Olympian

On Friday the 13th I had to choose between two jobs, the first a tournament for Sports Imaging that I have done a ton of and I could almost take the pictures in my sleep I’ve done so many. The second job a hike up Mt. Olympus for the Chronicle. Well I found someone to replace me at Sports Imaging so I did the hike to do something new and give myself a challenge. So woke up at 4:30 in the morning got my water, food and camera ready. I would then meet up with Tony, the sports editor who was writing the story. We started on the trail at about 6:15 just as the sun started to light the few clouds in the morning sky.

Right off the bat the trail started to climb fast and I was thinking how bad is this going to get? It leveled out a bit and I started to think what kind of a picture do I need to get? I’ve never taken hiking pictures before and I’m not into hiking much so I’ve not seen much ether. Well a little ways up I got an idea of shooting feet walking up. So when one group passed us I tried to get some of their feet as they passed by but my angle was bad and shutter was to slow. Doing the hike with Tony I guessed his feet were most likely the feet I had the best chance to get but that did not look good. If I stopped to take a picture then he would stop but I wanted it to be natural to so I was not about to tell him what I was trying to do. Then we stopped to drink and someone passed us as we sat on a rock at the side of the trail and this was the perfect place to get a shoot of some ones feet the next guy came buy and I missed it my timing was bad and it looked awkward he was followed by another guy with hiking boots and a stick exactly what I needed. I got the shot and could now focus on getting the next shot.
After getting the only shot that had come to my mind I was just shooting to try and get some ideas and see how things looked with the morning light. That got me this shot of the valley floor with the shrinking shadow of Mt. Olympus covering the east side of the valley still. I’ve taken some early morning golf classes at the U and one of my favorite things about the class was to watch the sun creep across the valley. It is even better from the side of Mt. Olympus.

After passing the creek the climb got steep again and we had trees lining the trail so as we got into thicker trees I put the camera away to keep it protected and to speed my climb. I was not getting many shots any way the trees blocked too much of the view.

We reached the saddle and had a break and tried to decide if we had enough to make the last push to the top. After the break we were feeling good so we left our backpacks water and food and started up. I left the extra lens with the backpack and only took a 28 to 105mm so that I had a little variation with not much weight.

We started up and right away it got steep it was no longer like hiking, it was more like rock climbing. Then it got harder because we did not know it at the time but we had lost the trail so we were a few yards west of the trail and were on some big rocks. As I lifted myself up past a tree I could hear the sound I did not want to hear camera equipment falling down the rocks I reached for the camera it was still on my shoulder. So I look and the lens cap had fallen down and was on a rock below. I thought about going after it and tony offered to but I just wanted to keep going up.

Just after the loss of my lens cap it looked like we were stuck the rocks were too steep but Tony went around and found the trail again marked by a pink ribbon and we made it to the top. The View was amazing I wished I had a wider angle I had an 18mm in my bag but I wanted a fish eye to get as much of the valley as I could. You could see from the lake all the way to the prison that keeps Utah County at a safe distance. At the top there was another climber we talked to for a bit and also a mailbox.

The climber told us it had some notes from others that made the trip. So we read them and left our own.

We also snapped a few pics of ourselves then started the lllooooooooooooooooooooong climb down the mountain.

The climb down the rocks was slow as we tried not to fall but we took our time and got back down to our food and water safely. After another little break we got back on the trail and it was a bitch going down my legs were so tired I came close to snapping my ankle multiple time because it was hard to lift them over the rocks. The sun was out now and it was not as shady as a matter of fact the trees were so small they gave us very little shade. The only positive thing about the sun was it had brought out the butterflies which were cool but not worth the heat of the sun. The worst point was when we were about a mile away from our cars still a wall a HOT wind meet us and it never cooled off again that heat was a killer.

I got to my car and drove to get a Power Ade and some water. Then I had to go to the tournament for 5 hours because my replacement had afternoon plans. Going to that tournament sucked I wanted to die but I made it through and when I got home I had the best shower EVER!!!

In all it was fun and I liked shooting hiking maybe I will do it again someday or maybe not.