6 Days in the Olympics Mountains Climbing Mt Meany

Our goal for this trip was to take Fay out on her first backpacking trip since her back surgery in early March. We let Fay pick the trip. To my surprise, she picked a 6 day trip into the Olympic Mountains. A bit ambitious for a first trip but Fay has had her eye on Mt Queets for several years now. Though this was a long trip, all but the climbing day was on nice trails. Our plan was to carry most of Fay’s weight in the beginning and then gradually increase her pack weight to see how her back did. Happy to report, Fay did great.

Jim was excited about Fay wanting to do Mt Queets because Mt Meany was on the same ridgeline and had the same approach. Jim was hoping to do Mt Meany as part of the Bailey Traverse but we had other adventures instead. A quick exchange of emails and Tony signed on to help Jim obtain Mt Meany. Like so many of our trips, we hit the trail on day 1 with different agendas but heading in the same direction.

We picked up Tony in Elma just outside of Olympia around noon and drove out to the North Quinault River. We planned a short 6 miles for day 1. This would give us a chance to see how Fay was going to do with a pack. If things didn’t go well, we didn’t have too much invested and could hike out in the morning.

We arrived Francis Creek Camp early evening. All of us in good spirits despite the heat.

Day 2 was super hot. We were all so excited to hit the river crossing of the North Fork of the Quinault River.

After the crossing, we all stripped down to our underware and went swimming. We enjoyed an hour long lunch break. Not one of us wanted to hike another step today but it was only 2pm and we weren’t getting any closer to our climbing objectives.

After another 3 hours of hiking, we finally broke out of the tree as we approached Low Divide.

We ended up with a roomy camp on the edge of the trees full of mosquitos.

We did enjoy a beautiful sunset from our comfy, bug filled camp.

Day 3 was to be a short hiking day which would allow us time to rest before our long climbing day. We headed out of camp on a mission to get the climb to Seattle Basin out of the way before the heat of the day set in.

After a few hours of climbing switchbacks, we found ourselves searching for shade in Seattle Basin to take a break.

Seattle Basin is a treat for any one who enjoys the outdoors.

Our goal was to setup camp as high in the basin as possible which would get us closest to our peak goals. I think we found the last campable spot.

Our camp sat directly above a beautiful basin with running water. When we arrived, a bear was enjoying the basin. He slowly wondered off giving us the place to ourselves.

We spent the afternoon laying around camp, bathing, and doing a little laundry. We went to bed early. Our plan was too be out of camp at first light.

We woke on Day 4 to another blue bird day. Very unusual to have this many days without rain in the Olympic Mountains.

We started the morning climbing up to a notch between Mt Noyes and Mt Seattle. Jim and Fay were both on a mission. Tony and I were just trying to keep up.

Once we hit the notch, we got to see the summit horn of Mt Meany.

Mt Meany would require the use of ropes and pro. Mt Queets was less technical but required a very, very long ridge run. Mt Queets can’t be seen from here but the crappy, scree sidehill between us and our peaks can be.

It was at least an hour before we had cleared the scree sidehill and climbed the loose, scree rib which put us on the Mt Meany ridge. Looked fun from here.

The ridge to the summit block was quite enjoyable.

Before long, Jim, Tony, and I were roping up below the summit block of Mt Meany while Fay was heading off to check out the ridge to Mt Queets. The plan was for the three of us to climb Mt Meany and then try to catch Fay on Mt Queets.

The roped pitch on Mt Meany was low Class 5. It looked like something I could lead so I grabbed the gear. Most of the time, I am thrilled to hand the gear to Jim or Tony so they can deal with the scary, loose rock. Frankly, this just looked fun.

The pitch did have its loose rock but gear placement was good. Before long, I had reached the top of the pitch.

Once I belayed Jim and Tony up, we had to search around for the route to the summit. Turned out to be a corkscrew approach.

The three of us enjoyed the flat, rock summit.

After some pictures and a snack, it was time to try and catch Fay. We could see her far on the Mt Queets ridge so we would have to meet up with her on the way back from the summit. We ended up doing two rappels down which is always slow. Once on the snow, we were moving again.

We had watch Fay as we climbed Mt Meany so we knew we could avoid the first few rock horns by dropping down and climbing back up. Things were moving along quickly until we hit a pinnacle from hell.

We could see Fay’s boot tracks leading up to the pinnacle but couldn’t figure out where she went from there. We climbed all over this thing for the next hour. Jim and Tony got stuck with nothing to rappel off of so Tony pounded in his 3rd piton of the day. Here I thought climbing with pitons was a thing of the past. Not in the Olympics.

While Jim and Tony were trying to figure out how to get off the pinnacle, I carefully dropped down several goat paths. Each lead me to something unpassable by humans, even Fay. She must have gone over the pinnacle.

Eventually we saw Fay working her way back along the ridge. Soon she would arrive and tell us how she got over this thing. As Fay approached us, she began to drop to the lower snowfields. We dropped as well in order to hook up with her.

After meeting up with her, we discovered that she traversed around the pinnacle on a ledge. She said it was super scary so she was not going back that way.

The day was a success. We had climbed Mt Meany. Fay had climbed her first major peak in almost 2 years. Now we just had to get back to camp. Hopefully before dark.

The return was more tedious than our approach mostly due to being tired. Everything seemed twice as hard. Everyone took at least one fall in the scree. We arrived camp with time to wash up in the creek before pulling out our headlamps.

We slept in the next morning. No one was in a hurry to get out of camp. We were back on the trail just before 11am. The goal today was to get down the trail far enough so we could hike out tomorrow.

Fay and I were pretty much done hiking when we hit the creek crossing at Sixteen Mile Camp which is actually 12 miles from the trailhead. We stopped here. Fay and I enjoyed a good hour in our tents before dinner. Jim and Tony enjoyed a celebratory cigar on the river bank.

We woke to rain on our last day but it stopped long enough for us to pack up. After crossing back over the creek, we started the long hike back to the car. It drizzled off and on until our last hour of hiking then the rain got serious.

Most people would think six days to climb one peak was too much but for Fay Mt Queets was way more than just a peak.

——————– Complete Photo Gallery ———————

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