Burl.
As part of our long term family goal to summit Mount Kilimanjaro together, we are hiking more and progressively harder peaks each year. This summer's list was: Mount Flagstaff, Mount Aire, and Mount Olympus. The first two were ceremoniously completed earlier in the season and only Mount Olympus remained [read: loomed ] for us to tackle. Casey and I both knew that this mountain would push our kids to their limits and approaching limits can be amazing, horrifying, liberating, invigorating, and excruciating all at the same time. Last week we realized that we had an open Saturday and slated that as our Mount Olympus bid, but as the weekend got closer, we realized that Saturday would likely bring unsettled weather (thunderstorms) and that was one element we weren't willing to add to the already uncertain equation. Mount Olympus is burly. The hike is long (8 miles) and steep (more than 4,000 feet of elevation gain) and rocky and relentless. Once you reach the saddle, there is s...