Mount Olympus Alpine Climb

Lat/Lon: 52.48°N, 117.9°W
Mount Olympus (yes, there are many mountains named Olympus) is part of the
glaciated high alpine group located at the head of Fryatt Valley south of Jasper
Natonal Park in the Canadian Rockies. It was first ascended by Hickson, Palmer
and Fuhrer in 1926. Due to the long approach in, this mountain sees minimal
summits. The long summit ridge extends from the top of the NW face to a high
point above the col to the east that Olympus shares with Xerxes. Both published
alpine routes, North-West Ridge Alpine II, 5.6 and North-West Couloir Alpine III,
traverse the mountain from the Olympus-Parnassus col to the Olympus-Xerxes col.

Getting There
Follow the Columbia Icefields Parkway 31 km south of Jasper to the Athabasca
Falls turnoff on your right. Follow the Althabasca Parkway 1.1 km to the Geraldine
Lakes Road on your left. Drive along this road for 2.1 km to a sign posted trail
leading left (east) toward the Athabasca River. This is where you park and either
hike or bike in to the Lower Fryatt Campground 11.4 km. Pick your poison. Biking
with a 65lb pack on single track is no joy, but it is faster than hiking. Another option
is to portage the river saving about 6 or 7 km off of this trial.   I biked in. Leave your
bike at the Lower Fryatt Campground and proceed on the trail as it follows Fryatt
Creek west for a total of 22 km past the Brussels campground, Fryatt Lake,
Headwall campground, Fryatt Creek Falls and finally to the Sidney Vallance Hut
gaining several thousand feet of elevation. This hut serves as a great base for
considerable variation in alpine climbing. My group planned a week back here. I
know few climbers willing to hike 22 km for one mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

Red Tape
Jasper National Park is one of four Canadian National Parks adjoined in the heart
of the Canadian Rockies. You will need a Parks Canada pass for your vehicle and
that is obtained as you enter the park(s) from any direction. You will also be
required to obtain a backcountry permit. As always in this neck of the woods, you
are in bear country and need to hike and camp appropriately. The mosquitoes are
actually more of a problem though.

When to Climb
This is a summer area, best to climb from July through September. The Canadian
Rockies Summit Alpine Ski Tour book does not mention any of these Fryatt Valley
Peaks as objectives, however, ski touring is encouraged from the Sydney Vallance
Hut.

Camping
The Sydney Vallance Hut received a major face lift and interior make over in the
summer of 1999 and is now a much improved version of the former cabin. It is
open summer and winter with a limited capacity of 12 humans or 1 large bear. It
has a propane system for cooking and lighting and a wood stove for heating. If you
prefer camping, the last campground into this area is the Headwall campground. I
don't advise this campground for any objective. It is poorly placed below an
avalanche gully, meaning good bear habitat. It is best to either use the hut above
the headwall and focus on Fryatt, Lowell, Olympus, Belanger, etc., or camp at
the Brussels campground more than halfway in (very nice) and focus on
Brussels and Christie. Campground reservations can be made through Jasper
National Park .

Mountain Conditions
Outside of the parks web site, Canadian Avalanche Association is also useful,
particularly for winter travel.

Other Mountains to Climb the Area
I climbed five mountains in five days on this week long trip. My group was fortunate
in that we had only one rainy day, our first day in the hut, which worked out since we
just hauled our supplies 22 km the day before. Everybody did different mountains,
but I climbed Lowell, Fryatt, Olympus, Christie and The Three Blind Mice. There are
many more options as well.

Route
This is a 3100+/- ascent from the hut. Proceed southwest from the Fryatt hut to
gain the col between Parnassus and Olympus bypassing a tairn via the east bank.
You continue up an easily managed glacier to the bergschrund on your left which
leads to the steep ice couloir of Olympus.   Cross the bergschrund to the far left
over a small bridge and start the climb. There will be some relief on snow, but
this is mostly a pitched ice climb of 1300’. Straight forward as it is, you will run
into rotten hollow ice from time to time, typically to the right side. There will be
several opportunities to place rock protection to the side of the couloir. We put in
30 meter protection and still took considerable time to climb this route.

There is a summit register, which we could not get open, and the views are grand,
especially of Mount Clemenceau, the 4th highest peak in the Canadian Rockies.
You get a peek at Mount Robson as well. We scrambled down the eastern ridge of
Olympus to its col between Xerxes which is your descent off of the ridge, basically
traversing the mountain from north to southeast. When we passed this col on our
approach, we noticed the ice rappel off of the col was dark and appeared out of
shape. It did not look much better close up, so we short roped and descended a
very loose rock rib to the east of the ice col. This is a dangerous rock fall area.
Don't be sucked into the ice rock-ice gully on the other side. This rock rib takes
you approximately 60% down to some nice angled snow-ice that allows you to
down climb rapidly to a small bergschrund. Find a bridge over this obstacle and
you have easy glacier travel back to the approach.

On August 10, four of us made an alpine start for the ice/snow route up Olympus.
During the final pitch which is belayed from the summit itself, a rock was knocked
loose by the rope and nailed me in the ribs, back and arm.   Lucky for me it was a
blunt landing versus on edge. A dose of Motrin was the call. There is
considerable loose rock during this belay, so beware.