Distance: 32.7 mi.
Elevation Gain: 15000 ft.
I had been hoping to do a long loop through the Olympics by myself, as I had not been on an overnight trip so far this year and I may not get another chance with a baby on the way. Josh was also interested in getting out into the Olympics as well and we had been working on the peaks that are visible from Seattle together, so we decided to make a good at the Warrior Peaks and I would continue on to my originally planned loop.
We agreed to meet on the first Edmonds to Kingston ferry of the day but I have had terrible luck with actually waking up to the alarm on my phone. Josh made it to the ferry but I woke up a little too late to actually make it and decided to drive around via the Tacoma Narrows to meet in Blyn. We were finally on track and started hiking a little after 9 am. The trail is quite nice and steadily gains elevation up to the trail split for Charlia Lakes. After this is goes downhill some to the point where we left the trail just a bit after that creek that drains the basin to the west of Warrior Peaks. From here we followed the easiest scree/talus and least brush upward to the tiny lake.
We set up camp in this small basin, putting rocks in the tents, as it was quite windy. Before heading out the weather models indicated possible rain coming in anytime between 5 and midnight. We started up toward Warrior at 2 PM and had our eyes on the skies. We ascended horrible scree up to the notch between the peaks. It would definitely be more enjoyable with snow. From the notch we could see the two routes up SE Warrior; we could either ascend horrible steep dirt to the west ridge with steep climbing or traverse bad scree, a rock glacier, and potential rockfall to the easier scramble route. We saw rockfall every 10-20 minutes on the rock glacier so we ruled that out. We carefully ascended loose dirt to some slightly better scrambling to get to the ridge. Once on the ridge we were able to easily make our way to the climbing route. I eyed it up and said hell no considering there was no protection, it seemed nearly vertical, there was incoming weather, and we had to get back down. We backtracked, carefully downclimbing the dirt with ice axes and getting back to the notch.
After some brief deliberation we decided to give the northwest peak a go since it was only about 200′ above us. Following the climbing guide description we were kind of amazed how easy and enjoyable the scramble was. We enjoyed the views and were super happy to have tried to attempt this slightly smaller summit. It will be very difficult to motivate to return for the other peak, just a few feet taller, but maybe a spring adventure would be enjoyable.
We made our way back down to camp via some careful rock hopping and scree surfing. We enjoyed our solitude and passed out once it got dark. Sleep was difficult at first with the wind but it started raining around 10:30 and then it calmed down.
We awoke to clear skies and made breakfast before heading back down scree and talus to the trail. Here we parted ways with Josh heading back to the car (and graciously carrying the unused rope and harnesses back) while I headed south toward Constance Pass.
I headed up the trail from the pass and then back down to Sunnybrook Meadow before leaving the trail and heading west, traversing at about 6000′ toward the pass between Mystery and Little Mystery. I followed some game trails with some bushwhacking rough sidehilling. When I reached some open meadows below Twin Benchmark I dropped my pack and did a quick hike up and down. There was nothing too spectacular here that I couldn’t see from the trail above Constance Pass so I hurried on back to my pack and eventually made it to the creek between the two peaks where I dropped most of my pack contents and ascended up steep scree to Little Mystery.
After lots of tedious scree I made it to the summit ridge south of the summit and I had to traverse northward staying on the west side. I had to drop pretty far at one point to get around a large rock buttress but just beyond it I was able to scramble to the summit (at about 2 pm).
I didn’t linger and backtracked the way I came. The scree field back to the creek was a bit hard packed in places and I had to be careful not to fall. I had a snack break and refilled my water at the creek, as I would likely not see any for the rest of the evening and night. I then ascended to the pass between the two mysteries and then turned right at the least terrible looking scree field to the ridge. Clouds started to close in on me more here and it added to the Mysterious feel, especially since I think I had only seen 2 people since I left Josh in the morning.
On the ridge top I found a place to stash my overnight gear again while I went for the summit. There are lots of little ribs and gendarmes to get past as you go up the ridge but I felt like I was often able to find a cairn when I wasn’t sure. There was one particular spot I quite enjoyed where I had to traverse across a not very steep slab with a nice finger crack along the top and a big drop off below. Approaching the final summit block I had to get to a sandy notch and then descend some sand on the backside and carefully traverse some pretty hard packed dirt at a moderate angle to get back to rocks where I would find the final gully to the summit.
The final scramble gully was pretty enjoyable but did have it share of loose rocks and maybe 1 or 2 difficult moves. I found myself at the top just after 5 PM. The route up the ridge was overall a fun little adventure and much more enjoyable than Little Mystery. I didn’t hang out long as I was almost entirely in clouds at this point. I backtracked easily to my stashed gear and continued southwest along the ridge toward Twin Benchmark. There was some tedious sidehilling for some of this and I was quite tired (it was now 6:30) so when I saw a nice flat spot to camp just below the top of Pt. 6514 I decided to call it a night. I enjoyed sunset and sunrise above the clouds here and a great deal of solitude.
I enjoyed breakfast and rolled out at 7:20 and followed the ridge to the southeast and eventually met up with my route from Sunnybrook Meadows. I just kept rolling to Constance Pass and back to the car at a brisk pace to try to make sure I didn’t have to wait on any ferries. I was at the car by noon and no lines at the ferry meant I was home with an afternoon to relax.
(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: Lagunitas Maximus Colossal IPA
Gear:
- Aluminum ice axe (used on dirt)
- Backpacking tent
- Bear canister
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Harness (unused)
- Helmet
- Microspikes (unused)
- Overnight pack
- Rope (unused)
- Sleeping pad
- Summer sleeping bag
- Stove
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
- Water drops/filter
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