Mt. Olympus

Mt. Olympus is one of the prominent mountains in the Salt Lake Valley. For my sister Sarah's birthday, she wanted to climb to the top. Her mother-in-law offered to watch her kids and mine so we could both climb it together. We had a mountaineering guru (friend of Sarah's) who came with us (thankfully!). She warned us that it was pretty steep and said we should dress very lightly in work-out clothes. Boy, was she right!

The mountaintop has an elevation of just over 9,000 ft. and the trail head is at about 4,000 feet. So, the trail is only 3.1 miles long, but you climb 5,000 feet to the top, so it's super steep. It was HARD. VERY HARD. The 5K felt more like at least 10K. I thought I was in decent shape, but I've clearly not adapted to the higher altitude here, so at times my breathing sounded very whistle-y. The views were breathtaking though and so when I took breaks, it was very rewarding to look around at all of the scenery. This photo was taken of us along the trail. We saw one rattlesnake slithering through the brush, just off the trail. That was kind of cool! The last stretch of the hike took us bouldering over rocks, using our hands and feet. As I was going up I thought, "I hope I can get back down this b/c I am sooo not ready to die." Once we reached the top and I sat down, my legs started severely cramping- charlie horse style. I was dancing a jig like a crazy person trying to get the pain to go away!!! I wish I had video footage of that! The top was very rocky- definitely not the kind of place you can lay out a blanket for a picnic. The view was truly incredible. It was definitely worth all the hard work!

Heading down the mountain was the hardest part for me. I guess because my quadriceps were already feeling fatigued, the steep decline made me walk like an old person. I wasn't breathing hard, but I felt zapped of energy. I had already drank 80 oz. of water and I still felt very thirsty. I started feeling nauseous and dry-heaving and my head felt really, really hot. Our mountaineering friend got some muddy water from a stream and dripped it over my head and then Sarah carried my backpack and I felt 10X better and finished the hike strong! We were gone a total of 7 hrs. and hit a 7-11 on the way home. I know I looked and smelled like Pigpen from Charlie Brown, but I had no pride at that point and the cherry slushie never tasted so good!!!

When I got home my quads, feet, and toes started severely cramping again and I couldn't get them to stop. Mark did some on-line searching about heat exhaustion and we discovered that my cramps were from a sodium deficiency- I guess I sweated out too much sodium on the hike. So, he warmed me a cup of tomato soup and my cramps were gone within a half hour!

This hike definitely stretched me. It was the hardest thing I've done in a long time- maybe ever! It just makes me want to get in better shape and take Mark up there next time. And for any of you brave enough to visit, maybe I can be your tour guide one day too!