Alpine Scramble - Lena to Putvin Traverse and Mount Skokomish

Trip Report

I obtained a backcountry camping permit by calling the Olympic National Park wilderness center and requesting Hamma Hamma cross country and Hagen Lake. Upper Lena is a quota area but a mile past it, is open country with no quotas. I actually had 2 nights for Upper Lena that we ultimately reallocated. 

The plan was to do a loop from Lena Lake trailhead in 3 days, with the option to scramble various peaks along the way, time permitting.

Day 1 started at Lena Lake trailhead at 8:30AM. It was predicted to be a hot day, and it was definitely hot. And humid too. We ascended the 7.5 mile long trail gaining 4,000' to Upper Lena Lake, arriving at 1:00PM. The last 1.5 to 2 miles of trail is more boot path than trail. There are plenty of sights to keep our minds occupied, like this rather large tree.

We took an extended break and enjoyed the time at the lake, and discussed the option to scramble Mt. Bretherton and Mt Lena. We quickly ruled out Mt. Lena, even though it would be on our way, because of southern full sun exposure. We were already feeling it. Our thermometer read 80 degrees. While Bretherton is a fun scramble, we estimated our arrival time at camp would be much later than desired so we opted to just continue to camp and be rested for day 2. 

On the west side of Upper Lena Lake we picked up the Scout Lake trail. The trail is pretty easy to follow but also quite overgrown in spots. It's a great ridge traverse with fantastic views of the west side of Bretherton.

While it didn't require serious navigation skills, it was still slow going. Lots of ups and downs, brush bashing, and did I mention it was hot. And slowed even further by an abundance of the sweetest wild blueberries ever. The entire 3 miles of way-trail was blueberry heaven.

We arrived at camp near a small lake above Scout Lake and made camp. We could see St. Peters gate. We ended the day with 10.5 miles and 5,000' gain in 9 hours. While cowboy camping was preferred given the the clear warm night, the protective layer of a tent kept the ravenous mosquitoes at bay. 

Day 2. Even though we were up and making coffee early, we took it a bit too leisurely and began hiking around 8:30AM.

It had been a clear night and quite warm. It was only a mile to where the way-trail ended the the scrambling in the old glacial basin began. It turned out to be more challenging than expected. I'd done the full 22 mile loop last year  in a single 16 hour push on a private trip. That write up is here.  But the difference of heavier packs with overnight gear and food, heat, and even less snow made it slower. Last year my private trip went up the loose scree. We wanted to avoid causing rocks to rain down, so chose the spine on climbers right. It was the correct choice. There was far less snow this year. Last year we traversed at the top of the snow finger, but this year it looked terrible, so we crossed the snow finger low on a very shallow angle, nearly flat to take large talus up on climbers left. It was great for about ½ the talus. But the upper section was loose like scree and not fun at all. Somehow we spent 5 hours getting to the top of the saddle from camp. 

The blue line was last year. The red line was our route this trip. The best would be redline to top of spine then blue to the saddle about where they cross.  

After a short break and photos at St Peters Gate, we descended most of the way to Lake of Angels and crossed the ridge toward Mt Hopper. There is a non-trivial downclimb of about 20'.

After the down climb and steep loose scree, there is a roughly ¾ mile traverse to the saddle above Hagen Lake. The traverse is a varitey of terrain.

At the beginning of the day, we had expected to make camp and tag Mount Hopper. Again, it ended up taking about 5 hours to make the saddle above Hagen Lake so Hopper was off the table.There was a great water source streaming off from the west side of Mount Stone, and just 200 yards from our saddle, so we opted to camp there instead of the lake. With a little breeze it would help beat down the bugs, which weren't too bad until about dinner time. 

The great stone arrow points to Mount Hopper and First Divide. A durable camping spot is visible. 

Amazingly, we only made 5 miles on day 2. Some challenging terrain and heat really slowed us down. The stats of 5 miles and 2200' gain just didn't make sense for another 9 hour day. 

Over dinner we decided that we'd tag, or attempt to tag Mount Skokomish before dropping to the road and car. 

Day 3 we got a better start. The plan was to go to the saddle to access the contour around the backside of Mount Skokomish, tag the summit and descend to Lake of Angels and then down the trail to the road. And that's what we did.

The red line shows our general path. It's pretty straightforard to the saddle. We stayed high above Lake of Angels to the saddle. The contour around the SE face of Skokomish is a bit challenging but mostly class 2. We used a low/mid path versus going up high to a headwall. 

Ascending to the saddle

Picking our way along the slope to Skokomish

Finally on the rotten rock, but at least there is some grip, unlike the loose kittly liitter on the slope below.

Summit of Skokomish

Looking at the ridge, and north face that makes up Mt Skokomish, with Mt Stone (2 bumps) on the left and in the far distance, the Brothers.

Returning to the saddle we dropped into the gully and avoided the loose side hill option. It was much better to go low. 

We took a break in the saddle , tagged a little bonus peak just above it, and headed down. 

Descending the Lake of Angels Trail

Happy to be off that brutally steep Lake of Angels trail.

We were hoping to find a ride to our car and avoid a 4 mile road walk. Unfortunately, we didn't get back to the road until 8PM, and by that time only one car was at the Lake of Angels Trailhead. We assumed it belonged to a couple at Lake of Angels. But soon  our luck would change, after 2 miles of road walking, a car came from behind. Some hikers ended up exiting late from Mildred Lakes. I was able to get a ride to our car and return for the rest of the team. 

It had been a long day, and even longer 3-day weekend. We were stoked to have completed the route and tagged Mount Skokomish. It was my second time up and Jean's and Drew's first time. We also got a bonus peak near the Skokomish saddle.

This is a fantastic area and route with lots of options and variations, and six to eight peaks that could be scrambled, including Bretherton, Lena, East Lena, Stone, Skokomish, Bretherton, Hopper, Jabberwocky Ridge and the bonus peak we did. And possibly other bonus peaks. 

Once we left the Lena Lake trail we had the wilderness to ourselves, with exception of seeing a few people in the distance such as Lake of Angels. The bugs weren't that bad. 

A highly recommended route for those with the skills to take on St Peter's gate. Some choose to go earlier in the season with more snow and snow gear, and the opposite direction.

Map