Mt Olympus – 7980′- Summit Day

One of the things we found out fairly quickly was that our guides did not have the luxury of getting any up to date route information from fellow guides. A typical summit day would include rising around midnight and climbing to take advantage of firmer snow conditions. With the “advertised” summit day being 9 – 13 hours, this would theoretically put the team on the summit for sunrise and then a quick descent would put the team back at camp before noon. But, because our guides had not been on the mountain for several years and did not have any current rout information, we left at 3am so they could actually see the route once we crossed over the Blue Glacier.

Once we were on the trail we wound up through the forest with headlamps for about an hour until we reached a feature called the “Lateral Moraine.” In layman’s terms this would best be described as the rocky walls that hold the sides of the glacier. It was an easy walk on the ridge of the moraine, then we dropped about 1,000′ through the rocks and scree to access the Blue Glacier.

Alan and Tatum assessing the route off the Blue Glacier up to the Snow Dome.
Still pretty dark and the photo shows one of the crevasses in the glacier (in front of Steve) that we need to carefully navigate over. Our route ended up traversing up and across the rocks that are basically above Steve’s head in the photo.
Ambro taking pictures of ice worms in the glacial pools. The trail on the lateral moraine as it drops down to the glacier is just visible over on the far side of the glacier.
In this photo you can see a party of 4 that was about an hour behind us. This was one of the IMG groups. Turns out that they obviously knew up to date route beta as they ended up passing us on the Snow Dome and arriving at the summit block easily an hour before us.
Looking up to some of the features jutting out of the Blue Glacier. As the sun rose we saw the turquoise colored pools that give the glacier its name. If you look closely, you can see three tents in the snowfield in the foreground.

After some deliberation, it was determined that we would need to remove our crampons and climb about 1,000′ over a rock feature.

Time for a break at the top of the rock scramble.

Once we were at the top of the rocks the climbing started in earnest. Earlier in the season it would be a relatively easy “walk” up the Snow Dome as the entire route would have been snow. Due to the lateness of this trip, about 3/4 of the snow had melted off the Snow Dome to reveal huge stretches of blue ice. Typically one would have multiple ice tools and different boots to try and tackle a 45degree ice wall. As we didn’t have the right tools, we opted to place snow pickets and use a running rope belay to get everyone up safely, picking our way around the visible ice.

Alan weaving through the sections of blue ice to place snow pickets.

As we were on a “mission” and it was close to being almost eight hours before we even saw the summit, I sadly didn’t take many photos. My tentmate (Jesse) was snapping a few shots and so if I am in any shots, credit to Jesse!

Lateral Moraine and Blue Glacier far below as we approached the summit block.
One of the last breaks before we approached the summit. The guides were keeping an eye on the weather front that was moving in behind us.
Navigating another crevasse after we went through Crystal Pass.
“Short-roped” for safety approaching the summit saddle.
Independent group of six climber’s that ended up being “convinced” that our group could move fast and they needed to let us go first. HMMM
Alan and Tatum setting the route for our team.
Jesse and Steve getting ready to head up.

Once we got to the snow ramp that lead to the last 80′ of the summit, basically chaos ensued. Several groups were on top and were trying to rappel down as our group pushed its way past a group that was already waiting to climb to the summit. I took one look at the situation and decided I was not going to go to the top. So, no, I did not summit Mt Olympus but got within 80′ and I felt fine about it! It turns out that our “quick” turn at the rock wall turned into almost two hours. I would totally understand if the independent group actually filed a complaint – I would have … Anyways, the rest of the team made it to the top and then without much fanfare, we started the descent.

Lots of clouds started to swirl in while I was waiting at the saddle.
West Summit – I supposed I could have wandered over there as there was an obvious trail but I told Alan and Tatum that I would stay put.
Photo from the summit saddle.
Second group heading down the Snow Dome.
Just about to the bottom of the Snow Dome
Lots of rockfall evident on the sides of the glacier – reason enough not to spend a lot of time on the glacier!
Navigating down through the icy Blue Glacier on tired feet seemed close to impossible and endless!
Close up view of the terrain.
Jesse just about to step off the glacier for the 1,000′ climb back up to the top of the Lateral Moraine.

We finally made it back to camp at 7:00pm and had about an hour to rest and then we had dinner and went to bed. It turned out to be a 16 hour summit day, which in my books was the second hardest summit day only to that of Denali. CRAZY! Many of the guidebooks say “Don’t underestimate the effort to get to the summit of Mt Olympus.” No kidding … at a “short” 7980′ it would be dwarfed by the mountains in our local Wasatch Range but when Mom commented that I should try again next year with a different guide group my response was an immediate “NO!” HAHA

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