Distance: 18.2 mi. (5.3mi. on bike)
Elevation Gain: 4800 ft. (750′ on bike)
My brother happened to be in town for work and had the weekend free. The weather was absolutely perfect but there was still a lot of snow at elevation. I thought that with it’s relatively low elevation and mostly south facing trail we may be able to get up Mt. Jupiter in the Olympics without too much trouble. I had found a lot of trip reports from mid May that said they had made it the whole way with very limited snow but this season is still holding above average snow.
We left home and hopped on the first Edmonds to Kingston ferry at 6:10 and then drove to the gate on the Mt. Jupiter road at 1250′. The road is a bit rough but easily passable by any 2wd vehicle. We geared up and hopped on our mountain bikes. The road goes gradually up much of the way but we ended up pushing up the steeper sections.
We found the trailhead sign, dropped some biking gear, and started hiking up the old trail at 8:45. The trail through the old clear cut was easy to follow and just a little bit brushy. There are pretty good views here down to Hood Canal and even Seattle. After leaving the clear cut, the trail was very nice under the trees, slowly gaining elevation.
We did eventually run into snow starting at about 4300′. The initial snow was quite easy but eventually it became somewhat steep side hilling and we eventually made our way mostly straight uphill bypassing some switchbacks. We made it through a few difficulties and at the 5200′ level it seemed that we may have made it past the worst of it, but shortly ahead at 5400′ and only about 0.3 miles from the top we encountered a steep snow patch with pretty cliffy terrain above and below that we did not want to pass. We explored some class 3+ scrambling up on the ridge crest and were able to get just past that steep snow but could see other potential issues ahead. We very possibly could have continued and made it to the top but the conditions were demoralizing and we decided to just enjoy a good lunch break and to head back.
The return was pretty uneventful except that the hike of course seemed to be longer back. The bike however was a lot of fun and we were back at the car before 5. We stopped in Hoodsport for some delicious ice cream and then visited some friends in Port Orchard for dinner. A beautiful spring day out and a good time out with the brother.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Bombastic Murder
Gear Used:
- Aluminum crampons
- Aluminum ice axe
- Day pack
- Gaiters
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Helmet
- Microspikes
- Mountain bike
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
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