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Blue Glacier
Route
Blue Glacier 

Page Type: Route

Location: Washington, United States, North America

Lat/Lon: 47.80000°N / 123.7053°W

Route Type: Snow/glacier climb with summit scramble

Time Required: A few days

Difficulty: Grade II-III

Route Quality: 
 - 16 Votes
 

 

Page By: D Smith

Created/Edited: Jul 24, 2001 / Jun 28, 2005

Object ID: 155624

Hits: 5986 

Page Score: 77.88% - 6 Votes 

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Approach


The approach follows the 18-mile Hoh River Trail, which can be hiked over 1-2 days, depending on your stamina and time constraint.
Good camping can be found at Olympic Ranger Station (9 miles) and Lewis Meadows (10 miles). The majority of the hike is flat to moderate, following the grade of the Hoh River. The trail steepens for the last several miles to base camp at Glacier Meadows.

Allow an equal number of days for the hike out.

Route Description


From the Glacier Meadows Ranger Station, hike 1 mile to the moraine of the Blue Glacier. Rope up here, and begin crossing the flat, yet crevassed Blue Glacier, aiming for the steep snow and ice slope on the opposite side.

Climb towards the "Snow Dome", the obvious white mound formed by the upper Blue Glacier on Olympus' north side. From here, traverse west and climb the steepening slope towards a false summit and the bergschrund. cross or traverse around the bergschrund and cross over the "Five Fingers" to the south, then head east a few hundred yards to the false summit.

To reach the summit, down climb a couple hundred feet to a snow field, then scrambe (class 4) to the summit.

A detailed route description can be found in The Climbers Guide to the Olympic Mountains

Essential Gear


Standard glacier gear, including rope, ice axe, crampons, pickets, slings, etc. Bring ice screws late in the season.

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