[TR] Olympics - Various - August 21-28 - Hamma-Hamma to Dosi 8/21/2011

[bremerton_john]

Trip: Olympics - Various - August 21-28 - Hamma-Hamma to Dosi

 

Date: 8/21/2011

 

Trip Report:

Mike, Julie, Kevin, Terry, Tony and I did an 8 day trip into the Olympics August 21-28. It was a great way to celebrate my 40th birthday with a good group of friends. We entered via the Putvin trail, pas Lake of the Angels and camped above Hagen Lake (night 1). Next day was the only crap weather day, fog and drizzle while X-country over Stonesthrow and Hopper down to First Divide, making camp at Home Sweet Home (night 2). Next day was sunny again, so up and over Mt Steel, down and across to Marmot Lake where we spent the next 3 nights. The following days were climbs of Duckabush, BUmbershoot, O'Neil and Overlook Peak, and explorations of the Heart Lake and Lacrosse Basin. Then it was on to climb White Mountain, encountering a herd of elk while en route, then after summiting, crossing over Anderson Pass to camp on East Anderson's shoulder (night 6). Next day it was up route 2 of Anderson, down the Eel where we met up with friends Jim and Eileen, then over for an ascent of West Peak (3 of our group ascended West Peak - Tony, Jim and Terry). Tony and I went back up and over the main summit of Anderson and down route 2 to return to camp at 10pm. Kevin, Terry and Jim returned via Echo col and made it to camp an hour earlier. Hiked out the Dosi next day (Sunday the 28th). Fabulous trip. Here are a bunch of photos.

 

Mt Steel from Home Sweet Home

 

Short rap off west side of Steel

 

Coming down off Steel

 

Camp at Marmot Lake

 

Mt Duckabush

 

O'Neil Peak at sunset

 

Mt Duckabush from Overlook

 

Bumbershoot Peak

 

Marmot, Heart and Lacrosse Lakes/Basins from Overlook Peak

 

Looking down Duckabush Valley

 

 

Elk Herd at Jack's Pond

 

Anderson massif from White Mountain

 

 

Looking down from summit of Anderson

 

Main summit of Anderson

 

Considering West Peak

 

Iceberg Lakes

 

Main summit of Anderson and Echo Rock

 

On the false and main summits of West Peak

 

 

Gear Notes:

O'Neil is definitely class 4, though not much protection on the single roped pitch.

 

Pitons and cams to 2 inches were used to protect a few moves on West Peak.

 

The remaining peaks were walk-ups and scrambles.

 

Approach Notes:

Various approaches to peaks - Putvin trail in good shape, Hamma Hamma road still has 2 washout areas a little sketchy for small cars, no problem for SUVs/trucks.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Sounds like a great trip! Happy birthday John! I haven't don't my Olympics trip this year and this TR is making me miss it.

[Fairweather]

What an incredible trip! Yours is the first TR I've ever read for West Peak. Did you find evidence of past ascents? How was the rock? Also, I noticed you took route 2 on Mount Anderson (East peak). Was this because route 1 via Flypaper Pass above the remnants of Anderson Glacier looked impassible? or because you didn't want to take a chance on the Eel bergschrund being too wide to cross?

 

Again, great trip. The stuff of my workaday dreams.

[silence]

very cool trip john .. neat pix .. congrats on all the summits and happy 40th!

 

if steel is just a scramble then why the rap? just wondering .. cause it looks like a neat way to get over to marmot

Edited September 7, 2011 by silence

[highhatt]

Did you find evidence of past ascents? How was the rock? Also, I noticed you took route 2 on Mount Anderson (East peak). Was this because route 1 via Flypaper Pass above the remnants of Anderson Glacier looked impassible? or because you didn't want to take a chance on the Eel bergschrund being too wide to cross?

 

The rock was decent once we made the ridge proper and took pro, pretty chossy on the ramps though. That could all be bypassed by traversing the steep snow. Flypaper was still doable but the gulley route on the other side was closer to camp and Tony had been up multiple times before and knew the route well. The eel was quite filled in and we did cross it from Anderson over to West peak. The route down Kevin, Jim and I headed up Echo Col and down which has a better runout for a fall than flypaper.

 

Great write up John and awesome pictures as usual! I had great time hanging out with friends new and old!

[bremerton_john]

if steel is just a scramble then why the rap? just wondering .. cause it looks like a neat way to get over to marmot

 

Thanks 'silence'. So on Steel, we went up Route 1 from First Divide, which is listed as class 1, but its some moderately steep heather on those slopes. Maybe "Heather class 2"? We went down however on the west side (carried over). I think if we had poked around some more we probably would have found a down route not requiring a rap, but everything at first glance looked to be class 4. The exception was a possible scree descent off the south side which had an unknown circuitous route to get back over to the west side. The short rap was simple to bring us down to the snow below the summit block. Could be that conditions have changed some on that west side too.

 

'Fairweather'. Thanks for the good words. HiHat said things pretty well. Flypaper looked pretty well filled in, but we were intrigued by the alternate route on Anderson, and the great camping on that side. I have to say that route 2 is a real good alternative I would recommend.

 

'Oly'. We should have 'roped' you in for this one. There was some great terrain there you would have thrived in. Season isn't over yet...

 

John