Home > Trip Reports > May 13-16, Olympus

May 13-16, Olympus

5/15/10
WA Olympics
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Posted by adonohoe on 5/20/10 5:43am
I cross posted this from telemarktips but figured it might be of interest here. Photos are Ed Blanchard's IV.

My friend and colleague TJ runs the

Our heavy packs with skis, glacier gear, etc. got some funny looks. Some folks even came over to us to let us know they didn't think there was any snow for at least 20 miles. "Yes, that's right!" we replied. The Hoh valley trails is 12 miles of flat amongst big trees and interesting river crossings before it heads uphill... this valley gets about 150 inches of rain a year.



We took out the flat that afternoon/evening and slept under the stars right by the river at a beautiful spot:



Rise and shine early on day 2 with ambitions to get up to snowdome, about 12 miles and 5.5k elevation with heavy packs. We hit snow around 3.5k, between Elk Lake and Glacier meadows, navigated past three avalanche gullies before Glacier Meadows, and  skinned up to the terminal moraine.



In the background is snowdome (the plateau) and panic peak. From there we had a couple miles of magnificent skinning up blue glacier.



TJ unpacked his nerd stick, turned on the GPS unit, and proclaimed himself hard at work.



Rounding the corner we approached the icefall.



From here, it was time to leave the glacier and ascend up to snowdome under hot conditions and tired legs.



Our guessing game of where we were turned to relief when we saw the hut, or a small piece of the hut.



Had there been another couple feet of snow, we would have been wandering in the white desert... an unwelcome prospect after a 11 hour day under full packs. As it was, we had to locate the door (3rd try) and spent a good two hours digging and unjamming the door.



Luckily the short one in the group managed to squeeze through the top of the jammed door and shovel from the inside. Our under snow lair turned out to be quite a luxurious accommodation once we cleared a couple of windows.


Truth be told, we spent most of our little down time on the roof, admiring the front yard.



That there is Olympus, the highest peak (West Peak) is the pyramid-ish one. Some clouds came in, looking North across the Strait of Jaun De Fuca, Victoria would be out there if the clouds weren't in the way.



Day 3 featured many science objectives, and a quick summit tag. Ed had a bummed knee and had to sit the day out which stinks, but he managed to find some hidden treats in his bag to keep him occupied. TJ went to work seconds out of the hut... can't keep this guy from his science.



He was tracing over some plane surveys done a couple years back... unfortunately planes don't care about crevasses, or fun places to ski. We managed to make our way over some crevasses and crampon up to the summit ridge without roping up. The summit block was heavily rimed and wasn't going to happen, but we were content to ski from 100 feet below the summit. Me on the summit ridge.



TJ skiing from the summit ridge with the summit block in the background.



From there we did some tricky crevasse avoiding and then surveyed all around the cirque by East peak.


On the way back to the hut, we got to take some turns down snowdome.


Despite appearances, we didn't ski directly into this crevasse.


That night, we took a quick hike up to panic peak to watch the sunset.



This one was meant to go the Bowdoin Alumni mag, where TJ taught me how to tele ski a decade ago... I'm thinking it won't make the cut.


"This is when Rayleigh scattering and Refraction combine in the most magnificent way to produce a green flash..."


The White Glacier:


Day 4 was an all day affair that started with a great ski down to the moraine and continued with multiple hours and miles of heavy pack rainforest hiking. Two days later, my mind is lost at work and I really want to go ski again...

[size=6pt][i]Edited to thumbnail the copious (beautiful) pictures -- Marcus.[/i][/size]
Great trip report, including some magnificent photos!
Where is the cabin? Is it open to the public?

author=runningclouds link=topic=16708.msg70010#msg70010 date=1274389112]
Great trip report, including some magnificent photos!
Where is the cabin? Is it open to the public?


The hut is located at about 6,500 feet on snowdome, right by panic peak. Unfortunately, it is not open to the public and is locked. My understanding is that it was established in the early 1900's by the University of Washington and folks used to winter over there to do glacier research. The UW still has permission to use the hut for research purposes but the key is kept with the Park service.

great TR.... but i think the picture quota police may be coming for your report...

neat to see the inside of the snowdome station... i wish the park service would open that up to the public...they could make a fortune running it like the Alpine Club of Canada huts.

Great report.  Moderator:  please, please, please don't take out the pics.  It's worthy of being left as is!

Thank you.  I'm making a plea for pic amnesty.

Great trip report!

author=adonohoe link=topic=16708.msg70011#msg70011 date=1274389344">
My understanding is that it was established in the early 1900's by the University of Washington and folks used to winter over there to do glacier research.


The hut was built for the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957-58. It was called "Chateau LaChapelle" by the original research team, after Ed LaChapelle, the project field leader. Below is a picture of Ed LaChapelle taken in those days, from the Ira Spring collection (click to enlarge).



I've been interested in the Mt Olympus IGY project because it was a unique case of skier/scientists working year-round in Northwest mountains to gather baseline data that helps us understand climate change. A few references to the project can be found here:

http://alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/news/st/st-1950-99.html#st-1957-oct-27-pic4
http://alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/news/st/st-1950-99.html#st-1958-jan-26-pic4
http://alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/period/mtneer-a/mtneer-a-1950-59.html#mtneer-a-1959-p51
http://alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/comm/hawkins-jim.html
http://alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/comm/lachapelle-ed.html

I'll be writing about this in my ski history book. Through a fortunate series of events, I've been working with the Spring family to curate Ira Spring's photos. I've found contact prints (see above) for several IGY pictures, and hope to locate all the original negatives eventually.

TAY readers should know Ed LaChapelle as one of the giants of North American snow and avalanche research. He passed away a few years ago.

wow! Fantastic TR, words pics and all. I wanna be TJ's friend. Maybe he needs some help restocking his hidden treats? And what's he wearing on his head skiing down from the summit block? A satellite dish?
Hard at work no doubt...

Awesome place. If the weather is friendly, I hope to get back up in there again this year. Thanks for the photos. Can't believe how much snow there is!

Excellent TR! Great photos! Well done


awesome ... great effort, esp getting past those chutes .. beautiful pix .. we camped up there last july .. during our summit .. and spent some quality time with dave skinner at the hut .. makes me homesick .. a great place to spend a few days

btw lowell you might want to talk to dave for your project .. he's been going up there every year for many years ... started in the 70s doing research with rich mariott .. he has some really cool old photos too .. if interested pm me .. he's off the grid but i have his contact info

btw adonohoe and tj .. i shot this 7/18/09 .. dave said it was the first time he'd ever seen this debris .. that's how little snow was on the dome last summer ..



here's one with dave (2nd fm the left next to the hut) ..he's legendary in the olympics .. ask anyone in the park system .. anyhow after our climb he saw us coming back .. put out the lawn chairs and made us some lemonade .. we talked for a couple of hours and got a tour of the hut b4 packing up .. it was very special meeting him



Wow! Fantastic!  Those are really inspiring pics!  That 17mile trek to Glacier meadows is seeming shorter and shorter in my mind...

i can run an RTK so give me a pm next time  ;D 


Partial amnesty, at least -- I thumbnailed a bunch of your pictures Aaron.  The photo guidelines are definitely looser than they used to be, but not quite that loose yet.  Beautiful pictures and a great TR, thanks for sharing it!

Great TR - thanks for taking time to write it up!

Excellent trip report, the pictures are outstanding. Olympus is a great mountain, not easy to reach from any direction, but the rewards are certainly worth the price of admission.
Marcus, thanks for granting partial amnesty!
We are planning to head in there in a few weeks (skis included), the beta is much appreciated.

author=kath link=topic=16708.msg70045#msg70045 date=1274453060]

btw lowell you might want to talk to dave for your project .. he's been going up there every year for many years ... started in the 70s doing research with rich mariott .. he has some really cool old photos too .. if interested pm me .. he's off the grid but i have his contact info


Lowell, I will second kath's suggestion. Dave is a friend of ours. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about Olympus and the research station, he knows as much about travel in the Olympic Mountains almost anyone. He is also very modest about his accomplishments. I would also be glad to assist with contact information.   

Gary

Second all the accolades -- great report and very inspirational.  Need to get back there!


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may-13-16-olympus
adonohoe
2010-05-20 12:43:03