THE OLYMPIC MOUNTAIN PROJECT, PART II By Nate Brown, 7-year member and U.S. army veteran
Nate at Goat Lake below North Petunia Peak. All photos courtesy of Nate Brown.
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tanding on the edge of the water in my camp sandals, boots and pants stowed safely inside my pack, I look longingly across the river. I wish I could teleport myself instead of wading through the bitterly-cold, swift-moving water. It’s June 2021, and the Pacific Northwest’s unseasonable heatwave is melting the snowpack, sending it rushing down the mountain river valleys in record volume. When I take my first step, my toes cry out. I know a steady pace is the best way to cross, and I do my best to block out the pain as I wade deeper and deeper into the river. The river is maybe 30 feet across, but I can’t see the bottom. The water gets deeper, first chilling my kneecaps, then the bottom of my merino wool boxer-briefs. “Damnit, this is my only pair of underwear!” I think to myself, knowing this is just the second day in a 5-day trip into the Olympics. I’m nearly halfway across the river when the water jumps above my belly button. “Oh, hell no! Nope, nope, nope!” I say, this time out loud. I turn abruptly and head back toward the shore. This trip will have to wait. The water is too deep.
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mountaineer | spring 2022
Welcome back to the Olympics In the fall 2020 edition of Mountaineer magazine, I shared an article on my Olympic Mountain Project, a quest to climb 30 peaks in the Olympics. I designed the list based on which peaks I felt best highlighted the diversity of the range while covering the most ground. The project supported the goal I set as an Army Non-Commissioned Officer when I was first transferred to Joint Base Lewis-McChord: to spend more time in the mountains. I’d completed 10 climbs at the time of publication, which coincided with the end of climbing season. Then Olympic National Park (ONP) closed in early 2020 due to the pandemic, and my project went on indefinite hold. Stuck indoors, I looked at ways I could make up for lost time. I poured over topographic maps, looking for ways to link ridgelines and valleys together. I wanted to have steady access to water, bail out points, and potential campsites mapped out. To move faster, I obsessively weighed and scrutinized my gear to lighten my pack as much as possible. I had 20 peaks to go, and I wanted to be ready. Once ONP opened in July 2020, I hit the ground running. My first mission took me to three mountain objectives over
