Pics from saturday

[Drederek]

I know I wasn't the only one out there, lets see em!

[Lazyboy]

Nice pictures.

 

I give up. Where were they taken?

[Drederek]

Mt Washington, my favorite Olympic mountain. Whats yours?

[Lazyboy]

I have not been up Mt. Washington for years but we went up there on Washington's birthday many many years ago. It looks like it was beautiful up there.

 

I don't know which one is my favorite but I like Mt. Buckhorn. It is mostly a hike but there some good views. I like Moose Peak also and it is really a hike but the views on a nice day are outstanding.

Edited March 12, 2013 by Lazyboy

[JeffreyR]

Glad to see the Olympics getting some action! How far could you drive up the road?

[Drederek]

Yeah its cool looking north-nortwest from Buckhorn, its so different from the views down south. Have not hiked up Moose, guess I'll have to look into it.

I drove to the sharp lefthand turn just before the spur rd (2464). Someone in something larger and presumably 4wd made it around the corner and most likely up to the big creek crossing. Most vehicles will probably make it that far or more after all the warm rain this week.

[olyclimber]

Mt Washington, my favorite Olympic mountain. Whats yours?

 

Great question! I like Mt Stone, but there are so many good ones.

[wayne]

Favorite? Constance. Very beautiful up there.

[Crickette]

Mt Washington, my favorite Olympic mountain. Whats yours?

Need to climb Constance and Olympus before I can answer that. Drederek, what's your favorite / recommended route on Washington??? Ready to explore other routes besides the standard one.

[Drederek]

Stone and Constance would be 2 and 3 of the the Oly's I've done so far, Stone is very doable early in the year, haven't tried Constance before august. Mt Washington is a year round objective for me, which is prolly why I gave it the nod. The east ridge is my current favorite route on Washington, with the slight variation of getting back up on the ridge well before the nasty giant chockstoned gully. Last year I dropped over Jefferson pass and contoured around to the NE ridge, which was very mellow late in the year (walked up a dry streambed thru some thickish brush). The upper north ridge looks really nice, but all my friends say it has a very chossy band lower down that none of them want to try again. but that upper ridge looks so good...

[Crickette]

What about Washington's SE Ridge? Wondering if its 5.7 rating is much more challenging than it sounds, since it's the Olympics? Not completely ready to swing leads on this yet but hoping next year Thanks

[mattp]

Crickett,

 

A nice route on Mt. Washington is via the bowl below the East Face, up a diagonal ramp trending up and left from the head of that bowl, joining the standard route 100 feet below the summit. I have taken all kinds of groups up that route over the years, and it has been pretty much a hit every time.

 

Here's what I wrote in a 2001 trip report here on cc.com:

The East face is a class three scramble, with an exciting finish leading directly to the summit. I have taken beginners up it several times and I would recommend it for a climber looking for a little more adventure than a walk up. It is better earlier in the season when some of the debris is covered with snow, but I climbed it this past weekend (late August) and we had a good trip. The route is not in the guidebook, or perhaps it is the route that is listed as the "East Ridge" but is not correctly described (the route never touches the east ridge and there is no chalkstone gully but I have talked to several people who went to climb the East Ridge and ended up on the E. Face headwall). Estimated time: four hours. A short rope might come in handy, and an ice axe is required until at least mid season.

 

Begin the climb on the Mt. Ellinor/Mt. Washington road, about a quarter mile past the turnoff for the upper Mt. Ellinor trailhead, and a couple hundred yards east of a prominent waterfall in a slot left of a hairpin turn. A climbers path ascends steeply through big timber on a wooded rib, and this can be followed for a thousand feet or so (keep in mind that the path is probably the variation of the standard route which the book says eventually cuts left to rejoin the South Ridge route, whereas the basin below the east face is quite far to the right of the rib). Where the woods begin to get rocky, look for a gully to the right which, after a very little bit of brush, opens up and climbs rightward to a little ridgelet below a rocky tower a couple hundred feet high. Traverse right below that tower, to reach an open basin below a larger tower, several hundred feet high. Scramble up and right, to emerge into the basin below the east face, where there is year 'round snow. This approach to that basin avoids much of the brushy and cliffy terrain that one encounters if they climb from the Jefferson Pass trail. There is a little bush, some scree, and a little scrambling, but nothing truly alarming.

 

From the basin, the seven hundred foot headwall appears ominous, but a low angled ramp leads from lower right, diagonally up and left to the summit. Scree or snow leads to the ramp, which is probably 30 to 35 degrees and offers a serious sense of exposure but no real technical challenge. Near the top, a horizontal ledge system crosses the ramp and a boot path enters from the left and exits to the right. The easiest route to the summit follows the gully (the final extension of that ramp) for another 100 feet or so to reach the summit blocks. On the descent, the path that came from the left will lead to the standard south ridge route ("route 1" in the Climber's Guide.)

[Drederek]

The east face sounds nice, is it between the SE and E ridges? whenever I look down that way from above or on the E ridge it looks a bit messy. I think Off White may have written a tr about it a few years ago. I will have to try that one soon. I also wonder how hard the SE ridge really is, and whether it would be ok to solo. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine did it a long time ago when it was 4th class.