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Peak(s)  Mt. Olympus - 40
Date Posted  03/07/2011
Date Climbed   02/16/2011
Author  MUni Rider
 Mount Olympus, Kwajalein Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands   
Some of you out there may have noticed the absence of my incline conditions reports while I've been out of the country. Fortunately I was able to squeeze in a little hiking while I was gone. I spent some time on Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. The natural elevation is 9 feet above sea level. When I flew in, I saw this bump and knew that I had to climb it. I had absent minded in my packing for this trip and had forgotten my crampons, ropes, hiking poles, even my back pack, sleeping bag and pad, even the tent! No matter! I was just gonna have live dangerously and take a chance with out any hiking gear.


I wanted this hike to have as much of an elevation gain as possible, so I started at sea level... at glass beach. It's called glass beach because this is where a lot of junk was disgarded into the ocean for a lot of years. All the glass breaks up and is polished into small rounded clear pebbles ranging from the size of a grain of sand to an inch or more. Most are about 1/4 inch in size but it's easy to find 1/2 inch and larger. There is also metal along the beach. Aluminum shards that have also been worked on my the waves and the rocks. Those chunks are beaten into some neat pieces of metal that look like they are fluid, or molten wax, or some kind of large polished ore. I have some pictures at the end of the trip report.
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The first leg of the trail leaves the beach via a little hill through the vegetation.
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This is the view beyond. The airfield.
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Looking back toward the trailhead.
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Looking toward the peak.
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Enroute to the peak. Luckily a false summit along the right is easily traversed to its left.
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View to the right from this area.
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View of Mt Olympus in all it's glory; and apparently the death star as well.
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Another angle.
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Vegetation along the East side of the trail.
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Vegetation along the West side of the trail
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Nearing the summit, I discovered a nice side trail off to the right.
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Local wildlife.
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The final push to the summit, and yes, the death star as well.
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Baby death stars surrounding the big death star.
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The view from the top is pretty nice for ~40 feet elevation. Okay, I really don't know exactly how high it is here, but it's not a lot. Yep, it's a man made hill, but it really is named Mount Olympus.
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Yes, that is indeed a 14ers.com shirt that I am wearing. This was the only day I wore long sleeved shirt on the island, other than a few times scuba diving around the island. But that wasn't actually on the island, so those don't count.
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View back toward the trailhead.
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View from about half way down the mountain.
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The sky looks clear from here, although it's not the clouds you gotta keep an eye out for.
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Back at the trailhead, some local wild life in a life and death struggle over who gets the biggest shell.
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On the far end of the beach lies the rusting relics of WW2, long ago cast aside and now weathered by wind, water and salt. I didn't really take enough picture of this area. The dark hulks in the back ground are tons and tons (literally) of metal that has become fused together by rust and coral rock into a sort of metal cement. The metal has rusted and eroded into some bizarre shapes.

Yes, those are old truck frames in the foreground.
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My take after about 90 minutes of beach combing around the trailhead.
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Oh wait, that shell is already claimed. Those bastard hermit crabs always claim the best shells! Any claimed shells I picked up were always left with their original owners, no matter how pretty.
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Gotta pause for a second and watch an airplane take off. Those signs you saw earlier are there for a very good reason. The trail that circles the airfield is only about 30 feet from the edge of the runway.
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Better view of this afternoon's collection. On the left are some examples of aluminum alloy, the glass is on the bottom sorted by white or colored. No blue glass today, but lots of reds, greens, and browns. The shells are sorted by type and even some nice coral chunks today. Click on the picture, and then click it again to get a large version of the picture for a closer look.
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Well, that is about it. Oh, and a couple of days before this hike, a friend in Salida said that it was -25° F at her house. Brrrrrrrr! I'm so glad I was on the beach instead!

And since I have room for 4 more pictures, here are a few pics of what it looks like to NOT be surrounded by snow:

That's me, behind the propeller of a WW2 wreck.
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Same wreck. Bow of the ship.
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Entire bow of the wreck as the wreck disappears into the distance.
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This shot is actually on Roi-Namur, an island 20 minutes to the north, but a really cool view.
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I'm home now. It's snowing outside as I put this all together. Stupid winter weather! I miss Kwajalein!



Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30


Comments or Questions
KentonB
User
Jealousy
3/8/2011 2:03am
Would it be wrong to say that I hate you? LOL


cbrobin
User
Looks Brutal.
3/8/2011 3:15pm
Nice summit!


MUni Rider
User
It was hell.....
3/8/2011 11:16pm
.....flying back to snow.


huffy13
User
Interesting.....
3/10/2011 1:50pm
Not many trip reports on this site that have pictures of a hiker below sea level! Great pics, really makes me long for better weather!


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