Inner Constance — June 22 - 23, 2002

  1. view to the north from camp with Constance on the rightview to the north from camp with Constance on the right
  2. view to the south from campview to the south from camp
  3. view to the east from the Inner Constance ridgeview to the east from the Inner Constance ridge
  4. view to the west from the Inner Constance ridgeview to the west from the Inner Constance ridge
  5. side-stepping across the ridgeside-stepping across the ridge
  6. Constance, North ChuteConstance, North Chute
  7. scouting return routescouting return route
  8. Rex traversing the east face of Inner Constance, north summitRex traversing the east face of Inner Constance, north summit
  9. Inner Constance summitInner Constance summit
  10. back at trailhead--only 3.5 miles to the carsback at trailhead--only 3.5 miles to the cars
  11. topographic maptopographic map
Photo #5 by Nathan Ehresman.
Inner Constance (7,667')
June 22 - 23, 2002, Olympic National Park

Nathan and I took the ferry to Bainbridge and drove down Rt. 101 to Brinnon where we met Rex and Brian. On account of the Dosewallips Road being washed out we had to hike an extra three and a half miles to reach the Lake Constance trailhead. We hiked up to Lake Constance and continued on to a flat area in the valley at about 4,600'. It had been a clear balmy day but the forecast for the following day was for cloudy weather. As we were eating dinner we saw a party descending from the Constance ridge. It was a party of Tacoma Mountaineers led by Steve Townsend. They had climbed Constance by the South Chute and had traversed the ridge and were returning to their camp at Lake Constance.

On Sunday we woke at 4:30am to clear skies and were moving a little after 5am. Rex had scouted the approach the day before and had seen a gully with a stream running down it that we could ascend and get onto the Inner Constance Ridge. We scrambled up the gully and onto a flat area south of the Thumb. Instead of going straight north toward I-Constance and ascending via a gully on the east face we decided to follow a ridge traverse route. We ascended a westward-running gully up to a gap in the ridge and onto the west side of the ridge.

Next, we traversed north. The route alternated between rock scrambling and kicking steps in soft snow on the steep slope. It had been a clear day so far but the cloud cover was rolling in. Eventually we came to the south summit at 7,500'. From there it did not look like there was a good route to the north summit but Rex scouted ahead and followed a ledge across the east face. We traversed the face to the north side of the mountain and scrambled to the summit. Unfortunately, by then visibility was poor.

We descended via a steep snow gully to the east of Inner Constance. We faced into the slope and laboriously kicked steps on account of the poor run-out. Eventually the terrain became moderate enough to plunge-step and we made our way down to the valley and turned southward to our camp. The hike back to the car was grueling.