41 THE MOUNTAINEER 



Journey To Mount Olympus 



By G. W. HUMES, Port Angeles 



DrRlX(i the latter part of Aiijiiist, 1905, with two companions, I made 

 a ti'ip to Alt. Olympus, it bein^' our intention to scale this little-known 

 but nuich-talked of peak, 



Leavin<>' "Chicago Camp," ten miles beloM^ the source of the Elwha, 

 one mornin<i', Ave passed through the upper Elwha Basin, where the river has 

 three forks, and continued along the most westerly of these, following the 

 sani'^ to its extreme source in the Elwha-Queets ice-field, some four miles 

 southeastward of Mt. Olympus. This part of the route being strewn with 

 slippery boulders of all sizes presented difficult travelling, while the young 

 Elw'fla plunged and foamed among them in its mad race to the valley proper. 



The stream would scarcely average more than ten feet in width, but we 

 had to cross and re-cross continually jumping from rock to rock or fording 

 the icy torrent, closely hemmed in by steep slopes or canon-walls. After 

 about two miles of this kind of work we came to the foot of the Elwha glacier 

 which bi'idg(^d the stream and afforded very good trav.elling with a few ex- 

 ceptions, where the ice had worn away and broken in, necessitating our re- 

 turn to the stream-bed for a short time. At one place the ice bridge reaches 

 a thickness of perhaps 150 feet, where numerous avalanches have brought 

 thousands of tons of snow from a side canon and where now may be seen a 

 series of waterfalls, very high but not of large volume, reminding one of 

 Bridal Veil falls near the Columbia in Northern Oregon. 



At intervals above this occur several pot-holes or "wells"- — shafts in 

 the clear, greenish blue ice — as round as if bored with a huge auger, while, 

 at the bottom, 50 or 60 feet below, may be seen the foaming, roaring torrent, 

 rushing along Avith awe-inspiring fury. From the rim of one of these "avcIIs, " 

 one unconsciously shrinks back after a glance into its noisy depths, while the 

 thought of falling in is sufficient to make the average person "crawl." These 

 "wells" are from six to fifteen feet in diameter. 



After another mile of travel along this ice bridge, up a rather steep slope, 

 we came to the Elwha-Queets divide, and had our first near view of Mt. Olym- 

 pus a few miles to the south westward. Its eastern slope is for the most part 

 occupied by the Queets glacier — a huge mass of ice from the face of which 

 huge blocks were breaking at intervals, and falling with a great crash into 

 the canon below. 



It being late afternoon, we sought a camping place, and by going about a 

 mile down the Queets, found a favorable spot facing a large rock in the 

 sparsely-timbered park region. While arranging a bed of fi boughs and col- 

 lecting wood for the camp fire, we sighted two very large black bears about 

 a mile to the southward, and with the aid of a field glass made out that they 

 Avere "rustling" their supper from blueberries, Avhich literally covered the 

 ground hereabouts, and were deliciously sweet. 



Next morning Ave Avere up with the sun, and took steps to assault the 

 grand peak in the shade of which we had camped. Returning to the main 

 divide we proceeded westerly along the crest of a sharp, rocky ridge until we 

 could slide doAvn on to the great Iloh ice-field, at least a square mile in extent. 

 This Ave crossed entire, having to continuallv turn aside for crevasses, some 



