Having failed to summit Mount Olympus during my trip with Bonnie, I've been going crazy to head back up there and conquer this mountain! :) So, with the day f ree and the weather ABSOLUTELY PERFECT I decided to do just that. The Mount Olympus hike is extremely popular (and sometimes that's okay) but the majority of hikers don't go all the way to the summit (some only go to the stream crossing, others just to the saddle below the summits). The entire hike is 6.2 miles round trip, but it is quite steep, with a 4200 feet gain/loss in only 3 miles. Once I reached the point where Bonnie and I stopped a couple of weeks ago, the trail gets much steeper, and with very rapid and narrow switchbacks works its way up Tolcats Canyon until you reach the saddle, about 0.2 miles from the south summit. This part of the climb is not for the lazy, as it is very steep and unforgiving (2 days later, my thighs and calves are still hurting!). The saddle is very pretty, and while not particularly wide, the views are awesome, and it's not so hard to understand why some hikers would stop here and not continue on to the summit. From the saddle, the trail turns due north and you immediately hit the rocky base of the south summit. From here you have to scramble up a very steep (and at times, quite scary), ill-defined trail the last 500 feet (in less than 0.1 miles!). So far, this is far and away the steepest trail I've done in Utah, and it does occasionally require both hands to make it to the top.
The view from the summit makes the nerve-wracking effort to reach it well worthwhile. Like most peaks in this area over 8500 feet, the top is mostly a pile of jagged rocks and boulders, but you really feel like you're on top of the world. From the top you can see much of Salt Lake City lies below, and the full expanse of the Wasatch Mountains stretches to the east. Lone Peak, Twin Peaks, and Dromedary Peak are clearly visible to the south, across the Cottonwood Canyons. To the north the summit drops off sharply into the upper reaches of Tolcats Canyon, beyond which, less than 300 yards away is the north summit of Mount Olympus. The north summit (67 feet lower than the south summit) looks so close you could reach out and touch it, but the very deep and narrow cleft between the two clearly belies that notion. :)
This was actually one of the most entertaining and enjoyable hikes I've done. I had the fortune of spending a good portion of the time with other people (a couple from Salt Lake named Gary and Louise) as wall a group of students from Brigham Young University, whose company and conversation I truly enjoyed. Although I generally prefer solitude when I hike, in this case I was very happy to share my day with these wonderful people. I took many pictures of the BYU students at their request (to email later), and have included a few below. All in all an awesome hike that I highly recommend -- however, don't make the mistake of thinking "popular" means "easy". This is a serious hike, with some serious payoff (in views) at the end!
