Goat Rocks 8/25/13

Emily, Ron, Nick, David, Dan and Doug arriving at Snowgrass Flats.

After setting up camp, we headed south to climb Mt. Gilbert.  Cispus Basin and the southwest section of Goat Rocks.

On day 2, we went north to climb Old Snowy.  Goat Lake and Mt. Rainier as seen from the Pacific Crest Trail.

A snowfield full of Watermelon Algae.

Wildflowers at Snowgrass Flats with Mt. Adams in background.

In addition to all the incredible sights, we got to pick sweet huckleberries all along the trail.  We just might have to plan another trip to this area!

Mt. Olympus, Blue Glacier 8/10/13

We made the long drive up to the northwest corner of the state to climb Mt. Olympus.  It is located deep in the Hoh Rain Forest.  The climb involves a round trip hike of 45 miles with an elevation gain of 8,000'.

There were huge, moss covered Douglas Fir, Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock trees everywhere.

Elk Lake at the 15 mile mark.

This cable ladder was put in place to help climbers cross an avalanche chute just before the camp at Glacier Meadows.

The Blue Glacier as seen from the lateral moraine.  The true summit is the farthest peak in the middle of the picture.  Snow Dome is on the right.

Doug and Dave on the summit in our rain gear.  It rained for about an hour when we first started up the glacier.  We had traveled and hiked way to far to turn around because of rain!  The sun even came out later that morning.

The view from the summit looking down on Snow Dome and the Blue Glacier.

 The lower part of the glacier is a square mile of hard ice.  It is covered with hundreds of small icy streams.  They usually disappear into a hole or crevasse on the glacier.  

It would have been easy to spend an entire day there exploring that part of the mountain.  We had to walk on the high spots to stay dry.

We made our way back down the moraine to Glacier Meadows where the biting flies convinced us to start the hike out to the car.  The next day, we stopped at the beach for a while and then started the long drive home.  It was nice to accomplish another climb that had been on our "to do" list for a while.