Olympic Mountains

“ Knowledge of the geological history of an area enables us to better understand the shape of the land today. It will be recalled that earth movements depressed the land on the north, south, and east, leaving the Olympic Mountains standing alone, isolated from other mountains. However, they are a segment of that elongated western fringe of 6 mountains known as the Coast Range. In all that range the Olympics are the highest; yet, for western mountains they are not high, dominating Mount Olympus being only 7,965 feet above sea level. ”

“ The Olympics are not a single range of mountains but a profusion of peaks and ridges with intervening valleys—a mountain dome 60 miles across from north to south and east to west, cut by glaciers and numerous streams into rugged peaks and steep-walled valleys. There are nearly a hundred named peaks in Olympic National Park.
Mount Olympus occupies a central position on the Peninsula. To the west the ridges descend gradually and merge with the coastal plain which varies from a few to 20 miles in width. The eastern half of the Olympics maintains a high elevation all the way to the eastern edge. ”

“ Salt water borders the Olympic Peninsula on three sides. Lowland on the south completes the isolation of the mountains. From atop some mountain peaks one can see the Olympic water cycle in its entirety—ocean, “cloudscape,” snowfields, glaciers, streams from source to mouth returning water to the sea, and forests transpiring moisture into the air.
A landscape is an expression of climate. The Olympic landscape, with its rain forests, snowfields, glaciers, lakes, and numerous streams in deep valleys, is a superb expression of a superhumid climate. ”

“ The Olympic Mountains stand first in line against the moisture-filled Pacific winds. These winds, rising and cooling on the western slopes, drop 12 to 18 feet of rain and snow on forest and mountain each year. Two extraordinary conditions result—a temperate-climate rain forest and an abundance of permanent ice bodies at comparatively low altitudes. Many rushing streams return the water from snowfields, glaciers, and forest slopes to the sea. A complete and endless circuit of water from ocean to land and back to the ocean may be observed from a single mountain vantage point. ”

“ Numerous lakes lie in basins that were scooped out by the same glaciers that carved circular hollows at the heads of valleys. Slopes sweep upward from the basins with increasing steepness and in many places end in serrated rock ridges and pinnacles.
More than a dozen streams flow out of the Olympic Mountains, returning rain and melt water to the ocean. They drop down steeply from the high level basins; after a few swift miles they flatten out and the water takes a slower pace.
Glaciers Today
A glacier is an accumulation of ice large enough to move of its own weight. ”

“ It is intermediate between southern and northern vegetation. The lowland forests, including the rain forest already described, are in this zone.
The next two zones also are forest, but somewhat different. The highest, or fourth, zone is treeless. The boundaries between the forest zones here are not sharp; it is difficult to know exactly where one ends and the next begins. This merging of forest zones in the Olympic Mountains may be due to the equable temperature extending well up the mountain slopes.
The Canadian zone should be apparent when an elevation of 2,000 feet is reached. ”

“ A visit to Olympic is not complete without at least one trip into the high country. Aside from the numerous trails that lead up into the mountains, there are two high country areas that may be reached by car. These are Hurricane Ridge and Deer Park. Whether the trip is made on trail or on road, an understanding of the changing pattern of plantlife will make it more enjoyable.
The climate at the top of a mountain is unlike that at the base ”

“ Mount Olympus alone has 6 major glaciers, and the total area of permanent snow and ice on it is more than 10 square miles. Several other mountains also have glaciers, notably Mounts Anderson, Christie, Tom, and Carrie.
In addition, there are numerous snow patches that remain from one winter to the next but are not thick enough to form glaciers. Viewed from a high position, a panorama of north-facing slopes presents a profusion of snow and ice patches. The presence of so much snow and ice in mountains of modest height does not mean they are enveloped with inhospitable cold. ”

“ Animals returned when the ice retreated. Plant eaters and meat eaters, large and small, throve in abundance. When primitive man came, he found the land and sea kindly. He easily obtained what he needed for food, clothing, and shelter without depleting the supply.
While most of the Northwest was being explored and settled by the white man during the 19th century, the bulk of the Olympic Peninsula remained virtually unknown. Its rugged mountains, dense forests, and isolation contributed to the delayed advance of modern civilization to this northwesternmost corner of conterminous United States. ”

“ Bordering the palisades of the Vice-President for a mile or more is the Emerald glacier, and to the Emerald glacier the Club campers made their way in detachments. It proved to be not the least delightful of the series of excursions, as for the majority it was their first experience in ice climbing. Again, variety marked every mile of the way. Again, entrancing vistas of distant peaks were unfolded at many a turn in the switchback trail, and with each higher altitude gained, the panorama grew in vastness and magnificence. Nature never duplicates her canvases, especially amid the mountains. ”

“ You have often enough, of late days, noticed these mountains, and if you remark their altitude, the vast scope of country they dominate, the position they fill, you must likewise realise one other fact: that an immense quantity of snow in winter, rain in spring and autumn, surely must fall throughout the Olympics. ”

“ There is much to attract holiday makers in our Alps besides the snow and ice and the exhilarating peril of climbing. As a matter of sport which calls out all the most active energies of foot and hand and eye, there is much to be said for it. But for those who care for something more than physical fitness there is much to be seen and learnt, especially on the western slopes of the Mountains. ”

“ The World-winning Climb.
An old school-master, talking to his class one morning, many years ago, told a story of an early experience he had had in Europe. He was one of a party travelling in Switzerland. They had gotten as far as Chamounix, and were planning to climb Mont Blanc. That peak, you know, is the highest of the Alps, and is called the monarch of European mountains. While it is now ascended every day in season, the climb is a very difficult task. ”

“ The longer a climber gratifies his instincts and pursues his sport, the larger becomes his store of reminiscences and the greater his experience. If he confines his attention to a single range of mountains such as the Alps, he is almost always in sight of mountains he has climbed and glaciers he has traversed. Each view shows him some route he has once pursued, some glacier basin he has explored, some pass he has crossed. ”

“ There are many isolated instances of men of other nationalities who have spent their time in climbing snow-peaks and fighting their way through mountainous countries; but when we inquire into the records of discovery amongst the mountain ranges of the world—in the Alps, the frosty Caucasus, the mighty Himalaya, in the Andes, in New Zealand, in Norway, wherever there are noble snow-clad mountains to climb, wherever there are difficulties to overcome—it is usually Englishmen that have led the way. ”

“ For sixty miles or more east and west across the Olympian Peninsula, which is the forested northwestern corner of Washington and the United States between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean, stretch the Olympian Mountains. The country is a rugged wilderness of tumbled ranges, grown with magnificent forests above which rise snowy and glaciered summits. Its climax is Mount Olympus, eight thousand one hundred feet in altitude, rising about twenty-five miles equidistant from the Strait of Juan de Fuca upon the north and the Pacific Ocean upon the west. ”

“ Among a wilderness of rugged mountains and lakes of the Glacier National Park are scores of peaks well worthy of the climber. To me Going-to-the-Sun Mountain and Mount Cleveland are two of the better ones.
Exercising in the heights quickly disinfects and reënergizes the system. A mental uplift, a broadening of the view, and a general lasting exhilaration come from the effort of mountain-climbing, together with the intimate human association and the soul-stirring scenes which it brings. Climbing a worthy peak ought to be listed among the proudest of our yearly accomplishments. ”

“ There is no longer the least novelty in the small feats of gymnastics annually performed, or supposed to be performed, by members of the Alpine Club. Few readers, I think, outside that body of enthusiasts, are eager to hear anything more of guides and glaciers, arêtes and séracs, cols, couloirs and crevasses. Such subjects recur more often than I could wish in the following pages. But in attempting to give any adequate picture of a mountain region it is impossible to leave out the snow mountains. My object has been to keep them as far as possible in their proper place in the landscape. ”

“ Even in the Alps the habit followed the early rock climber; he was too ready to choose a peak “which would give plenty of sport on the ascent, and an easy snow-route down.” During our gully and grip epochs, when this self-imposed limitation was almost universal, rock climbing reached its furthest point of divergence from real mountaineering. The development of balance climbing perforce broke down the tradition. Climbing down had to be learned when really big mountaineering was attempted. Where mountains have no easy ways down, it is as important to be able to descend as to ascend. ”

“ In the Temple-Goodsir group, which is situated just to the south of the Canadian Pacific Railway, are a very large number of rock- and snow-peaks; in fact, probably more varied rock climbing can be found here than in any of the other groups of mountains. ”

“ The ascent of Olympus does, indeed, entail almost every sort of mountaineering, and some of it reasonably [Pg 127] difficult and dangerous. In the first place, the approach to the mountain is perhaps its crowning feature; it is a man's sized trip to get within striking distance, and to its inaccessibility is due the fact that up to 1907 it was unscaled. When once reached, there are goodly glaciers to be conquered, vast snow fields to be negotiated, some hard ice work, and a lot of stiff climbing, all at long range from the nearest practical base camp. ”

“ Mont Blanc, seen from the north, is a wonderful, glistening mass of snowy domes, piled one against the other in ever-increasing altitude to a beautifully-proportioned and well-balanced whole. No beauty or symmetry of form can be read out of the ponderous, ungainly, ill-proportioned lump whose horizontal stratification lines produce an appearance of almost comical squatness and which carries, as if by accident, on its western extremity a little carelessly truncated cone to serve as a summit. For such is Mount Everest as seen from the Base Camp. ”

“ In area, too, they are large enough for grandeur and yet small enough for easy access. No part of them is beyond the range of a summer holiday, yet a commanding view of them is as apparently limitless as is the view from the greatest Asiatic peaks which, thus far, have been climbed. They are the only range of snow-mountains in the world thus blessed with moderation. ”

“ The peaks are too big and too high for real hard climbing, and as for storms, there are none in these regions, not the symptom or ghost of one.
No driving snow on the ridges, no thunder-clouds, no fresh snow (other than the merest shatter) .
I think we are bound to have the summit, as it is merely a matter of steady training to get our wind into order. We are having a real good time, and even if we fail on Nanga I shall not regret having seen these gigantic peaks and looked at the great mountains beyond Hunza and the Russian frontier. ”

“ It is improbable that there are any peaks as high as 13,000 feet, but many covered with ice, snow, and glaciers were seen from the summits of the Dome and Diadem peak in 1898, when we were on the Columbian ice-fields. That this mountain-land remains unexplored is not to be wondered at, for the country is so far away, and so difficult to get at, from any human habitation [Pg 150] that it takes weeks of hard work battling with the rivers and forests before even the valleys are reached which lie at the bottom of these ranges of snow-and glacier-covered mountains. ”

“ Many pastimes and sports, many vocations and avocations may become vulgarized. But it must be obvious to any who know ever so little about the glaciers and névés and precipices—the unimaginable visions from the upper heights; it must be obvious that, from the very nature of the sport, to popularize mountaineering is not to vulgarize nor degrade it. The mountains themselves hold the high effort and achievement in fee. The vulgar reach the mountain summits by a way against which the Alpine Club of Canada will set a face of flint. ”

“ A spectator may thus stand close to its foot, at an altitude of six thousand feet, and have a commanding view of the eight thousand feet of slopes and terraces which culminate in the summit, 14,110 feet above the sea. Its steep, abrupt ascent makes it imposing and impressive. It fronts the wide plains a vast broken tower. The typical high peak stands with other high peaks in the summit of a mountain-range. Miles of lesser mountains lie between its summit and the lowlands. Foothills rise from the edge of the lowland ”