Fisher's Notch or Ranger's Pass Traverse

The experienced mountaineers when traveling between the 
Duckabush and Dosewallips use this route. The way is 
arduous but saves several miles of travel via O'Neil Pass. 
Only people adept at cross-country travel should attempt 
the route, and they should be equipped with ice axes.

Beginning at Lake LaCrosse (4750 ft/1448 m), where the 
LaCrosse Basin Trail ends, the way goes north through 
beautiful subalpine meadows, then steepens as it climbs a 
rockslide to Fisher's Notch (1.0 mi/1.6 km; 5450 ft/ 1661 
m), the low point in the ridge. Private Harry Fisher, one 
of Lieutenant O'Neil's scouts, climbed up to this spot on 
September 6,1890, while reconnoitering, and it was utilized 
by the expedition on several occasions. Today the National 
Park Service calls it Ranger's Pass because the backcountry 
personnel use the route when they are in a hurry.

Fisher's Notch is a pleasant place to have lunch. The wind 
murmurs in the mountain hemlocks, and the views are 
splendid—to the south, LaCrosse Basin is spread out below, 
with the lake in the foreground, Mount Steel, Mount 
Duckabush, and O'Neil Pass in the distance. Directly north, 
Mount Anderson rises high above White Creek Meadow, and the 
Linsley Glacier is in full view. The vista from the ridge 
to the west is still better—mountains in every direction, 
near and far. One looks across the Quinault to the north 
wall of Enchanted Valley and the Burke Range, also down the 
Quinault to Lake Quinault, a distant splotch of misty blue.

At the notch the hiker steps from the warm, sunny south 
side to the cold, shaded, north-facing slope. The route 
descends steep scree, rock slides full of loose boulders, 
and snowfields (frozen hard in the morning) to Bull Elk 
Basin, and follows down the west side of White Creek to the 
O'Neil Pass Trail at White Creek Meadow (2.0 mi/3.2 km; 
3800 ft/1158 m).