The planned outing was a trip up the West Slabs of Mt Olympus, then continuing over from the north ridge to the south summit, down the hiking trail, to a shuttle vehicle at the Mt Olympus trailhead.
At 0800 on 8 Oct 2023, Mark and Paul left Paul's truck at the trailhead for the end shuttle, and then proceeded to the Olympus Cove shopping center parking lot to meet the other participants. By about 0830, all the participants had arrived and the starting brief was underway. All were recommended to take a light load, and to pack for going "up and over"; the team would not come back to the base of the technical climbing.
As an easy climbing outing, the group was split up into teams for the roped climbing of the West Slabs route. Paul led a team of 3 (Mo Mo and Thayne), Mark lead a team of 3 (Ying and Matt), and Lise and Garrett formed the last team. It was decided to improve speed and comfort on the long climbing section that Mark's team would lead, leaving most anchor setups for Paul and Lise. Paul and Lise would send recovered gear back up to Mark at subsequent pitches to replenish his gear.
We started up the approach at around 0930, making good time up the trail to the turnoff into the gully. After much hiking up the gully, we all arrived at the base of the climbing around 1100. Based on the number of soloing groups and the look of the route, we decided to climb partly in parallel up the right side of the main face.
Mark's team headed up first, establishing the first belay around 220' above the start. Paul approached second, and Lise's team came up last. The climbing was easy, and the transitions reasonably fast for teams with limited experience climbing together, and on long multi-pitch (alpine style) routes.
Due to the experience levels of some of the climbers, all 3 teams climbed the entire route as a series of belayed pitches, rather than simul-climbing the face. This slowed down progress, but with enhanced safety and greater comfort. Regardless, the 3 teams proceeded up the right side of the face, placing trad gear and building anchors every 210-230'. By around 1400, the teams were 6 pitches up (1250-1350' up), and moving well.
By choosing the right side of the wall, the teams did climb right through the blank, 5.6-5.7 portion of the West Slabs; nothing like picking the hardest line for extra points to focus the attention. After 2 pitches (400-450') of 5.6 friction on quartzite, the climbing eased back to the typical 5.3-5.4 that makes the West Slabs famous.
After 8 full pitches (1650-1850' total), the teams arrived at the classic West Slabs top out, on the west edge of the north ridge of Mt Olympus. The time was now around 1800 hrs. We still had to traverse along the north ridge, and head south to the south summit before heading down the trail to the waiting truck.
We set off along the south side of the north ridge, staying below the crest in the trees and brush, looking for the easiest route to drop into Tolcat Canyon and traverse south to the hiking trail.
Mark led the way, covering two or three times the ground of everyone else looking for the best route through the vicious trees, shrubs, and steep rock. Then it got dark, while we were spread out along the ridge for a quarter mile or more.
By around 1930 hrs, we had not reached the ridge that goes south, and had to gather in a wide spot on the north ridge. Although we had headlamps, none of us knew the best route along the ridge to the south traverse. We took stock of our condition, and our situation, and all decided to continue on to at least the south traverse. This time, we stayed in a tight group to make sure no one got lost and wandered off a dark cliff.
Another 3 hours of slowly crawling over the top of the ridge got us to a downclimb, and then steep ascent. We think this might have been the top of the Moutaineer's Route, but were unsure. Mark clambered off into the night to check out what came after the steep climb, and found a way into the south traverse!
We carefully ascended the steep climb, using hand lines and body belays as desired, and then continue on down into some large trees and wide flat spots. Spirits rose, as we must certainly be close to the south summit! Those large rocks in front of us must be the summit!
Unfortunately, no. The rock wall in front of us was not the south summit, and did not have any obvious, easy way over and beyond in the dark. Even with headlamps. After waiting for another advetnurous scout by Mark, we all decided that we could not continue in the dark; the way was too hard to find, and the terrain too steep to continue. We would have to spend the night, wait for dawn, and continue in the day light.
At least the weather was clear, with little wind, and warm temperatures. We were in a nice wide flat spot with no nearby cliffs, large trees for shelter, and dirt to suck less heat out of us than solid rock. We started getting out whatever gear we had for our unplanned bivy. It was 2300 hrs; we have 7 hours to wait. According to the GPS positions on the cell phones, we were at 8800' elevation. Since we could see the city, phones could get reception, and various family members could be reassured that all was well, even though we weren't down.
Around midnight, Paul talked to the Unified Police, Canyon Division to reassure them that our entire group was fine, we planned to stay until daylight before moving, and provide exact GPS coordinates of our bivy. Just in case. Good to know that the Canyon police will check in and make sure everything is OK.
We spent the next 7 hours trying to stay as warm as possible, tightly packed together, using whatever was at hand for insulation and padding. Garbage bags became vapor-barrier shirts, zip-loc bags became vapor-barrier socks, and rope tarps became blankets. No one slept well, and most of us didn't really sleep. The occasional roll from one side to another became an important event as everyone crunched back up to try to keep warm.
At dawn, we started to get up and move about, looking at the steep, forbidding rock walls from the darkness. What had looked nigh-impossible in the dark was actually nearly a staircase in the light. Mark led off to scout, while everyone else packed up and got ready to move. We shared out some water and food from those with extra to those without. Mark came back to report he had a way to the next rock fins, and the going was easy.
We left our bivy camp, and headed straight up the rock wall, travelling in a tight group to make sure no one had trouble from fatigue or cold. Once on top of last night's show-stopping obstacle, we found ourselves look at at least 2 more steep fins between us and the south summit.
But we could see the south summit, finally! We saw hikers on top of the summit, so know we know where to go. With some wandering, Mark found a path down one side of the first fin, around the second, and up a gully to let us get on top of the last fin. He even found a rappel station! We must be on the (a) correct path!
After shepherding everyone down the steep downclimb to the easy traverse and gully walk, we were at another short steep wall. Mark was on top, with a rope for those who wanted it. Paul went up, grabbed Garret and Mo Mo to carry ropes, and starting setting up the rappel for the group. While Mark saw to getting everyone safely up the rock climb, Paul rigged a rappel with 2 70m ropes, and then fought down the cliff to clean the ropes down the 200' rappel. At a second rappel station, Garrett brought down a third rope to allow a continuous flow down the ground. After Paul got down to the final ridge to the south summit, Garrett stayed at the second rappel station to provide a belay for the others coming down, and help transition down the ground. With this system, we got everyone down in good time, and gathered on the nice wide open ridge (west of the rappel landing).
During the rappels, a family of 4 mountain goats wandered around about 300' below our ridge, on the Neff's Caynon side. One kid and three adults frolicked down in the grass, enjoying the nice weather. A nice treat for those of us who got a chance to see them before they wandered off.
While we cleaned up the 3 rappel ropes, some free soloists came through, who happened to know people in our group! Small world. The soloists were traversing up to the south summit, then back down the north face of the south summit and back across the traverse and fins to go down the Mountaineer's Route on the north face of Mt Olympus! They kindly shared food and water with our group. They also showed us the easiest way up the north face of the south summit, so we could go up without ropes most of the way! Wonderful group that we last saw scampering over the rock ridges heading north toward the north summit.
At the top of the face, we again deployed some ropes for short sections for those who wanted a belay, and then we were all on the south summit! Finally, we had made it to the start of our descent, and it was only noon! After some photos and time spent adjusting gear, re-packing ropes, etc. we headed down the trail. Mark and Ying led the way, with Paul next since he had the key to the truck! Matt and Lise came down next, with Mo Mo, Garrett, and Thayne following.
Mark and Ying made it to the truck in around 3 hours, with Paul arriving around 30 minutes later. With the rest of the group farther behind, Paul took Mark to his car at the starting trailhead to retrieve phone, sign in sheet, etc. Ying stayed at the Mt Olympus trailhead to welcome the other people as they arrived.
After Mark and Paul returned to the Mt Olympus trailhead, it turned out that Matt and Lise had made it down just behind Paul, but didn't know what to look for and had been missed before Paul and Mark left. They got a shuttle trip to their cars in the shopping mall parking, and Paul returned to wait for the last 3 still hiking down. Garrett made it down, then Mo Mo, and finally Thayne. Fortunately, during the hike down the trail, cell coverage is reasonable and text messages and calls could keep everyone updated on progress down.
Towards the end, Andee and Greg were finishing up a hike on the Mt Olympus trail, heard the story of the unplanned bivy, and Greg volunteered to go back up the trail with water for Mo Mo. Greg escorted Mo Mo the last part of the way, getting her down a bit faster than otherwise. Thanks Greg!
Our final member got down to the waiting car at 2000 hrs on 9 Oct; ~35 hours after starting. Quite the epic from what was expected to be a 10-12 hour outing. Also, what a trip for mountaineering training - route finding in the dark with foliage; unplanned bivy at 8800'; and daylight route finding through near-vertical terrain.
Thanks to everyone who went, and let's not do that again.