Thread: Mt Stone (6255 ft) attempt, SE Olympics, (12-3-2011)

Mt Stone (6255 ft) attempt, SE Olympics, (12-3-2011) --- estimated 9 miles with 5000 ft elev gain

I climbed the Mt Washington for the 2nd time this year about one month ago,. Because Mt Washington was one of my two favorite day climbs, I could not resist going back again with the PWCers on a week day. My other favorite day climb is the Mt Stone. This time, on the Kitap Hikers Facebook, Dane Burke who had spent legendary 50 days of continous backpacking in the Olympics wanted to climb either the Brothers Mt, Mt Skokomish, or Mt Stone. We decided to climb the Mt Stone taking advantage of the nice weather after a few weeks of rainy weekend. Although I was marginal for my qualification in winter traveling, I felt like I was qualifed since I easily climbed the Mt Stone 2 months ago and climbed a few mountains like Mt Hood, The Brothers, Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, etc. on the snow condition.

This trip was ended up as one of my toughest dayhikes without meeting my objective. I think it was my first that I did not meet my hiking objective. We needed little more time or should have advanced little quicker. We were postholing to knee deep starting at elev 3800 ft. We also went through some massive scrambling and bush wacking. We got to the South Saddle (6400 ft elev) at 1300 which was our turn around time since the sunset was at 1620. From the 6400 ft elev saddle, it's mostly scrambling up on the rock. We could see a sheet of blue ice on the way trail. A fall would be deadly. Therefore, it was a good point to turnaround.

In overall, I thourougly enjoyed this winter travel, excellent winter traveling experience, and excellent workout. Each of us conducted an ice axe self-rescue at least once (I did 2 times) but the trip was well within my comfort level. I wished I was in better physical shape. Of course, the best part was that everybody returned back unscathed.



Here is the rest of the pictures: Mt Stone attempt

Nice effort Isaac and beautiful pictures. The days are kind of short this time of year but you had a beautiful day.

Thank you for sharing.

I was wondering what Dane has been up to.

Finally got a chance to read your report Isaac. Good trip you guys did. sorry you couldn't quite make the top but looks like you had an excellent day nonetheless. I think you need to start eating 3 bananas a day for your leg cramps... LOL, just kidding. Good to see Dane back on this side of the water.

Thx Craig & Jay. Yes, it was a beautiful day and excellent experience in winter travel. I was quite slow because of my leg cramps. Maybe, my leg cramps prevented us going up those dangerous and icy cliff.....One of us had microspikes only, so it was probably best not to try that icy cliff.