August 11, 2023
Introduction and Overview
My friend Lon and I have talked about doing Mount Steel for a while now. He wanted to a one-day. I prefer a two-day. In 2022 we attempted Mount Hopper in a day but it was more of an afterthought as part of a 1st Divide out and back hike. The hike to 1st Divide and back is a marathon in itself at 26.2 miles. That day, we ended up cutting short our summit attempt due to having already pushed our turn around time by an hour.
Fast forward one year and we’d already done some longer scrambles. Henderson in a day. And then Skokomish AND Stone in a day. Read about that one here. The big difference with Steel is the 12.5 mile approach from Staircase to the saddle before 1st Divide that gains about 4000′, most of the gain coming after reaching Nine-stream which is about 9.5 miles in. I didn’t take but a couple pictures of this area on this trip. It’s all trail and easy to follow. Similar to many of our trips, on this one, we camel’d up at streams and only carried water for the off-trail portion, which we got in the basin below Mount Steel.
Trip Report
Our plan was to start at daybreak and use all available light without headlamps at the end. This means getting up at 3AM and once again, I arrived at this house a little late so we left his place around 4:10AM or so. We were hiking out of Staircase by 5:37AM. We could have started by 5:15 without headlamps. We would hike, not run, but keep a good steady pace. On a previous hike, we’d made 1st Divide in just over 4 hours, so we were hoping for 4.5 to 5 hours to where we would go off-trail. It ended up taking 5.5 hours. A lot longer than expected. We took a good 20 minute break before dropping into the basin and starting our scramble.
I had a track and reviewed some reports. And of course Peggy Goldman’s, Washington Scrambles, and Olympic Mountain Climbing Guide by Olympic Mountain Rescue.
The off-trail scramble to the summit took us 5 hours round trip for less than 4 miles by way of garmin. Some brutal bushwhacking, long talus/scree field, then the upper sub-alpine meadow complete with bear crawling at times. A few little dicey moves on some horribly rotten and chossy rock to gain the final approach. The actual summit was a cake walk on small shale scree. After the summit where we once again, found no register, we went to check out the south summit. It has, in my opinion, serious exposure. It was 2PM. We were tired, and decided we didn’t need to risk it. Maybe another time. We decided to descend what would would have been climber’s right instead of the climber’s left, which is how we came up. It was a lot better. On the way up, I realized I’d forgotten my helmet at home, and really would have liked my microspikes for the veggie slope. We’ve been doing our scrambles in trail runners because of the long approaches. They work fine. Frankly, I prefer them over boots 90 percent of the time. Just occasionally I might want the ability to kick a dirt step.
On the descent, we also went far left of our uptrack to avoid some ugly bushwhacking and one kinda sketchy veggie slope down low. It turned out to be the right choice. Back in the basin, we got water and a snack and began our hike out. We were back on trail about 4:55PM.
We walked until 9:10PM before putting on headlamps. It was absolutely dark. Back at car around 10:15PM.
Stats
16.5 hours – 29 miles – 7,000′ gain.
Summary
It is my opinion this is a better 2-day scramble. But it’s doable in a day with the right conditions, meaning warm and dry weather, and lots of daylight. Go light with just enough gear for that unexpected overnight. A 2-day trip would allow grabbing Mount Hopper also. The key is to move consistent and not take super long breaks.
Every foot forward, is a step in the right direction 