ay 3 – The Valhallas At Last

We awoke in a bed of sun-lit avalanche lilies and soon left camp in eager anticipation of high alpine scenery. We headed up the Valkyrie Creek valley and by midday had reached the snow-covered Frigga-Baldur Col that provided access to the Valhallas. Finally, the moment we had anticipated since the trip began! On the spot my parents had stood 27 years previously, I basked in the spectacular views of Bugaboo-like peaks adorning the edges of the Geri-Freki Glacier.

In 1980, my parents climbed four peaks in the Valhallas. Theirs were the third ascents of Frigga and Hugin and the fifth ascents of Baldur and Munin, and my mom was the first woman to summit these four peaks. Like most peaks in the Olympic Mountains, they are fun but loose Class 3 or 4 scrambles.

	Valhallas camp above the Geri-Freki Glacier just below Baldur. © Steph Abegg Enlarge

I was eager to find the summit registers bearing my parents’ names (which we unfortunately could not find), so Douglas and I first climbed Frigga, which treated us to a spectacular panorama of the Valhallas cirque and Mount Olympus to the northeast. In a notch on the ridge at Frigga’s base we found eight feet of delightfully solid rock, possibly the best in the Olympic Range. Of course it doesn’t go anywhere but was a fascinating contrast to the usual chossy rock scraped from the sea floor millions of years previous. After Frigga, we headed for Baldur, which is best climbed from the ridge on the other side of the Geri-Freki Glacier. On the traverse over, we came across an amazing campsite perched on a heather-trimmed shelf at the head of the Geri-Freki Glacier, surrounded on all sides by the rocky Valhalla spires. A rare liquid water source was even nearby. While Douglas took a nap, I climbed Baldur and soon joined him basking in the afternoon sun at camp and planning the next day’s climbs. Due to the proximity and relatively low relief of the Valhalla peaks, most of the remaining summits seemed climbable the following day. In particular, the Class 4 Woden Peak, the highest of the Valhallas at 6,038 feet, and the flagpole summit of Loki Spire looked like fun.

However, during the night the clear skies were replaced by clouds and drizzle. We pitched the tent for the first time, commenting that ‘normal’ Olympic Mountain weather had finally arrived. Unfortunately, the poor weather meant we would have to forgo any more climbing in the Valhallas, since the ambitious schedule of our trip would not allow a day to wait out the weather. I was disappointed and kicked myself all the next day for not bagging at least one more peak that previous gorgeous afternoon. All the more reason to return to the Valhallas!

Day 4 – From the Valhallas to Hubert Glacier

Since little guidebook information is available for this unfrequented area, we had planned on visually route-finding our way along the ridge from the Valhallas to Mount Olympus. However, visibility was down to a couple hundred feet, so we decided to try a new technique. Looking at the digital photos on the back of my camera from the summit of Frigga the previous day, we traced a feasible route along the ridge towards Mount Olympus across the Hubert Glacier and up to the Mount Tom ridge line where we would intersect an established climbing route. We had initially planned to follow my parents’ old boot-tracks under Athena and approach the summit from the south. But given the visibility and the fact that we could not see this area in my photos, we decided to cross the Hubert Glacier instead. This decision was potentially risky, since we didn’t even know if Hubert Glacier was a viable route.

	On the summit of Mount Olympus. Enlarge © Steph Abegg

Fortunately, the ridge between the Valhallas and Mount Olympus still held substantial early-summer snow, which made for easy travel towards Hubert Glacier. However, liquid water was difficult to find. At one point, we found water streaming down a cliff face and Douglas came up with an ingenious way to collect water using a plastic map case.

We found a nice campsite on a knoll at the base of the Hubert Glacier. The only downside was its 15-degree slope. Given the size of the knoll and my rate of slide, it’s a good thing I woke every hour to pull myself back to the head of the tent.

Day 5 – Crossing over Mount Olympus

We had taken four days to reach Mount Olympus, not the fastest approach by any means. On the other hand, few people have ever seen the west face of Olympus under which we were camped. On Day 5, we would hopefully climb the namesake peak of the Olympic Mountains. Either because of our anticipation or the sloping tent-spot, we were crunching up the glacier before the sun rose. The sky had not one cloud, as if the storm had never happened.

We crossed the Hubert Glacier and weaved upwards towards the Mount Tom ridge line Around each bend, I expected our way to become hopelessly blocked by a polished cliff face or a gaping crevasse. As we climbed higher and higher, the suspense ascended with our tracks and we became certain that the mountain would deny us victory. But in the end, the line we had scoped was a good one and we popped up on the ridge line by mid-morning. Elated, we dropped onto the Blue Glacier and intersected the standard climbing route of Mount Olympus. Seeing human tracks felt odd after being in such untouched wilderness, but was comforting after the intense route-finding of the past few days. We soon arrived at the base of the rocky summit-block — almost there!

	Doug jumping a crevasse on the Blue Glacier. Enlarge © Steph Abegg

The final part of Olympus’s summit climb involves a pitch of 5.4 rock. We scrambled up easily and were soon standing at the highest point in the Olympics ogling the 360-degree view of the entire Olympic Peninsula. This summit was more than just a topographic high point for both of us. Douglas had grown up on the Peninsula and had learned his passion for the mountains in this range. And I, who had been weathered off Olympus during a family vacation in 2004, was glad to add another summit panorama to my collection. We relished having the summit to ourselves, thankful for the poor weather that had kept other climbers away.

After a well-earned reprieve, we descended southeast towards the Hoh Glacier. We scampered below the Middle and East Peaks of Mount Olympus. I convinced Douglas to jump a crevasse, hoping he wouldn’t notice my ice axe lying lazily in the snow as my fingers toyed with my camera. A new lightness was in our steps — the first half of our trip had come off with flying colors, and the weather had been better than we had ever hoped for. The second half of the trip would be easy, on less committing terrain. In our excitement, we circled all the way around the three summits of Olympus to the pass overlooking the South Fork Hoh, giving us a birds-eye view of our last camp and the ridge traverse of the day before. We turned, trotting down the Hoh Glacier on an easy and quick course to Camp Pan to stay the night. Given the improving weather, we were surprised to encounter no climbers at Camp Pan. We also saw no recent boot tracks, suggesting that the Hoh Glacier approach is not frequented.