mount olympus

I'm writing this on Monday and my quadriceps are killing me.  So are my calves.  My knees hurt a lot yesterday.  All this is because I got it into my head that we should climb Mount Olympus on Sunday.

I just love the sky out here

Mount Olympus is a pretty big mountain, visible from our house, located between Millcreek and Big Cottonwood Canyons.  It's quite busy because of the location but most of the foot traffic is limited to the lower part of the hike because this puppy is steep.  It's seven miles round-trip, with 4,060 feet of elevation gain (that's comparable to Mt. Washington for you east-coasters), starting from 4,966 at the trailhead.  Our book said this about it:

Physically, it's a steep, demanding trail capped by a Class 3 scramble to the rocky summit where exceptional views await ... [i]t's not the final rock scramble, but the steep trail to the saddle that eliminates unconditioned and unprepared hikers.

The book also said that hiking time would be 5-7 hours and at this we scoffed, seeing how we regularly and easily beat the predicted hiking times.  This hike?  Took us just under 6 hours with twenty minutes at the summit.  It is so steep that our descending time equaled our ascending time; the footing is difficult and rocky for much of the trail to the saddle, combined with having to walk on soft snow and in seasonal creekbeds adding to the slipperiness.  This was by far the most difficult hike we've done since we've been out here, but oh, was it ever worth it.

Looking east/south towards Big Cottonwood Canyon

Although the ascent to the saddle is long and steep, it's quite beautiful, switching in and out of gambel oak groves and following the stream in Tolcat Canyon.  The view off the back of the saddle (east and south) into the Mount Olympus Wilderness area is amazing, steep cliffs and dramatic crags dressed in conifers.  But just because you get to the saddle doesn't mean you're done - not if you want to summit.

That's Utah Lake out there behind me

Most of the people we saw hiking with their dogs - Tolcat Canyon is not a protected watershed so dogs are allowed, and the abundance of water, at least this time of year, makes it a good (if challenging) dog hike - did not attempt the summit.  The "scramble" is extremely steep, with loose scree underfoot in some places while others entailed clambering up slabs and over boulders with handholds often over my head.  The scramble trail is not well-marked and the book just says to retrace your steps and try again if you find yourself in an impassable spot.

View to the north/west, with the city and Antelope Island

The views from the top (still snow-covered) are spectacular, 360 degrees.  You can see the Uintas to the east, into the Cottonwood Canyons and down to Utah Lake to the south, over the Oquirrhs to the Stansbury Mountains to the west, and up to Francis Peak to the north.  We picked the best weather of the weekend to do this hike and everything was just glorious. 

H, pausing in his descent to take in the view

The descent, as I mentioned, took a while.  The scramble down ended up not being as bad as we feared, although we did have to back down in a couple of places.  From the saddle back to the trailhead seemed interminable, however, due to the sketchy footing in (many) places and by the time we'd gotten back to the car, our knees were screaming and we were beginning to feel as though we'd been out in the sun a little too long.

Right on!

We stopped in at the Hog Wallow, sitting inside at the bar rather than out on the patio (see above re: too much sun), to rehydrate and recap the day.  I think the bartender must have thought we were goofballs because I'm pretty sure we grinned at each other like fools the whole time we were there, feeling a little like gods for having conquered Olympus.