Route: Mt Olympus (WA)

Location
Washington, US
Description

Mount Olympus is the highest peak in the Olympic Mountain Range of Western Washington. Despite it's relatively low altitude [7965 feet], Olympus is heavily glaciated due to it's close proximity to the Pacific Ocean. Precipitation in the nearby Hoh Rain Forest ranges from 140 to 167 inches--12 to 14 feet--every year, which translates into a lot of snowfall on Olympus, thus maintaining large accumulations of ice such as the Blue Glacier. Located in the center of Olympic National Park, Mount Olympus is also quite remote, and requires a 1 day hike just to reach it's base. The "standard" route is approached via the Hoh River Trail, a 17-mile each-way excursion through one of the wettest places on earth. From the base camp at Glacier Meadows, the route is a straightforward glacier climb with moderate crevasse danger. Rope, Crampons, ice axe and crevasse rescue gear (not to mention knowledge on how to use them) are prerequisites. -- from www.summitpost.com.

Buzz Burrell climbed Olympus in around 16h17m car-to-car in June of 2004, as reported on Bill Wright's site. Buzz took 9h50m to reach the summit. He said this about the climb:

Olympus was outrageous ... as expected. I was only the 7th party to sign in this year. 18 miles to the bottom scares 1/2 the people off, then the glacier ascent scares off the other 1/2. Almost scared me off too ... I found an 8' log and carried it under my two arms to cross the glacier. Caught up to two guys with full gear at the final icefall, but then they got scared and turned around. I kept going, but it was sketchy ... one crux move over a crevasse onto a 45d slope of slush was not fun. If something breaks loose, there's nobody up there, no one will even know, let alone bother to try a rescue.

47.7998096, -123.7065779

Images

Comments

On Thursday, July 19th, 2018 I will be attempting the car to car, unsupported FKT of this route again. I will be starting around 3:30-5:00AM from the Hoh Visitor Center. Spot Tracker live tracking will be available at: https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Z3VFWHEsC…

I will also be tracking with Strava and will write a trip report afterwards.

Nice Monica!!

On 8/11/24 I completed this route in 12 hours, 42 minutes. I was just a tad slow from record pace to the first glacier, but really lost time on the technical climbing on the snow dome and rock scramble. I decided to shut it down and cruise it in once I realized I was over an hour slower than Sean to the summit. Sean’s time is super stout and I see now how his record has lasted so long!

https://strava.app.link/51wGIVoD0Lb