Olympus Push In A Day
I completed my first ultra trail running/mountaineering experience on a whim and spontaneously. Luckily, I had two pretty great people to spend the 14 hours and 43 minutes with. Myself, my husband, Adam, and our great friend, Emilio took on the challenge at 1 AM with headlamps. We cruised through the morning going over technical roots and tree crossings. Mile 14 was the start of the elevation where we maintained a quick hiking pace and made it up to Glacier Meadows in 4 hours and 53 minutes. We took a nice bathroom and snack break before starting up again. The ascent up to Blue Glacier and the Snow Dome was rather sloggish for me, however, nothing could excite me more than seeing the summit of Mount Olympus for the first time. The 4th class ledges were as enjoyable as what I imagined they would be as we made it up in 8 hours and 17 minutes. A fun descent back down the mountain came next as I was mentally preparing for the next half of our adventure. Once we hit Glacier Meadows again, it was go time. We started out at a quick pace as we cruised back down to Elk Lake and Lewis Meadows. At this point, my gumby-ness for this ultra marathon/mountaineering was beginning to show itself. A state of moderate delusion took over me as I realized my water and food intake throughout the day probably was not sufficient. After a few water stops, electrolyte beans, and energy goos, a 2nd wind took over my body. Adam and I pushed the pace as we felt good and met up with our buddy, Emilio. All three of us finished together, in shock at what our bodies could do.
Emilio wrote up an amazing trip report that can be found here: https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/104459-tr-olympic-national-park…
Here is a recap of our splits during the day that is listed in the report as well:
- 0:33 mins Mt Tom
- 1 hour Five Mile Island
- 2:06 Ranger’s Station
- 2:17 Lewis Meadows
- 3:17 Elk Lake/High Bridge
- 4:53 Glacier Meadows
- 8:17 SUMMIT
- Joyful Delusional Blur
- 6:27 down
And of course, the combination of trail running, snow travel, and rock climbing has me wanting to come back for more (even though with 9 miles to go and while in a moderately delusional state, I told Adam, "I've never wanted to be done with anything more than what I do now.")