Mount Olympus

Jasper National Park, AB, Canada
31 August 2025
Solo

Possible FRA of a remote Jasper mountain

It was only 3 pm when I finished setting up my tent and having a late lunch of beef jerky and pumpernickel in the lonely but beautiful broad valley northeast of Brazeau Lake in Jasper’s remote backcountry. I had just come over the high col west of Mount Aztec and climbed that mountain from the pass. The weather looked great, with only a few clouds around, it was hot, and I still had energy left, so I decided to “go for a stroll” with my light daypack and see how far I could get in ascending nearby Mount Olympus. 

There are several peaks with the name Mount Olympus in the Rockies, but for this particular one I couldn’t find any information at all. It sits on the eastern end of the broad valley where I set up camp, about 2.5 km north of Mount Aztec. The satellite images I looked at before my trip indicated it might be an easy plod up west-facing scree and slabs, but of course you never really know until you stick your nose into it as the higher granularity details are typically lost in satellite imagery and even a 5 metre vertical cliff band can be a showstopper. 

It turns out Mount Olympus had none of those and the route I picked worked out really well. After dropping down into the bottom of the valley below a small headwall near a pretty waterfall, I crossed a barren plain of rubble and shrubs before angling up the mountain’s southwest slopes on grassy patches to get as high as I could. The slope above is a mixture of solid slabs, loose fine scree, and relatively firm talus of slightly larger size. The slabs were steep but great to efficiently walk up on, while the talus was coherent enough not to make it a treadmill exercise. I slowly picked away at the terrain until I reached the west ridge about three quarters of the way up. It got a bit steeper and a bit more loose here, but with no difficulties to speak of. About two hours after leaving camp I stood on the summit of Mount Olympus, crowned by yet another old and stately cairn (but no register). I wonder if it was an old survey party that built the cairn in the early days? 

Highlights at the summit – other than the joy of completing my goal – included a peek at rarely seen Aztec Lake down the east side of the mountain (better views than from Mount Aztec), the even more remote Copia Peak to the north, and a sea of unnamed mountains to the east stretching as far as Chungo Lookout in the front ranges of the Rockies. 

The finer scree sections between the talus and the slabs made for a quick and enjoyable descent, where I roughly stuck to my original ascent line. I was back at my tent at 7 pm, thoroughly content with the day’s events and achievements. Now it was time for another highlight: yellow chicken curry with rice, my favourite freeze-dried dinner meal! This is by far the best out of the dozens I’ve tried over the years (disclaimer: I don’t like cheese, so a large selection of meals do not make it into my sample basket). With the occasional high-pitched sound of marmots in the background, I watched the sunset as I savoured my delicious curry and hit the sack at the early hour of 8:30 pm, ready for a long day and the highlight of my trip the next day – Chocolate Mountain.