Winter camping in OLY MNTS

[Tweezer]

My friend Kevin and I are looking at spending 3 Days in the Olympics the wednesday before christmas. Any suggestions of fun, high places to set up camp, and do day climbs are greatly appricieated!!

[Macson]

I once hiked up to Camp Mystery just this side of Marmot Pass for a night in late November. I would think you'd be able to drive to Ten Mile Shelter pretty easily, but you may need snowshoes for the hike by then. For winter day climbs from there you could do Buckhorn or Warrior or maybe do some stuff on the gargoyle ridge if it's relatively dry.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

If you wanna start in the snow go from Hurricane Ridge (just let the rangers know and park down in the snowplow lot below the main lot). Hiking out obstruction point rd. can be fun and get you out to some pretty mellow peaks and you can play on Steeple Rock on the way. I've gone from the Dungeness TH in winter too, it probably will be open. Hiking in to Royal Lake is really pretty and you can climb anything in the Needles from there. There are some good winter climbs in there.

[Tweezer]

Hey, Thanks for the suggestions. I will definetly look in to thoes areas. Hurricane ridge sounds like alot of fun. Has any body climbed Angeles this time of year?

[Harry_Pi]

Hello capitalist!

May I suggest Flapjack Lake for beautiful winter base camp for climbing on the Sawtooth Range.

Thank you for allow Harry to post.

[nolanr]

Hey, Thanks for the suggestions. I will definetly look in to thoes areas. Hurricane ridge sounds like alot of fun. Has any body climbed Angeles this time of year?

 

I've climbed Angeles several times in early January, it was a semi-tradition for a while. Snow cover varied from year to year. Very doable, fun half day outing. You can go straight up from the horseshoe bend in the road but I always went from Hurricane Ridge visitor center for little up and down ridge traverse. I've always brought snowshoes, one year there was so little snow there were bare patches of ground but it also drifted up a fair bit in places. Ran into a party of skiiers doing the same one year, so that works too. No special gear needed, just an axe.