Mount Olympus is one of the mountains along the Wasatch front and is part of the skyline in the Salt Lake area. I grew up in the Salt Lake valley and always viewed Mount Olympus as the first "big" mountain in the line of mountains I could see. This is all relative of course, even the smaller ones dwarf the ones you can see from Boise. As a teenager I lived for a while in Murray Utah and had the view of Mt Olympus seen to the lower left (the picture is from my old High School about a mile from where I lived, it was a smoky day so the picture is not too clear but you get the idea).

        As teenagers my brother and I (I was 14, he was 12) actually made a couple of attempts to climb this beast. We rode our bikes the ten miles and bush-wacked our way as far up as we could. It never occurred to us that there may be a trail. It never occurred to us to bring water. It never occurred to us that climbing mountain facing west in the middle of a July afternoon was not very bright. It never occurred to us to tell our parents where we were going... We didn't make it too far up the mountain. duh.

        Fast forward a few (a few few :) years... My brother and I both live in Boise, my sister in Texas. We were all on vacation at the Snowbird ski resort in the little Cottonwood canyon area (thanks to our mom for renting a few condos for us all to meet!) this is actually a very nice area with a Tram that will take you to a peak at 11,000 feet where you can hike down. There are also many hiking trails, restaurants, and a new alpine slide opening in September of 2003. This is a very good place for a summer weekend getaway from Boise.

        My brother had moved back to Salt Lake for a few years and worked for the USGS while he was there building maps of the area. His knowledge of the area seems to have improved since he was twelve. He also had done the hike we could not make as teenagers. While talking about activities to do while we were at Snowboard my sister suggested we do the climb. So... we did! Specifically we hiked to the peak on the right in both pictures. The picture to the left I shot while driving because I did not know how smoky the other one would turn out to be. It also shows more of the path we followed (best guess outlined)

The hike up

        We did not exactly prepare well for this hike. In fact we made some of the same mistakes we had made years ago. We were hiking on an august day where the it was expected to reach 100 degrees.  We also only brought one backpack so one person would have to carry all the water. This resulted in us not taking enough water and one person being saddled with carrying the full load. The plan was to start climbing at about 7:30am, however we didn't get going until almost 8:45am. Still pretty early but you could see the shadow of the mountain on the city moving towards us fast.

        The trail divides up into three portions. The first part is mostly out into the open and is a series of switchbacks with little cover from the sun. Lots of  rock and mostly uphill though the grade isn't too bad. There are many patches of small gamble oak trees as you can see in the first picture to the left.

        The second part is MUCH more steep and a large part of it goes though a fairly dense area of the oak trees. They are a bit larger here so a good share of the sun is blocked. There are no switchbacks here and it is up ALL the way. We were having to take breaks every 5-10 minutes here.  I was really finding the hike difficult here and I went though my first bottle of water (we each had 1.5 bottles of water). There are a couple of streams you cross here but these are seasonal and were not running when we did the climb. This really disappointed my brother as it seemed to be a great joy to stop and soak your feet on the way back down.

        The third part is a scramble up a very vertical rocky part of the mountain. But before that you do reach a local summit. This is a very pretty area with many trees and even an area that has been used as a camp site. At this point your elevation gain has been more that 3000 feet and you have gone over 3 miles. The rest of the hike is actually only .2 miles but over 700 feet of elevation gain.

        We ran into a few people on the way up (they were on their way down) and this seemed to be their destination point. I believe many people do not complete the scramble portion as the trail goes several directions from people exploring the local summit. If this is as far as you go it is still well worth the climb.

      The image below was not taken from the top. It is two pictures taken from the local summit I stitched together. The great Salt Lake can be seen to the upper right (downtown is just out of the picture). Kennecott copper, the largest open pit mine in the world, can be seen to the left on the opposite mountains.

       The final climb is a near vertical climb of 500-600 feet. The picture here makes it look worse than it felt at the time. It requires you to use your hands and your feet to make it but at no time did I feel like I was taking a huge chance.

        You really need to pay attention to the trail here. Its easy to get into areas where if you keep going you are getting in over your head. You can always move back and try another route, it is possible to get to the top without feeling like you are a goner if you fall! This happened several times to us as because it is mostly rock and the trail is not readily apparent.

       We had one small incident on the way down.  The other three were hiking down just below me when I slid and sent down about a dozen small boulders. Trent (in the red) was in a small enclave and was the lucky recipient of the boulders.

        The top does exist! For the most part the summit itself consists of a bunch of large boulders. You get the impression you are walking on a big rock pile. You would think a giant dump truck had dumped its load. I was expecting mostly solid rock.

        The views needless to say are spectacular in all directions. You can see almost from Provo to Salt Lake City. The Great Salt Lake, Kennecott copper, and numerous large mountain behind you. The pictures turned out great but doesn't really do justice to being there.

        I have read several other reports for mount Olympus and they all say that many people climb to the top and that it is not uncommon to have a dozen people there when you get there. While we did run into other people climbing down it did not appear anyone was making the final 500-600 feet of the climb. We were the only ones at the top while I was no evidence (read: garbage) of anyone else. If you make your way towards the back of the summit there are dates scraped into some of the rocks (the oldest I found was 1967). I imagine if you go on a Saturday or in the spring you may have company at the top. I really was amazed at how pristine the entire trail is being right at the edges of a million people.

Going Back Down

        The main memory I have going down was that we were all THIRSTY! You always think going up as the killer but going down is its own precious torture. On one rest stop we had a conversation about how much we would pay for a Big Gulp. We agreed 10 dollars would be a fair price at about halfway down the mountain. Our first stop on the way back was in fact a seven-eleven and the lines were LONG in the store. I FINISHED a 32 ounce drink (ok, filled to the top with ice) before I paid for it. Good thing I brought a refill :)

        Final verdict? Very well worth it but bring lots of water and rest often!