Elwha Basin / Martins Lakes '13,  Olympic National Park,  Sep 17, 2013 - Sep 22, 2013     page 44 / 113

The Snow Hump is a particularly large hill in the snowfinger. Winter avalanches from Mt Queets collect here, producing the larger accumulation of snow. It is a minor challenge under good conditions. My understanding, is that it is generally better to circumnavigate the hump in late season.

I proceeded along the trail a half mile or so. As the meadow ceded to steep terrain, lacking any vegetation, I dropped down to the snow. I wanted to avoid thin areas of snow, and those areas where I could hear water flowing underneath. I hiked up the snowfinger a few hundred yards, rounded the bend and ran into a problem. From my position all the way to the Snow Hump, the edge of the snowfinger moved away from the soil slope, providing me no safe exit, at least on the north side. I had no intention of walking across to the south side of the finger. That was asking for trouble.

I didn't want to attempt climbing over the steep snow hump. Though I had an ice axe, I felt it was still too risky. I backtracked, exited the snow and worked my way up the meadow, looking for a game trail which might lead me through some slide alder and a band of fir trees.

Passage through was probably straightforward, but I didn't find it. Perhaps I was a bit too concerned about the rain forecast for the following day. I had already resigned myself to staying in the Queets Basin area, rather than trying to hike all the way to Ferry Basin and back over the coming few days. But with the forecast for poor weather, and the difficulty I was seeing along the snowfinger, I thought it might be best not to be stuck in the remote high country when that weather system hit.

I elected to turn around at this point and move on to plan B.