Last week, we headed into the Olympics with our friends Greg and Tony. Tony’s daughter, Anna, and her friend, Engre, joined us. Brooke had to miss this adventure due to a bachelorette party at Lake Chelan.
The 6 of us met at the trailhead near Lake Quinault in the late afternoon. We hiked in 5 miles and camped at the Halfway House campground on the river. We had plenty of time to setup camp and clean off in the river before dinner.
In the morning, Tony announced that his back was giving him a lot of trouble. Nervous about injuring it further without seeing a doctor, Tony decided he needed to pull the plug and go home. Anna and Engre decided to stick with us. A decision they might now regret.
After saying goodbye to Tony, we all headed up the trail. We had 11 miles up hill in the heat. Our schedule had us camping at Low Divide tonight.
The day was hot and muggy. We were all excited to reach 16 mile camp. It wasn’t our home for the night but it did require a thigh high river crossing. The water was cold but oh did it feel good. We took a long break in the shade before starting our last push to Low Divide.
We arrived Low Divide early evening. There were so many other people camped there. We just took the first thing we could find. In the morning, we all put together summit packs and then headed out for Mt Christie.
We had Fay’s trip report from her climb of Mt Christie including route descriptions and pictures. We were sure this would be a fun and uneventful climb.
We crossed through beautiful meadows on the way to Martin Lakes.
Easily found the key snow couloir leading up Christie.
Before long we were at the notch in the north ridge which looked exactly like Fay’s photo.
We took a break on the moraine before putting on crampons and roping up. The glacier didn’t really warrant us roping up but Tony had entrusted us with his little girl. She might be almost 40 but we still knew Tony would kill us if something happened to her.
We followed Fay’s pictures to the key notch to access the ridge. We arrived feeling very confident only to find no access to the krumholz (dense, stiff, evergreens not more than 5 feet high). Fay said nothing about accessing the ridge. Something had obviously changed since she had been here. That’s the problem with the mountains, they are never the same as the last trip.
Jim spent the next hour trying to go right then straight up then back to the right. Eventually Jim forced a route to the right over an extremely loose, unprotectable ledge. Needless to say we had him on a tight rope belay.
After Jim, it was everyone else’s turn. Greg, Anna, and Engre had the advantage of being belayed by Jim from above and me from below. Doesn’t make it any less scary but the consequences of a fall are greatly minimized. After watching Anna literally scamper across the ledge, I took a deep breath and tried to follow exactly in her foot steps. She is less than 5 feet tall so she had some advantages but I had a long reach on my side.
Once we were all on the other side, we dove into the krumholz. Doesn’t matter how steep the hillside is, when you are in krumholz, you feel really safe. No way of falling through them. They are equally difficult to get through. Jim spent the next 15 minutes swearing. Anna was having a ball.
On the other side of the krumholz was a really fun rock ridge.
Soon we were all enjoying the roomy summit.
After a break, we all headed back to the notch. We had lost a couple of hours trying to get on the ridge. We now had to figure out how to get off it. We set up a rappel station in the krumholz directly above the notch. Knowing how much Jim hates krumholz, I volunteered to go first.
Once through the krumholz, I could see the rappel we had in front of us. It would involve stepping over a sharp rock edge into an overhanging situation. This was not going to work. Dang, I would have to climb back up the rope which meant climbing up through the krumholz.
By the time, I reached the group (I only had to climb back up 5 feet) I was covered with sweat, completely exhausted and Jim had found a better rappel off to our left. We moved everything over and then started the slow process of all 5 of us rappelling.
By now, we had lost several hours and were being faced with the possibility of returning to camp in the dark. We needed to keep moving but do it safely. We roped back down the glacier. Climbed back over the notch in the north ridge. Descended to snow fields that were in the process of refreezing as the sun went down.
We hit the Martin Lakes basin just before dark. It was here that we found out Anna and Engre had not brought their headlamp on the climb. A mistake people only make once with us. Everyone that has climbed with us knows you always bring your headlamp on a Brisbine climb. My girlfriends have learned to bring theirs if we are going out for a walk.
We quickly ran around the basin trying to locate the trail before dark. Unmaintained trails seem to disappear in grassy basins. Just before darkness set in, Jim yelled that he had the trail. We regrouped on the trail then headed for camp as fast as we dared. You don’t want to get hurt now.
We arrived back at camp around 11pm. Anna and Engre immediately crashed in their tent. Jim, Greg, and I had dinner then climbed into our tents.
We all slept in the next day. I heard Anna first monkeying with the stove. I heard her declare to Greg that she was starving and planned to have last nights dinner for breakfast. Good plan.
Over breakfast, Greg, Jim, and I decided to deviate from our originally planned trip of circumnavigating Mt Queets. We decided instead to do a more relaxed trip and do the Skyline Trail. Jim and I had done it years ago with Deb and Steve in one of the rainiest Augusts on record. Anna and Engre had already planned to head out the way we had come.
After breakfast, we said goodbye to the girls. They headed down from Low Divide and we headed up towards Seattle Basin. Even after the intense climb on Mt Christie which was way harder than anything either of them had done before, the girls were in great spirts. They were such a joy to have along such positive attitudes even when they were shacking in their boots.
Greg, Jim , and I arrived Seattle Basin early afternoon. About 4 hours from Low Divide. This was my third trip to Seattle Basin. It never gets old. So amazingly beautiful.
After setting up camp, I settled in for a nap while the guys went off to scramble up a nearby bump in hopes of getting some good pictures of Mt Christie. After my nap, I did a little laundry. This trip had been so muggy and sweaty. I had yet to put on dry clothes in the morning.
We all went to bed early and slept like rocks. We woke to very wet tents. The dew in the basin was amazing. Everything was soaked. We tried to dry as many things as possible but the sun only hit our campsite 15 minutes before we left.
As we hiked out of Seattle Basin, we realized we had not seen another person since we left the girls at Low Divide. Very unusual for the Skyline Trail and Seattle Basin.
After an hour or two of hiking, we found the place where Greg wanted to do some exploring. The circumnavigation of Mt Queets involved a questionable exit. Greg wanted to see if he and Jim could figure the exit out. I decided that I would continue to Lake Beauty, setup camp, and take an afternoon nap. I was really enjoying this hiking for 4 hours then napping.
The guys dropped their big packs and headed off with summit packs. Not sure who was more excited: Jim to be heading off on a mountain adventure or me heading off to nap next to an alpine lake.
As I hiked along, I was struck by just how much Bear Grass was in bloom. I had never seen it so dense.
Though I was enjoying the views, I spent most of my hike looking at or for the trail. The Skyline Trail is unmaintained and even though it is hiked by probably 10 groups a week, it is not your average trail. I have done climbing route which were easier with less exposure. And I don’t typically carry a full pack on a climb.
Before I knew it, I was heading down to Lake Beauty. I fully expected to find other parties at the lake but we had it all to ourselves.
I set up the tent in the largest campsite. It also had trees for shade. My plan was to have lunch, nap, and then go for a swim. I went down to the lake to get water. The lake was so inviting. It was calling my name.
Within minutes, I was undressed and washing off in the lake. It was my kind of alpine lake. No floating ice burgs.
I returned to our campsite to find the tent in full sun. I had set it up in the shade. I simply drug the tent back into the shade then climbed in to have lunch. I wanted to escape the bugs.
By the time my lunch was over, the tent was back in the sunshine. I couldn’t nap in full sun so I drug my tent to where the shade was now. I laid down for my nap and within 15 minutes, I was back in the sun. I decided to try a new technic and throw our down comforter on top of the tent making my own shade. Worked fabulous. I have to remember this for the future.
After my nap, the guys still weren’t back. They figured they would be in camp by 6pm. I figured they would be back between 6pm and 6am. I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for them to show up. I decided to go explore the basin around Lake Beauty. There seemed to be a real good trail network on the ground but not on the map.
About an hour later, I heard voices. The guys actually got to camp before 6pm. They had had a very successful trip and had their eyes on a swim in the lake before dinner. The next day we had 12 miles to do so we all went to bed early.
I was the first one out of camp. I wanted to climb out of the basin before the sun started to heat it up. As I climbed up, I took one more look at this beautiful basin. It obviously doesn’t get very many visitors which is a good thing for this delicate area.
I reached the Skyline Trail at the top of the ridge just as the sun hit it. Wow, it was hot already. I hiked about 2 minutes and then found the trail cut to the other side of the ridge. I would be treated to another mile or so of hiking in the shade. YEAH!
As I hiked along, I would stop from time to time to take in the views.
At one stop, I got to enjoy a black bear crossing through the basin. This time of year, they are lean and look to have skin hanging every where. He definitely needed to do some fattening up before fall.
Jim and Greg had seen a bear back in Seattle Basin. I was feeling a little left out. It isn’t really a trip to the Olympic Mountains until you see a bear. I watch the bear for several minutes until he cleared the distance ridge. I knew I was going up hill where he went down.
Soon after my bear, I could hear the guys behind me. We had some tricky route finding over the next half mile. Lots of checking the GPS. After we were all together again, we took a break and celebrated that we had reached the high point in the trail today. From here, it was just ups and down. At least we thought so.
Less than an hour later, we crossed over the ridge and began dropping into a basin. And we dropped more. Then we dropped into the brush. Then we tried traversing the brush. Yuck! “Was this really a trail?” It took us over 3 hours to do 2 miles. Less than a mile an hour on a freaking trail. Crazy!
Eventually, we climbed out of the brush. We continued to climb until we hit the ridgeline again. “Was the last 3 miles really necessary?” Once on the ridgeline, the Skyline Trail lived up to its name. The next several miles of trail followed the skyline. Weaving back and forth across the ridge. Very beautiful.
Jim and I rolled into Three Prunes camp just after 8pm. Greg had been there for over an hour. For some reason, Greg still has the knees of a 30 year old even though he is in his 60s. Neither Jim nor I could get over how fast he could descend steep terrain.
We had another 12 miles of the Skyline Trail the next day. We convinced ourselves that it had to be easier than the 12 miles we had just done. Either way, I went to bed as soon as dinner was over.
In an attempt to beat some of the heat, I headed out of camp before anyone else. I knew we had a climb coming up and I was hoping to get it over with before I was hit by the sun. Today, I succeeded.
I stopped to take a few pictures of a mountain tarn when the guys caught up to me.
We were pretty sure we only had another mile or two of flat trail and then we needed to drop down to the trailhead. We had been making good time and feeling pretty positive we could be out in a few hours.
Greg took the car key and headed out. All downhill. His specialty. We needed to retrieve our car from a mile up the road. Greg could do that. Jim and I head out after Greg but found our pace was reduced to a crawl. How could a trail be this bad?
We did have some nice distractions from how slow we were moving. Frogs were everywhere on this part of the trail. We crossed the creek at a rock cavern.
And then there were the logs that were too big to be cut out so they cut pathways out.
We were only 10 minutes from the trailhead when we saw Greg sitting in the shade. He had already gone and got the car plus cleaned up in the river. He said it was way to hot to hang out in the parking lot.
As we headed home, we talked about next year and doing the circumnavigation we had started out to do on this trip. It would be simpler since none of us were going up Mt Christie again.