June marks the beginning of the Summer Trail Series for the OTM. With Sam done with his teaching gig for ten weeks and with the taller peaks finally showing their summits after sit months of snow, we make an extra effort to start hitting trails and peaks and trails that have fascinated but eluded us for some time now.
To kick off week 1 of the Summer Trail Series, I decided to start at 29th street in Ogden and head up Taylor Canyon to finally claim Malan's Peak, then continue on up the gut of Malan's Basin to the ridge line and hit De Moisy peak on Mount Ogden. According to Google Maps, as well as the trail maps posted at various trail heads along Mount Ogden, I should be able to follow a trail all the way up to the saddle. I couldn't remember seeing that trail while hitting Mount Ogden last summer, but two maps clearly said it was there, so I was pretty safe there, right?
After a couple wrong turns in the dark, I finally found my way up Taylor Canyon. Doing mostly a power walk, I reached Malan's peak as the sun rose. Not stopping there for too long, I headed further south down into the basin.
The trail was somewhat more overgrown past the peak, but still in pretty good shape. I arrived at the basin soon enough and snapped a couple photos of the only remnant of the old resort that used to be up there. A simple sign. Passing a tent off the the south, I kept going up the canyon. The trail faded to practically nothing over the next mile and just when I thought the trail had disappeared completely, I found myself in the wash that cuts down the basin. Since it was mostly cleared out of debris and all the water for the creek was underground at this point, I headed up it. The going was great and even though I was no where near where the trail said I needed to go up to the southern ridge, this was a good path. Finally I reached the upper part of the basin and I chose to go right up the west face doing what I call a "dirty scramble." Meaning, the dirt was soft and the plants were small and spread out, but being steep enough that I still needed to use my hands here and there.
Reaching the saddle, I started booking it over towards De Moisy peak. There was still some large snow cornices along the east face of the ridge line above the Snow Basin ski resort, but keeping to the west I was able to follow the trail almost the whole way over. With a final push through the western trees, I reached the summit. Whoop whoop.
Running back to the original saddle, I decided to try to find the trail back down from the top, and followed the southern ridge above Malan's Basin. Nope. Nothing. So after traversing the ridge a while, I went down a very rocky shoot and finally manged to work my way back to the wash. Not a very pleasant descent, but I got there. Other than the stinging nettle that gave my leg a tingle, the run down was very pleasant and pretty quick.
Glad it's summer!
No comments:
Post a Comment