Olympus

[keenwesh]

What's the snowpack looking like in the olympics this year? I'm taking some friends up rainier and want to do olympus first as I've never climbed it before and it'd be a good one to work out traveling in a rope team and practicing glacier travel with limited danger. I'm thinking mid june-early july.

[JeffreyR]

I was up in the olympics on saturday and it is a bit above normal for snow pack. The next couple months will really tell how much snow will remain in june. Last year in june there was a ton of snow on Olympus starting pretty low.

[keenwesh]

snow starting low isn't necessary a bad thing though, I've made the mistake of climbing in the olympics in late july, enough scree to last a lifetime.

[SWH]

On Olympus you should be less worried about scree and more worried about the trail being covered with snow from Elk Lake up to Glacier Meadows. There are some avalanche chutes to cross which kind of suck ass when filled with snow. That being said, it's not anything you won't be able to deal with, just might slow you down and be kind of annoying. I would say just go do it whenever, it might be kind of unpleasant but it won't shut you down.

 

Oh, and I haven't been "back home" for a few months, but I hear that as of now snowpack is above average. The next few months will obviously matter. The park service has a trail conditions page that actually isn't terrible (surprise!), so once they start updating, probably around early June, you should be able to get a better idea of whats going on up there in terms of snow on the trail.