Climbing in the Olympics – Take Two

Me with rope leads Stan and Jim on the summit of Warrior

The climbing gods must be smiling on me. Last weekend’s trip up Warrior marked the third climb in as many weeks that were successful.

Eight of us met at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Quilcene Ranger Station. The Forest Service desk jockeys had no reliable information regarding the road or trail conditions, so we headed out. We picked the Big Quilcene River approach because the standard approach via the Dungeness River Trail was missing a key bridge. With spring runoff at its peak, we decided not to risk a river crossing. We also anticipated magnificent views from the camp at Marmot Pass and a possible scramble of Buckhorn Mountain.

Right from the start it was apparent that we had a strong group. Unfortunately, the smallest party member also had one of the biggest packs. This slowed us down significantly. The team rallied to carry some of her gear which helped a little. We reached Marmot Pass but were sorely disappointed by the whiteout that welcomed us. So much for the views! Since it was mid-afternoon, we convinced ourselves that descending to Boulder Shelter would be a good idea.

At 5 a.m. we were off again, headed towards the Warrior-Inner Constance Cirque.

Alpenglow on Mt. Mystery

When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find a solid snow slope leading to the saddle between Warrior and Inner Constance. (The climbs guide said we’d have to ascend steep forest and meadows.) One of our party members turned around here. (I don’t think he ever wanted to leave camp; he humored me by walking that far though.) We kicked our way to the saddle at 6200’ and stopped for a little coaching on steep ice technique before tackling the couloir between Warrior’s two prominent peaks.

Rope leads, Jim and Stan, leading up the snow

Phuong-Cac and Lee

Doubting Jim didn’t think this was our gully. He now owes me a beer!

Inner Constance from the top of the gully

Dilly-dallying in the sun

Stan standing in front of the pillow lava. How’d that get all the way up here?

We took a prolonged break at the top of the couloirs before tackling the final snow slope and rock scramble. Stan did a most excellent job leading what the guide book calls a third class gully. The first moves off the snow are most definitely 5th class, followed by an arguably fourth class gully/chimney.

All the work was definitely worth it. The view of the north face of Constance, Olympus, the surrounding Olympic range and far off volcanoes was magnificent.

Mt. Olympus on the horizon

N face of Constance

We hit a bit of a snag on the way down. We had only one climbing rope, which wasn’t long enough for a rappel to the snow. The students rapped off a single strand, leaving the climb leaders to improvise a little. For the sake of my mother, I won’t get into the sketchiness of the second rappel anchor. Suffice it to say we made it down in one piece.

The couloir hadn’t softened up much by the time we got to it. Everyone took it very carefully and got down without major incident.

The hike back up to Marmot Pass from Boulder Shelter was admittedly a killer. It was hot, we were tired, but we made it. A few hours later and we were back at the TH, exhausted from our 15 ½ hour day and excited about our success.

One of the views we missed on the way in to basecamp

Finally, here are the pictures Stan took, including a good one of me at the base of the couloir and another one of me squinting into the sun at the top.

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