Doerte and I left the Hoh River Trailhead at 9:00 in a light rain. Our goal was to hike all the way in to Glacier Meadows in one day, so as to allow for two possible summit days. We soon ran into some scouts who had summited on Tuesday which boasted our confidence. People come from all over the world to hike the trail through the Hoh Rain Forest. The hanging moss, ferns and huge trees were seemingly from another world. The Hoh River ran fast and was a glacier blue. We ignored the mud, letting our gaiters and Gortex boots do the job. We had our rain jackets on and off continually all day.

Giant trees along the Trail! Huge Douglas Firs and Mountain Hemlocks!

Bill Hooper had told me that the Hoh River Trail gained about 4 feet of elevation in the first 15 miles. That was not far from the truth. The Hoh River Trail stretches for 18 long miles to Glacier Meadows, 4200'. The last eight miles gain 3000' in elevation. Soon after the Olympic Guard Station the trail began to gain elevation up to the Hoh River Bridge, Elk Lake, and finally to Glacier Meadows.

Glacier Meadows is near treeline. Most of the campsites were free of snow, but were very wet from the rain. There were two parties camped already, one of which was going up to the mountain the next day. We arrived at 5:30 pm for an 8.5-hour day with heavy packs. Three more parties arrived later. Two guys were so beat they immediately went into the tent and were never seen again. The three women climbers arrived a short while later.

Six am found all three climbing parties heading up to the moraine. It is 3,500 feet of elevation gain and 4 miles to the summit. There is a view of the Snow Dome from the Meadows, but the first view of Mount Olympus is from the moraine. What a sight! All three teams put on their crampons and roped up to go on the glacier. There was 1-2 inches of new snow over the Blue Glacier so everything looked very pristine. There was no sign of the route from two days earlier. It was fun to be able to break tracks across the Blue Glacier.

The lower part of the glacier had some small crevasses visable, but the snow was firm. We quickly crossed the lower Glacier and headed up the steep route to the Snow Dome, zig zagging around the exposed rock. We found a good place to refill our water bottles and have a breakfast.

Topping out at 6,600’ on the Snow Dome we could see our route choices. It was interesting that there were three small teams on the mountain all doing a different variation. The Poulsbo team did the Forth of July Route directly to the saddle between the False and West Summit. They had to cross the ever-widening bergschrund and ascend some really steep snow. Later in the season this route is not passable. The ladies team took the Crystal Pass Route around the left side of the summit ridge. Doerte and Mike did the Early Summer Route to the 7,200’ notch between Five Finger Ridge and the False Summit. We had a close-up view of some big seracs and we weaved between some nice crevasses before we could look over to the other side and join up with the Crystal Pass Route.

The five of us all looked over the saddle with the West Peak and decided the route was over the top of the False Summit. We ascended the moderate slope to the False Summit. It had a big flat rocky area free of snow, just right for a break. Doerte and I carefully headed down the snow-covered scree to the saddle. We were left with one final steep snow climb to the northeast side of 120’ summit rock.

Doerte on the False Summit with the West Peak summit block behind.