An easy scramble to the panorama view of interior olympic peaks and sea to summit view.
Chutang and I wanted to do something chill this Sunday, so we chose to tag Mount Angeles. We started at 10:40 am from the Switchback trailhead. There weren't many cars, and we easily found a parking spot. The temperature in Seattle this weekend hit 80 degrees, which left us toasted in mountaineering boots.
The approach to the base of the climb is straightforward. From the trailhead, it's around 1.1 miles before you leave the traverse trail and follow the climbers' trail to the base of the climb. There are patches of snow on the trail, but most of it was dry and in good condition.
When we finally left the trail, the route became obscure and we needed some route finding. We used a GPS track and other people's footsteps to navigate, generally following the path of least resistance. The route to the summit alternated between rock and snow. Surprisingly, the snow got quite steep near the top. By my measurement, the slope angle was around 45 to 60 degrees, which forced us into a face-in downclimb. Luckily, the snow wasn't too hard or too soft, so we were able to kick steps in. An ice axe is strongly recommended here.
The view from the top is spectacular. You can see the entire interior range of the Olympic mountains as well as the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We took a long rest at the summit and went down uneventfully. The whole trip took us 4 hours and 30 minutes.
