I grew up in the foothills of Mount Olympus and it’s still one of my favorite Wasatch Peaks. It’s a good early morning summer outing. There are many fun ways up, and all of them provide inspiration, adventure and perspiration. Headed out for some vert with Courtney Phillips.
The 'Trailhead' is for sale. Would be nice!
The backyard is pretty sweet.
The bushwhack potential from here to the chute is high, but we managed to quickly find our way through.
- The chute is a nice stair-stepper of boulders and blocks.
A few patch's of snow remain.
The slabs are 5.5 for 11 pitch's.
We brought climbing shoes and no rope. It’s really easy climbing with holds and cracks a plenty.
Serious no-fall exposure keeps one honest.
We ran into a few of the neighbors.
Courtney almost climbed right down onto this guy.
From the top of the slab we headed for the South Summit of Oly.
2.5hrs to the top, Court is all smiles.
I don’t think he even broke a sweat? We talked Mt Oly stories for a bit and Courtney mentions he has round tripped the standard trail in 1hr 36min! Roundtrip! Seriously, try and beat that.
Trying not to fall off the summit.
Feet were a bit heavy on the way down, caught a stump and took a dive.
Good times!
1:36 is totally doable. Rumor is that Garibotti sent the east face of Teewinot in less than an hour at the beginning of his record-crushing Grand Traverse. That’s more than a vertical mile, and supremely badass to bag in less than 60 minutes.
My recipe for Oly:
1. A 2-shot mocha late enema starts the day at 5AM. Carry nothing you don’t need, if you know what I mean.
2. For those runners with lots of swinging junk, fitting it with an after market system for easy detachment is key. Pull it off and leave it at home. It’s tons of fun at a party, but you won’t need on record day.
3. Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger is compulsory during the warmup session. If you can’t roll your IT bands and sing along with every verse, you’re not ready yet.
4. Water? What’s that?
5. Oh, and lastly, do it on a busy morning. It’s very hard to slow down while trying to impress a trail full of lovely ladies. Many of them smell very nice. Do everything you can to convince yourself that they care about how fast you are, and how sexy you look in short shorts covered in sweat and blood.
Yup, that’s pretty much it. Tear it up!!!
yeah! 1:36 is super fast!!
i’ve gone 2 hrs too (with 5 min. on top).
what’s your trick Courtney?
(a bottle of water cached in the mailbox? 🙂
1:36! Damn him!!!! I’m going to have to cut out my 10 minute summit rest + run 20 minutes faster to beat that. Dang that’s fast!
I think I saw you two dinking around on the north summit that morning.