[TR] Mt. Olympus - Blue Glacier 7/31/2010

[dinomyte]

Trip: Mt. Olympus - Blue Glacier

 

Date: 7/31/2010

 

Trip Report:

Since KK posted a recent TR, I will keep this one brief. If you want the full version, see http://lebre.net/olympuslog.html.

 

My buddy Dog and I packed into Glacier Meadows on Friday, I climbed on Saturday, and we packed back out on Sunday.

 

Weather was great, the Rangers were nice even though I said I was climbing solo, and the mosquitoes were fierce!

 

The route is in good shape. I left camp at 4:30 am to avoid the heat. The snow was kind of firm, meaning you only sank an inch. The route currently goes to the end of the moraine and down to the glacier. You head across and can go up the rocks, but I stuck to snow.

 

I slapped on the pons just below the top of Snow Dome, even though they were not needed. I traversed under a gaper below Crystal Pass. The snow was quite crusty in the shade in that area. I went around to the notch, climbed through, dropped down the icy slope here and up the steep slope to the summit block. The slope down from the false summit is partly melted out now.

 

There is no problem getting on the rock from the snow. I took the ledge across the east face, then headed straight up to the top. I got there at 8:30am. I took a few shots, then headed down the much easier class 4 scramble of the SE ridge, staying on the S side, then stepping around the corner to the E side.

 

I really put my head down on the way out and made it back to camp at 11:30am.

 

It was pretty hot heading back across the glacier.

 

There were some crevasses opening on the moraine side of the glacier but they were obvious. There were more near the base of Caltech. The boot path avoided everything.

 

There were only 6 other climbers there - a trio from Victoria that went to the summit block and stopped. And another trio that summitted pretty late.

 

Photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Pons and an axe were nice. Nothing else as I was solo.

 

Approach Notes:

Long.

[goatboy]

Were the bugs bad the whole way, or more down in the meadow camp?

[dinomyte]

It was buggy at the Visitors center and along the river to camp. No problems from Camp up, only below.