and the ability to see a wider expanse, enticed us to hike to higher places. 

At that time, there was no climber’s guide to the Olympics, but Rich had an uncle who had gone up Mt. Washington, and gave us a general idea of the route.  We successfully ascended it and felt the satisfaction of getting to a summit.  But there was also that feeling of anticipation as you’re approaching the ridge leading to the summit, and then the exhilaration of seeing the mountains, valleys, and ridges beyond it that hooked me. 

Since there was no climbing guide, we relied on topographic maps and a compass to plan and execute a climb.  Sometimes that worked out – sometimes not.  There are a lot of details missing on topographic maps.  We would start ascending  what looked on a map to be a relatively steady incline to find an impassable cliff, or a slope covered with devil’s club. You can see how the concept of a “truck route” would evolve as we took roundabout routes to find our way to summits like Mt. Pershing, or North Brother.   

Originally, we saw rock-climbing as kind of crazy, but as some of the summits became more technical, we realized the necessity of learning that skill.  We  turned to “Mountaineering – The Freedom of the Hills” (1^st Edition) for guidance.  We went to the hardware store and got a rope and practiced rappelling on Green Mountain, which was close to home for us, and practiced belaying techniques to protect the one rappelling. A couple years later, we replaced it with a Goldline climbing rope from the REI warehouse store on 11^th Ave in Seattle.

That store was a trip   It was an old warehouse with a strange smell and a lot of stuff at cheap prices.  The only other place to get similar gear was Eddie Bauer, which was very upscale.  We paid one or two dollars to become members, and bought nearly all our gear there.   

·       Used Climbing boots - (heavy leather boots with Vibram soles that I used whether hiking, climbing, or rock climbing - $30)

·       Steel crampons that would fit my boots (about $15)

·       A wooden  ice axe – Himalaya Pickel, model Kuno Rainer, made in Austria ($13)

·       And lots of other equipment, like nylon webbing, pitons, hammers, gaiters – all much heavier and bulkier than the equipment you see today. 

I had a Cruiser pack that was too large for most of our trips, but I got a smaller Jan Sport pack in the early 70s at a discount because I worked at the K2 ski factory on Vashon Island at that time.  I haven’t done any serious climbing for quite a while and, except for the ice axe, it’s all been given away.  I can’t part with the ice axe – it’s been used and misused, on well over a hundred climbs, and has saved my life on many occasions.    

We got climbing pants at a military surplus store for $3.  One hundred percent wool, with padded butt and knees, baggy above the knee, and cuffs just above the ankle.  I’m not sure which servicemembers wore them, but they were indestructible, warm, and comfortable. You can get a general idea of them from one of the photos attached to a previous post. 

My Himalaya Pickel

[JasonG]

Such great detail @Dave 1970, thanks for the stories!  Your path to climbing is very similar to mine, which started for me in the early 1990s.  I acquired the skills (and gear) I needed as the summits got higher, harder, and more complex.  I remember the smell of the old REI, thanks for the reminder!  I worked in the "new" REI in 1997 and 1998 and got nearly all my early gear there (and Swallow's Nest).

Keep the stories coming as you remember them!

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Wow thanks Dave, I love to hear these old stories!  I totally know those wool army pants as well, when I started climbing through Explorer Search and Rescue assisting Olympic Mountain Rescue I was totally equipped by surplus pants with a plastic lined butt and knees and wool button up shirts from the thrift store over REI long underwear!

 

I would love to hear more about the longer traverses you did!  Which ridges did you run?  What were your favorites?