July 16-18, 2005

Mt. Anderson Climbing Trip

Dosewallips River
Dosewallips Ranger Station
High Dose Bridge
Honeymoon Meadows
Anderson Pass
Lake Anderson aka Lake Valkyrie
Flypaper Pass
Mount Anderson: east peak aka East Anderson Peak aka “Easy Anderson” Peak (7321′)
Mount Anderson: west peak aka West Anderson Peak aka “Hard Anderson” Peak (7365′) attempt

——————– Trip Report Summary ——————–

Region: Olympic Mountains (Washington)

Sub-Region: Dosewallips Group

Area: Olympic National Park

Starting & Ending Point: Dosewallips River Road Washout

Way Points: Dosewallips River & Lake Constance Trailhead & Dosewallips Ranger Station & Dosewallips Trailhead (bike ride & bike push);  Dose Fork Bridge & High Dose Bridge & Diamond Meadows & West Fork Dosewallips River & Honeymoon Meadows & Anderson Pass & Anderson Tarn (trail hike)

Campsite: Anderson Tarn

Sidetrip: Anderson Glacier Moraine & Lake Valkyrie & Anderson Glacier & Flypaper Pass (off-trail hike & snow climb & rock scramble)

Summit: East Anderson Peak (ascent & descent via Eel Glacier—East Ridge)

Summit Attempt: West Anderson Peak (climb to Northeast Ridge Notch)

Approximate Stats: 38 miles traveled (28 miles on foot + 10 miles on bike); 10,000 feet gained & lost.

——————– Related Trip Reports ——————–

Mount Anderson: West Peak – August 29, 2011
Mount Anderson: East Peak + West Peak attempt – August 2, 2010

——————– Full Trip Report ——————–

During a recent period of exceptionally stable weather, Beth and Steve joined me for a trip into the heart of the Olympics to climb Mt. Anderson.  This large and complex mountain comprises two principal peaks (denoted west and east), several sub-peaks, numerous horns, and four glaciers (Anderson, Eel, Quinault, and Hanging).  Of the two principal peaks, the west peak is slightly higher, much more rugged, and considerably more difficult to climb.  In fact, the east and west peaks could be descriptively nicknamed “Easy Anderson” and “Hard Anderson,” respectively.  Our goal was to climb both peaks, but we knew going in that the west peak might be a stretch.

Day 1 – Dose Road Washout to Anderson Tarn:

After catching the 7:10am ferry in Edmonds, we arrived at the Dosewallips Road washout at 8:45am.  More than a dozen cars were already parked there.  By 9:15am, we had mounted our bikes and headed up the road using a combination of pedaling and pushing.  The shady maple trees of the road-end campground greeted us after 1.6 tiring hours.

We locked up our bikes and then hit the Dose trail on foot.  It was a long, hot 10½ miles to Anderson Pass, but the trail is currently in excellent condition due to recent maintenance efforts and is as pleasant as any valley-bottom trail gets.  Even the troublesome creek crossing at Honeymoon Meadows was a fairly simple rock-hop…once we tossed some rocks into the channel.  Rather than camp in the forest at or below Anderson Pass, we decided to continue an additional steep mile up wildflower slopes to a delightful tarn at 5100 feet (9.2 hours from car).

After dinner, we hiked up to the nearby moraine to get our first view of Mt. Anderson.  It truly does have an impressively rugged and complex façade from this vantage.  However, the conditions we saw bore little similarity to the photos included in the trip reports by Mike Torok and John Roper, who had teamed up for a climb of West Anderson Peak in July 2003.

Their photos showed extensive snowcover around Lake Valkyrie, over the Anderson Glacier, and even in the chutes leading up to Flypaper Pass.  Today, in contrast, we saw totally bare rock around the lake, a broken-up glacier, and discontinuous snow ribbons in the chutes.  Clearly, this year’s low snowpack has greatly affected the mountain’s appearance, and we worried about how the climbing conditions would be affected.

Day 2 – Summit Climb:

Rainy weather earlier in the week had scrubbed the atmosphere nicely, and we awoke to a beautifully blue sky.   By 7:00am, we were hiking over the moraine and around Lake Valkyrie toward the Anderson Glacier.

Up ahead, a rope-team of five early-bird climbers was visible ascending the upper glacier and middle chute that cuts through the glacier’s headwall below Flypaper Pass.  We donned crampons upon reaching the lower portion of glacier, which was hard, dirty ice.   Beth explained that the name “Flypaper” supposedly refers to the myriad dark rocks scattered across the glacier, all of which resemble black flies stuck to flypaper.  That resemblance was quite strong today.

At the glacier headwall, we debated about which chute to climb.  None of the three main options looked particularly inviting.  Eventually, I started up the middle chute, following the fresh footsteps of today’s early-bird party;  Steve and Beth started up the left-hand chute, following tracks from the previous day.

Minutes later, while I was making a step from snow to rock, the snow broke away and left me perched on a snow edge with my legs dangling in a moat!  The left-hand chute suddenly seemed more appealing to me, so I looped over to that one, finding that Steve had reached a steep rock rib just above and right of the lowest snow finger.  This turned out to provide an exposed but reasonable Class 3 scramble up to the scree slopes and Class 2 ledges below Flypaper Pass.

By 9:20am (2.5 hours from camp), we were all gathered at the pass.

A downward traverse across the upper Eel Glacier, followed by an ascent of moderately steep snowfields, got us to the north ridge of the east peak.

Just below the crest, we passed the five early-birds coming down.  They were hiking out to their vehicle today, so the early start was necessary.  (When several of them mentioned that the middle chute they had used to reach Flypaper Pass was pretty gruesome, I was glad that Steve and Beth had opted for the left chute.)

A nice snow arête and short Class 2 scramble on excellent sandstone finished off our climb of “Easy Anderson” at 10:40am (3.8 hours from camp).

We spent an hour gazing at the nearby Olympics and far-off Cascades.

On a sad note, the previous climbers had left a small summit card memorializing Johanna Backus, the veteran mountaineer who recently died on Sharkfin Tower.

At 11:20am, we began descending to the Eel Glacier.  Upon reaching a point below Flypaper Pass, we contoured around to the glacier’s western edge and continued northward through a small break in a northeast-trending cliff.  A series of snowfields ranging from gentle to steep gave us access to the base of the west peak’s jagged northeast ridge.  Steve decided to wait on a rocky knob while Beth and I checked out the ridge crest.

Aiming for a low point in the ridge, we angled rightward up steep snow, then scrambled Class 3 rock to the crest. Unfortunately, this stranded us at a sharp notch in the narrow, shattered crest.  We reversed our route back to the steep snow and traversed over toward the far left, to a location that Steve had been scoping out.  Loose scree and more Class 3 rock gained us the ridge crest at a much more favorable position—a small 7040-foot saddle from which we could get our first look at the north face of the west peak.

I fully expected the north face to be intimidating, but on this day it was downright menacing!  In constrast to the 2003 photos I’d seen, the hanging snowfield was badly melted out and a big swath of exposed ice ran down the center.  Beth and I instantly agreed that it looked too difficult and dangerous for our tastes.

The northeast ridge, likewise, did not look reasonable, due to its high exposure and poor rock quality.  I felt that our hopes of climbing “Hard Anderson” today were as shattered as the sandstone here.  However, Beth is a very competent scrambler and refused to give up without at least trying the ridge route.  She carefully picked her way over a large 7200-foot horn just east of the false summit but was stymied by a near-vertical step beyond the intervening gap.

Meanwhile, I poked around the left (southeast) side of the ridge in hopes of finding a ledge system or some other weakness;  instead, I found only steep, rubbly terrain that was not fit for man nor beast.  We officially conceded defeat at about 3:15pm and headed down to rejoin Steve.

Rather than retrace our route over Flypaper Pass and down the chute, we decided to check out some snow cols between the pass and Echo Rock.  Our previous view from the east peak’s summit indicated that one or more of these cols would provide access to a series of moderately inclined snowfields west of the upper Anderson Glacier.

The second col to the left (east) of Echo Rock initially looked promising but proved to be impassable on the south side, so we tried a higher (about 6900-foot) col immediately left of Echo Rock.

This was the one!  A easy descent over scree and then snow got us down to the glacier, at which point we simply followed our up-route back to camp, arriving at 7:05pm (12.3 hours total round trip) amidst clouds of aggressive mosquitoes.

Day 3 – Anderson Tarn to Dose Road Washout:

It was warm enough for short sleeves by the time we finished breakfast at 7:30am.  Obviously, we were in for a hot day, but at least the trail was nearly all downhill.  We left our tarn camp shortly before 8:00am, reached the trailhead/campground at 1:35pm, mounted our bikes, and then zoomed down the road, arriving at our vehicle around 2:45pm (6.9 hours from camp).  It sure was a nice trip into the heart of the Olympics!!

Nomenclature Notes:  The USGS Mt. Steel quad contains some incorrect labeling on Mt. Anderson. It shows the “east peak” label on an inconsequential 6280-foot sub-peak about a mile from the actual east peak summit, and the “Mt. Anderson” label has been errantly shifted toward the east peak for centering purposes. Although this error becomes quite obvious after doing a little map perusal or field observation, the Climber’s Guide to the Olympic Mountains has managed to propagate it rather than clarify it, thereby leading to some confusing nomenclature. (Incidentally, the same labeling format was used—correctly—for Mt. Olympus’ three principal peaks on the nearby Mt. Olympus quad.)

————— Photo Gallery (click to enlarge) ———————–