Off Trail in Olympic National Park // Andrew Skurka Adventures 2023

In early September, I joined an Andrew Skurka Adventures trip to Washington’s Olympic Mountains. 10 of us spent 5 days navigating our way across multiple remote basins in the northeastern corner of the range.

The first day gave us a panoramic introduction as we left Deer Park to walk along Hurricane Ridge, welcomed by swirling clouds and distant views in every direction. We passed over Obstruction point before dropping down to Moose Lake for our first campsite.

From camp we climbed to Low Pass, where we would leave behind the trail system and begin finding our own way. We dropped into the Lilian River Basin, and followed the creek to its headwaters, where we expected to encounter Lillian Glacier. Sadly there was no glacier here any longer. We picked our way up the loose rocks and reached our next ridgeline as the clouds continued to build around us. We followed the ridge for a bit, then began side-hilling when it became too exposed. From the next saddle, we eyed our descent toward Cameron Creek. Steep scree and hardpan led us toward dense trees, but we luckily found a grassy gully to get us through it. We called the day’s route the “Lillian Sneak.”

The next day began with a sunny ridgetop compass lesson, before embarking on a traverse across 4 high basins that would allow us to thread the needle between the forest below us and the cameron glaciers above. This was complicated terrain that involved micro route finding, scrambling, downclimbing, and a series of committing traverses across hardpan dirt that required kicking steps. These later became known as the Cheese Grater Slopes. We all made it across and entered the desolate realm of the cameron glaciers just as the clouds closed in fully. With low visibility, we followed a series of compass bearings that led us to safer terrain where we would spend a frosty night, having traveled less than 4 miles in over 9 hours.

We started the morning with another steep climb, passing into the next basin without much trouble. We descended to Cedar Lake where we stopped to enjoy the sunshine and dry out our gear. One more climb brought us to the tarns at the head of the Gray Wolf River, where, for the first time in over 2 days, we set foot on a trail and let it carry us gently down out of the alpine and into the rainforest. The moss-carpeted ground and towering trees were a dramatic change of scenery and our campsite at 3 Forks felt luxurious.

By day 5, all we had left was a quick 3500 feet of climbing to return to the trailhead at Deer Park. We completed our loop and celebrated a successful trip through an intensely beautiful and challenging place that I will be eager to return to soon.