The vertical band of snow down the center of the image is the Elwha Snowfinger. Immense amounts of snow fall each winter as a result of the storms coming off the Pacific and being wrung out by rising up the Queets Valley Rainforest. The snow from the surrounding hillsides slides down into the valley and piles up and provides the headwater of the Elwha River. It is one of the main routes into or (usually) out of the Bailey Range … which runs down the center of the Olympic National Park, east of Mount Olympus.
This is the view of the Snowfinger from just below it in the Elwha Basin. The low point in the ridge is Dodwell-Rixon Pass.
This was about as far as I have gotten up the Snowfinger. I would have really liked to have gone further, but I had slipped on wet rocks and fell … banging up my ankle and calf. The injuries themselves weren’t incapacitating, except for mentally. At this point you are over 30 miles away from the nearest help. It was a huge disappointment to turn around and head back.
Magnificent!
Yes, indeed, Egidio. I like that spot as much as any in the park.