LOCALadk Magazine

44 Fall 2017 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Mt Olympus. The name alone stirs the imagination and makes one wonder what lies at its lofty summits. In Greek mythology, Olympus was home to the 12 Greek gods. To- day there's actually several mountains named Olympus: the original is the tallest mountain in Greece, but there's also Mt Olympus in Olympic National Park in Washington State, and even Olympus Mons, a giant volcano on the planet Mars. As a mountain climber, I can't resist the draw of any moun- tain with Olympus as its name. While studying in Athens, Greece for a college semester abroad, my goal was to climb all the highest points in Europe. I'm still working on that goal but I did summit Mt Olympus, along with the highest peaks of Bulgaria and Romania. Naturally, I'd also want to climb Mt Olympus in Washington State. This mountain has been on my mind since I was ver y young. When on an epic, year-long family road trip around all the national parks of the USA , I remember looking off to this highest and ver y remote peak of the Olympic range and thinking to myself that one day I'd like to return to climb it. Mt Olympus is known to be ver y challenging because it is re- mote and the weather is volatile. I've always been the type of mountaineer to appreciate remoteness and solitude over technical challenge. Two of my younger brothers, Brecken and Josiah, had suc- cessfully 'escaped' the Adirondacks and were graduating from college near Portland Oregon this past spring. So this was perhaps my last chance to capitalize on their West Coast location for a Western USA adventure with them. I hadn't done any mountaineering since the spring of 2015 and my eventful Greenland expedition in which we were caught in a massive avalanche (without wearing avi beacons) and all managed to miraculously sur vive, so I also was anxious to get out and play in the mountains again – and on a serious, goal-worthy mountain. Josiah is the most outdoorsy of my younger brothers and he was keen on my idea of tackling Mt Olympus together. We are both always busy, and so neither of us took time to do much research prior to the climb. Surprisingly, there was ver y little in the way of comprehensive trip reports online, and we failed to buy (or look for) a physical climbing guide- book. Based off little scraps of online info, we got the im- pression that Mt Olympus had a long approach, but that it was not a technically difficult peak. We figured we'd just go to the ranger station, buy maps, and get all the info we need- ed there in person. A week before my other brother, Breck- en, was getting married, Josiah and I drove up to Olympic National Park, planning on a six- to seven-day trip. There is an art to obtaining climbing information from a park ranger. In this case, we had limited knowledge about the mountain and really needed all the climb and route info from a basic level, yet we also needed to sound competent enough that the ranger wouldn't refuse to give us backcountr y climb- ing permits. In hindsight, I think the ranger was a bit overly enthusiastic in his recommendation that we attempt some more technical routes. Typically, park rangers are caution- ar y and encourage climbers to take conser vative measures, but this ranger was quite the opposite! At first, we were en- couraged by this ranger's confidence in our proposed climb- ing route, until we found out that he had never climbed Mt Olympus himself. No matter; we got our backcountr y permit, and off we went. Our planned route was to backpack in 17.4 miles up the Hoh Rainforest valley to Glacier Meadows and then ascend Mt Olympus via the classic route, which involves some glacial travel and then a straightfor ward rock climb pitch to the summit. I think the cold reality of our undertaking set in right away when we were still in the parking lot tr ying to stuff in too much food and camera gear into our overflowing packs, and stumbling over backwards from their weight (roughly 70 pounds each). In addition to backpacking and camping gear we had to carr y a full complement of glacial and rock moun- taineering equipment including rope, crampons, ice axe,

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